How to get chemical inputs approved

A procedure for issuing GOTS approved positive lists containing the trade names of chemical inputs has been developed in order to assure that (wet-)processors, who participate in the GOTS certification program, use only GOTS accepted chemical inputs such as dyestuffs, prints and auxiliary agents and have a reliable and sufficient supply to source their inputs.

Due to the demand by (mass market) retailers and nameable brands as well as their wet processing enterprises for dyestuffs and auxiliaries that meet the related criteria of GOTS, the chemical supply industry cooperates closely with certifiers approved for this procedure. To date for about 330 chemical suppliers thousands of dyestuffs and chemicals have already been assessed by the certifiers and about 3200 dyestuffs and 4800 auxiliaries have been approved. A Certification Body that has received accreditation for the scope to approve textile auxiliary agents on positive lists is required to make current issues of the lists available to the other GOTS approved Certification Bodies for use in evaluating all operators participating in the GOTS certification scheme. However, inputs which are developed and used on confidential basis by a specific client will not be disclosed. The lists of approved inputs are already a widely recocognised and used tool in the industry (even in conventional supply chains) in order to select inputs evaluated according to environmental criteria.

Suppliers of chemical inputs must have available a material safety data sheet (MSDS) prepared according to one of the following norms/directives and containing appropriate information with regard to GOTS criteria in order to be used as accepted basic tool for evaluation:

• ANSI Z400.1-2004
• ISO 11014-1
• 1907/2006EEC (Reach)
• 2001/58/EEC
• GHS (Global Harmonised System)

Not all GOTS criteria can be assessed only on basis of the MSDS and some parameters reflected in GOTS are not required to be declared there. It is additionally sometimes the case that an MSDS contains insufficient, contradictory and even false information. Therefore the certifiers need to consider additional sources of information such as lab tests to determine or get reconfirmed the components of a chemical input and its environmental and toxicological parameters.

Manufacturers and suppliers of chemical inputs who wish to have their products approved under GOTS criteria should contact an applicable GOTS approved certification body. With the release of GOTS Version 3.0 in March 2011 also relevant requirements for chemical inputs have been changed or amended. The dyes and auxiliaries already approved for Version 2.0 therefore need to be reassessed and relisted for GOTS Version 3.0. In this context the International Working Group decided that the chemical suppliers should contribute to the GOTS program and therefore introduced a registration fee payable by the chemical suppliers for chemical inputs that get listed on approved input lists that declare compliance with GOTS Version 3.0. The certifiers accredited for chemical input assessment need to collect the Registration Fee of 15 € per approved and listed trade name of a chemical input. This fee is not an annual one but payable for registration to each general new version of the standard (general revisions are scheduled every 2-3 years).

Because the assessment of chemical inputs requires a very specific expertise, only those GOTS certification bodies who are qualified for this task are approved for the GOTS accreditation scope “Approval of textile auxiliary agents (chemical inputs) on positive lists”. Contact details of the GOTS approved certifiers accredited for this scope are (in alphabetical order):

	CCPB Certificazione e Controllo Prodotti Biologici ltd b.v. Via J. Barozzi, 8 I-40126 BOLOGNA Italy phone: +39 051 6089811 fax: +39 051 254842	eMail: ccpb@ccpb.it website: www.ccpb.it
	Control Union Certifications b.v. Meeuwenlaan 4-6 NL-8011 BZ Zwolle postal address: PO Box 161 8000 AD Zwolle The Netherlands phone +31 38 4260100 fax +31 38 4237040	eMail: certification@controlunion.com website: www.controlunion.com
	ECOCERT Greenlife BP 47 32600 - L'Isle Jourdain France phone: +33 5 62 07 74 90 fax: +33 5 62 07 74 96	eMail: textile@ecocert.com website: www.ecocert.com
	ETKO Ekolojik Tarim Kontrol Organizasyonu Ltd Sti 160 Sk 13/7 35040 Bornova - Izmir - TURKEY phone: +90 232 3397606 fax: +90 232 3397607	eMail: ma@etko.org website: www.etko.org
	ICEA Istituto per la Certificazione Etica e Ambientale Strada Maggiore 29 I-40125 Bologna Italy phone: +39 051 27 29 86 fax: +39 051 23 20 11	eMail: ricercasviluppo@icea.info website: www.icea.info
	IMO Institute for Marketecology Weststrasse 51 CH-8570 Weinfelden Switzerland phone: +41 71 6260627 fax: +41 71 6260623	eMail: gotsapproval@imo.ch website: http://gots-positivelist.imo.ch
	OneCert Inc. 427 N. 33rd Street Lincoln, NE  68503, USA phone: +01 402 420 6080 fax: +01 888 475 6044	eMail: info@onecert.com website: www.onecert.com
	Soil Association Certification Ltd. South Plaza Marlborough Street Bristol BS1 3NX Great Britain phone: +44 117 9874576 fax: +44 117 3145046	eMail: gthomas@soilassociation.org website: www.soilassociation.org/certification