How GOTS supports compliance with legislative initiatives

Companies are obliged to meet the requirements laid out in well-established international guidelines, frameworks, and legislative initiatives. The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), a voluntary sustainability standard recognised by regulators and operated by non-profit Global Standard gemeinnützige GmbH, provides compliance support as part of its strategic goal to help businesses navigate evolving regulations.

We monitor legal and other initiatives globally and take account of changing requirements on a regular basis through the revision of the Standard and implementation requirements, and the provision of additional guidelines.

Human rights, social and environmental criteria, and business conduct (including governance) are integral elements of the GOTS 7.0 criteria. These criteria are implemented by a due diligence process and third-party certification.

The GOTS Due Diligence Handbook for Certified Entities provides detailed guidance on how businesses can meet the due diligence requirements, as well as human rights and environmental protection. A training resource is in preparation.

The Handbook enables GOTS Certified Entities to implement a flexible and adaptive framework for responsible business conduct through a six-step due diligence process:

Embedding due diligence into policies and management systems
Identifying actual or potential adverse impacts
Ceasing, preventing or mitigating adverse impacts
Tracking implementation and results
Communicating how impacts are addressed
Enabling remediation when appropriate

GOTS works in partnership with other voluntary sustainability standards as a member of the International Social & Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL) and with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture – Organics Europe and Organics International.

Certification to GOTS goes beyond compliance support for legislation by offering a traceable, whole-value-chain approach from farm to final product for fashion, apparel, personal care and home textile products. Certified Entities improve their sustainability performance, ensure continuous improvement and are enabled access to markets.

This table summarises the purpose of key initiatives and outlines how certification to GOTS provides compliance support for companies.

Initiative	Purpose	How certification to GOTS supports compliance
UN 2011 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights	UN and OECD guidelines on due diligence provide an international framework for good business practices to respect human rights and protect the environment in responsible textile supply chains. These ensure that responsible business conduct and due diligence are embedded into management systems.	Human rights and environmental due diligence are integral elements of the GOTS 7.0 criteria. The GOTS Due Diligence Handbook outlines the process companies should implement to ensure due diligence and so support compliance through certification to GOTS.
OECD 2018 Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector
OECD 2023 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct
OECD 2018 Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive 2024/825	Enhance consumer rights to contribute to green EU economy by enabling informed purchasing decisions, contribute to more sustainable consumption, and reduce misleading greenwashing.	GOTS meets the requirement in the Directive for an approved sustainability label. Certification to GOTS can improve market access by providing accurate information.
Proposal Green Claims Directive (GCD) 7777/23-COM 2023 166	Requires substantiation of explicit environmental so reducing the risk of greenwashing. Organic farm products are excluded from verification requirements in the GCD. It is proposed by the Council of the EU that EN ISO 14024 Type 1 Ecolabel would be exempted from the verification requirement.	GOTS, based on use of organic farm produced natural fibre, meets the requirement. GOTS is considered as an EN ISO 14024 Type 1 Ecolabel, so would satisfy the proposed exemption of these from the verification procedure. The proposal would allow certification to GOTS to be considered a substantiated claim.
EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive 2022/2464 (CSRD) and EU Regulation on Sustainability Reporting Standards 2023/2772 (ESRS)	Requires companies to report on environment and human rights impacts. ESRS specifies the information that must be disclosed. CSRD covers sustainability targets, risk and opportunity management, and the business impact on people and the environment.	GOTS provides industry-specific guidance for companies to meet the reporting requirements. Certification to GOTS ensures third-party verification enhancing credibility aligned with CSRD’s emphasis on accurate and reliable reporting. Companies certified to GOTS can support their CSRD disclosures based on a traceable GOTS supply chain, which aligns with ESRS.
EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive - June 2024 / 1760	Obliges companies to address their adverse impacts on human rights and environment, including companies’ operations as well as those of subsidiaries and business in the value chain.	GOTS Due Diligence Handbook outlines the process required to ensure due diligence. Certification to GOTS supports meeting these requirements
German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations for the Prevention of Human Rights Violations in Supply Chains 2021	Obliges business to have due regard for human rights and environmental protection with the aim of preventing or minimising risks.
French Vigilance Act 2017	Obliges large companies to introduce vigilance measures to identify risks and prevent violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Norwegian Transparency Act on fundamental human rights and decent working conditions 2020	Promote businesses’ respect for fundamental human rights and decent working conditions and ensure public access to information regarding how adverse impacts are addressed.

GOTS is an all-inclusive, comprehensive standard which addresses this issue by setting strict environmental, human-rights and social criteria throughout the entire value chain. Find out about all GOTS key features:

Compliance support+
All Processing Stages
Due Diligence
Human-Rights and Social Criteria
Environmental Criteria
Traceability
Third-Party Certification
Organic Fibres