Why fashion has a chemical certification complex

Fashion has a chemical certification problem. Dozens of private-sector auditors, consultancies, labs, and certifications provide an expensive and inefficient form of surveillance over the supply chain on behalf of brands.

Many of these organisations offer almost identical services. While brands and retailers use chemical management as a differentiator, a marketing tool, and a way to shirk responsibility, it is the supply chain—from the chemical companies to the denim laundries—that pays for testing, certification, and management of these overlapping safety protocols.

The Transformers Foundation's 2022 Annual Report calls for collaboration and alignment around a single set of rules: sound chemical management systems should be a ticket to play, not a market differentiator. “Fashion’s Certification Complex: Needlessly Complicated, Woefully Ineffective” is an investigative report that equips fashion professionals with the actions they can take to reform chemical management in the fashion industry.

This text is excerpted from the Transformers Foundations website. The original text can be found here.

In addition, on Nov. 29, 2022 3 p.m. (CET), the Transformers Foundation will host a panel discussion dedicated to the topic of the chemical certification complex in the fashion industry. Bringing together voices from different sectors of the sustainable fashion industry, this panel discussion will talk about how to move beyond certifications.