Our November News ​​

Discover this month's updates, events,  and opportunities  from Textile Exchange. 

Take a look at our 2022 report on strengthening integrity in organic cotton 

Our latest report, released today, explores the root causes of integrity issues across the organic cotton sector. It goes beyond the paper we published in 2018, in which we formally acknowledge the integrity challenges facing the sector, by setting out the concrete steps that organizations can take to recognize fraud, address it, and prevent it from happening in the first place. Here are the key messages:

1. Integrity is critically important to the organic cotton supply chain, but upholding it is difficult, and threats to integrity often evolve. Failing to address integrity as a major sector challenge risks damaging trust in organic cotton.
2. Fraud occurs most often where financial pressure, opportunity, and the potential for rationalization meet. This can be a result of underinvestment, the presence of loopholes, and the perception among supply chain partners that their efforts or the risks they’re taking are not being rewarded fairly. 
3. One way to prevent fraud is by putting restrictions in place and reviewing them frequently. But it is essential to get to the root cause of the problem, not just manage the symptoms. This means helping others through education, to recognize it, address it, and remediate the challenges that cause it to happen in the first place.
4. To fight fraud effectively and build a robust system of integrity, organizations need to go beyond building compliance through standards and certification towards achieving traceability for organic content, improving incentives for supply chain partners, and collaborating with others. 
5. Organizations can start now by reviewing and mapping their supply networks to see where there are vulnerabilities to fraud, and then introduce and embed an anti-fraud and integrity policy. This should be part of adopting an approach of continuous learning and improvement. 

Secure your place at our conference 

We have announced more speakers for our conference, which takes place in Colorado Springs, November 14-18. Our conference keynote will feature Keith Ladzinski, EMMY Nominated Director and National Geographic Contributor in conversation with Syeda Faiza Jamil, Programme Director at Net Zero Pakistan. 

Our conference host is Leah Thomas, a celebrated environmentalist based in Los Angeles. Leah has founded the non-profit Intersectional Environmentalist, a platform and resource hub that aims to advocate for environmental justice, provide educational resources surrounding intersectional environmentalism, and promote inclusivity and accessibility within environmental education and movements.   
 
Textile Exchange member companies receive complimentary passes and/or a special member discount of 25% off the regular price. Coupon codes are being sent to the assigned Member Representative for each company. If you are unsure of who you should contact, please email our conference team.

Register →  
Explore the full agenda →  

Catch up on our team’s travels to industry events 

Liesl Truscott, our Director of Industry Accountability & Insights, attended the European Business & Nature Summit (EBNS), an important milestone to the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in December 2022, with the objective to strengthen the European “Business for Biodiversity movement” and help the business community shape and prepare for imminent changes. Last week, more than 330 businesses joined the movement and called on world leaders to move beyond voluntary actions and “Make it Mandatory” for large companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose their impacts on nature by 2030. Read more here.
 
Anna Heaton, our Animal Fibers & Materials lead, together with Hanna Denes, our Senior Manager of Climate+, were in South Africa and Lesotho in September visiting sheep shearing sites and reviewing which land management practices could fit into the requirements for RMS and RWS. 
 
Ömür Suner, our Ambassador for EMENA/Central Asia, met with members from the Fiber and Materials team in Turkey to visit ginning facilities, regenerative organic cotton fields, and hold the regional Organic Cotton Round Table in partnership with Better Cotton Turkey. The participants convened to drive the growth of organic and regenerative cotton, including over 100 representatives from brands, suppliers, farmer cooperatives, certification bodies, and other NGOs operating in the region like Cotton Connect, WWF, and textile unions. 

Give feedback on our standards labeling and claims policies 

Starting in Q1 of 2023, we will begin a revision of our policies and procedures for labeling and making claims to complement the upcoming transition of our standards system towards one unified standard. To support this effort and ensure allowed logo use and claims are designed in a way that is both credible and useful for companies using the standard, we are requesting feedback from all stakeholders and interested parties on our two core documents linked below. 
 

• Standards Claims Policy  (TE-301) 
• Standards Logo Use Specification  (TE-302) 

 
We welcome feedback of any kind, including general suggestions for improvements, comments, feedback on specific criteria/requirements, guidelines, allowed language and terminology, for either document. 
 
Share your feedback → 

Read our newly released definition of “leather” 

At Textile Exchange, we define leather according to the following criteria, aligning with the EU directive 94/11/EC, ISO 15115, and EN 15987:2015. 

• A hide or skin with its original fibrous structure more or less intact and tanned so it does not rot  
• Either with or without hair or wool attached 
• Inclusive of hides or skin split into layers or segmented either before or after tanning 
• With any surface coating or surface layer no thicker than 0.15 mm. 
• The term “recycled leather" should only be used if the fiber structure remains intact during the recycling process. Leather disintegrated into fibrous particles, small pieces or powders and combined or not with chemical binding agents, and made into sheets, with a minimum amount of 50% in weight of dry leather fibers should be referred to as “recycled leather fiber.” 

 
Materials that do not meet the definition above will not be described by Textile Exchange as leather, regardless of any past designation or common usage of the term.     
 
There is currently a gap in the legal framing of the classification and naming of the diverse materials sold as alternative materials to leather. This leads to misleading labeling where a fossil-based synthetic material could be referred to in the same way as an innovative plant-based material, making it difficult for a consumer to differentiate the two.    
  
We’re encouraging policymakers to close this gap.  For now, these diverse manmade materials, fully or partially plant-based will be grouped in the ‘Manmade non-fiber materials’ category of our reports and programs, until further legal guidance on the naming and categorization of these materials is available. 

Stay updated about the LIA Revision and December call for feedback 

The Leather Impact Accelerator (LIA) is a framework that sets existing industry tools into a coherent package and enables leather supply chain members – from farmers to retailers – to contribute to a more responsible leather supply chain. 

Launched in January 2021 under its draft version 0.1 and piloted over a period of 18 months, a full revision of the LIA was released in May 2022, with a first public consultation, involving the participation of an International Working Group. 
 
The goals of the revision are to incorporate learnings from the pilot year, ensure alignment with our Climate+ objectives and strategy for leather, provide an opportunity for the industry to give feedback as we transition from “draft” version 0.1 to fully implemented LIA 1.0. Once the draft LIA 1.0 has been voted on by the members of the LIA Revision International Working Group in November, we will be holding a public consultation in December. Keep an eye on the Membership and Leather Round Table Hub communities for the exact dates and feedback form. 

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