Prominent players from field of social compliance gathered at the GOTS Pre-Conference to 19th Organic World Congress of IFOAM – Organics International was organized by Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) in India and discussed shaping a future landscape for textile supply chains. The conference was held at Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 8th November, 2017. This conference was first of its kind, solely focused on ‘Social Compliance Issues in the Organic Textile Supply Chain’. Actually the GOTS accredited independent Certification Bodies report more than 1.4 million people working in GOTS certified facilities.
More than 80 high profile attendees and speakers from twelve countries – including Scholars, CSR Managers and HR Representatives of companies, Certification Bodies, Standard Setters, Government and NGOs discussed about hot spots like Income Equality within countries and globally, Land Grabbing, dealing with non-compliances or how certification as a diagnostic tool could be supplemented by instruments or measures which provide a measurable continuous improvement process.
Three main outcomes were agreed to put to larger scale in presenting them in Track 7.A of the 19th Organic World Congress (OWC) by the GOTS Representatives Christopher Stopes and Satoko Miyoshi:
1. Social criteria in sustainability standards help improving working conditions. Improve standards with measurable criteria and keep inspection/certification as a diagnostic tool.
2. In addition or – if possible – in combination find and apply suitable aspirational approaches and tools.
3. Find and apply efficient means to draw the big brands and retailers into utilizing their responsibility for sustainability of the textile industry.
Dr. Elisabeth Bennett, Assistant Professor of International Affairs from Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Oregon, US) said, “The GOTS Pre-conference offered an important opportunity for supply chain actors, scholars, and sustainability advocates to discuss the most challenging problems and important opportunities in sustainability certifications for textile manufacturers. Perhaps most importantly, there was a robust discussion about the value of offering living wages to factory workers.”
Herbert Ladwig, GOTS Managing Director said, “The inclusion of social compliance rules into voluntary sustainability standards with their system of inspection and certification – such as GOTS – is still and will remain a valuable contribution to safeguarding the rights of working people. We are pleased that our stakeholders very openly shared their views and suggestions for the further development of GOTS.”
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
