What GOTS Certification Actually Requires

GOTS appears on a great many labels, and it is easy to read it as a general stamp of approval, roughly meaning good and green. It is considerably more specific than that, and the specifics are what make it useful.

GOTS stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard. What separates it from most labels is that it does not certify a product in isolation. It certifies the companies and facilities that handle the material, at every stage from fiber to finished goods. That distinction explains most of what follows.

The fiber threshold

GOTS has two labeling grades, and the difference matters when you are comparing products.

• "Organic" requires at least 95 percent certified organic natural fibers.
• "Made with organic" requires at least 70 percent certified organic natural fibers.

In both cases the remaining percentage is not a free-for-all. The standard restricts what those other materials can be, and conventional and organic versions of the same fiber cannot be mixed within one product.

What the standard prohibits in processing

Growing fiber organically is only the beginning. A great deal can happen to cotton or wool between the field and the finished textile, and this is where a lot of the chemistry people worry about actually enters.

GOTS restricts what can be used during processing, dyeing, and finishing. Among the prohibitions are toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents, functional nanoparticles, genetically modified organisms and their enzymes, and chlorine bleaching. Dyes and auxiliaries must meet requirements for toxicity and biodegradability rather than simply being permitted by default.

Facilities must also have wastewater treatment in place. The standard treats what leaves the mill as part of its remit, not only what ends up in the product.

The social criteria

This is the part most people do not realize is included. GOTS incorporates labor requirements based on International Labour Organization conventions, and a facility can fail certification on these grounds alone.

The criteria cover forced labor, child labor, freedom of association and collective bargaining, discrimination, working hours, workplace safety and hygiene, and wages. Certification requires that these conditions be met and verified, not merely promised in a supplier code of conduct.

How it is actually verified

GOTS itself does not perform inspections. Independent certification bodies, accredited to do this work, carry them out. That separation is deliberate, since the organization writing the standard is not the one deciding whether a given factory passes.

Verification involves annual on-site inspection of the facility, review of records, and residue testing where there is reason for it. Certified operations receive a scope certificate that states precisely what they are certified to do. Shipments between certified operations are accompanied by transaction certificates, which is how the chain of custody holds together.

The practical effect is that organic material can be traced through each set of hands it passes through. Without that chain, an organic claim at the end of a long supply chain would rest on trust alone.

Why the certificate belongs to a facility, not a product

This is the most commonly misunderstood point, and it is worth sitting with. When a company says it is GOTS certified, the certificate names that company and the specific activities it is approved for. A business certified to sell finished goods is not automatically certified to manufacture them.

It also means certification is a live status rather than a permanent achievement. Certificates expire, and they are renewed only after fresh inspection.

How to check a claim yourself

Because certification attaches to named companies, claims are verifiable in a way most marketing language is not. A genuine GOTS claim comes with a license or certificate number and an identifiable certifying body. GOTS maintains a public database of certified operations, so a number can be looked up rather than taken on faith.

Two things are worth checking. First, that the certificate is current. Second, that its scope covers the product you are actually looking at, since a company may be certified for some product categories and not others.

Lifekind's own GOTS license number is listed on our organic certifications page, and we would encourage you to look it up. We would encourage you to ask the same of anyone else making the claim. A certification that cannot be checked is doing considerably less work than one that can.