What is OEKO-TEX, how does it help companies become more sustainable, and why have we at Jet Sport chosen to become certified by it? OEKO-TEX is an internationally recognized certification body that determines standards and value limits for raw materials usage toward the goal of making companies more sustainable. The organization was founded in 1992 by textile research institutes ÖTI, Hohenstein, and TESTEX (Austria and Germany). It consists of 17 (2022) test and research institutes in Europe and Japan that cooperatively develop testing methods and determine judicious value limits for raw material consumption in the textile and leather industry.

Companies may freely choose if they want to go through the often arduous processs of achieving compliance with OEKO-TEX’s criteria, inspiring the reasonable question: Why should companies seek to attain the OEKO-TEX certification, when doing so often means having to undergo significant structural and strategic changes? We here answer this question and illuminate why we at Jet Sport have chosen to become OEKO-TEX certified.

Why become certified?

The motivation for companies to turn their CSR efforts into unassailable PR masterpieces are considerable: Between half and three quarters of consumers believe companies in the clothing industries insufficiently inform of their sustainability efforts. More than 50% of them are willing to pay extra for sustainable and environmentally friendly products, half of those would potentially pay up to 25% above the original price, and many consumers actively refuse to do business with companies they view as irresponsible and selfish.

Additional examples of the good sense in being able to tell potential customers that your company takes seriously society’s problems can be presented, but the message should by now be clear: a company’s bottom line is aided by a deliberate and well-executed CSR strategy. Doing good does well. Only when the truth of this message has been acknowkedged can the journey toward a broad, public recognition of your company’s concern for its surroundings commence.

The first milestone on that journey should be the effecting of your products doing harm to neither customers, suppliers, nor employees. That’s hardly a groundbreaking concept, but bedevilling examples of its disregard appear continually in the less ethical nooks and crannies of the business world, cacophonously tolling the bell that it’s an area in which companies can still differentiate themselves. Can you – as one of few – assure your customers of the safety of your products, a competitive advantage materializes.

Why test the products?

The benefits of not ingesting chemicals is probably familiar to you, but have you ever contemplated the amount of chemicals in clothing, footwear, furnishings, and other goods entirely or partially made from textiles? Despite being in constant contact with several textile types, 40% of us – according to an OEKO-TEX survey – are in the dark about how and by which methods textiles and clothing are manufactured. 4-8,000 individual chemicals in countless formulations are used in a great variety of manufacturing processes, ending up in either finished products or as potentially harmful waste. Some chemicals are dangerous enough to cause severe ailments in factory workers as well as consumers.

Certain chemicals are liable to injure any person, but infants, small children, and the elderly are especially vulnerable. Physical contact increases the risk of skin allergy but may also cause more severe conditions for humans and the environment alike. Harmful substances in clothing or employed in its manufacture are associated with e.g. nerve damage, liver, kidney, and lung diseases, and cancer. They further pollute water bodies, wildlife, and horticulture within a certain distance of manufacturing facilities. The sobering facts are that textile dying is the second-most water-polluting manufacturing activity in the world, and that the fashion industry produces 20% of global wastewater.

OEKO-TEX® aids everyone in making more sustainable choices by testing for harmful chemicals and ascertaining when values exceed typically harmful levels. An independent OEKO-TEX certification ensures that textiles are manufactured ethically and are harmless to humans. Product labels are verifiable, recognizable, and traceable, rendering unnecessary an individual merchant, producer or consumer’s research into safety or environmental claims made by companies.

What is OEKO-TEX?

OEKO-TEX®, whose full name is OEKO-TEX International – Association for the Assessment of Environmentally Friendly Textiles, is a non-profit association headquartered in Zürich. Danish DTI (Technological Institute) is part of the association, carrying out testing for all Danish textile products with aspirations of achieving an OEKO-TEX certification. DTI has a total of 71 laboratories and more than 1,100 employees available to companies looking to have their research or projects tested in practice. The institute has an annual turnover of 1 billion kroner ($160,000,000), is present in almost all industries, and collaborate with more than 10,000 customers annually.

OEKO-TEX’s stated goals are to protect consumers, inspire innovation, and create trust in textiles and leather products. To achieve an OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certification, a product must inter alia be free of:

• Chemical residues with potential acid or alkali effects on the skin.
• Pesticides and defoliation agents.
• Pentachlorophenols, tetrachlorophenols, orthophenylphenols, tributyltins, triphenyltins, and dibutyltins.
• Heavy metals such as chromium, cobalt, nickel, copper, cadmium, antimony, arsenic, lead, and quicksilver.
• Special dyes to be avoided because they are known to or suspected of causing cancer and allergies.
• Phthalates.
• Dye release under the impact of water, sweat, spit, or rub.
• Evaporation of volatile organic compounds (VOC).
• Shedding of specific odours.

OEKO-TEX® continuously adjusts its requirements to keep up with the latest knowledge and scientific discoveries about chemicals and textile manufacturing. A textile product will not be eligible for certification before all of its components meet those requirements. OEKO-TEX’s criteria are generally more ambitious and far-reaching than legal requirements at any given time.

What is OEKO-TEX not?

Contrary to what its name implies, OEKO-TEX is not an eco label. It does not certify the environmental friendliness of a product. In the days when OEKO-TEX was founded, it was a common perception that if a product was safe for humans, it was similarly safe for the environment. Against that backdrop the people behind the association did not find it problematic to name it ‘OEKO-TEX’, even though the tests and requirements were aimed exclusively at protecting humans. Since then our collective consciousness about the environment has been raised significantly, and collected data have shown the textile industry to be among the most polluting industries in the world.

A product certified by OEKO-TEX is safe for humans but not – we now know – necessarily for the environment. A cotton product can e.g. be certified by OEKO-TEX even though:

Cotton textiles are responsible for 15-20% of global pesticide use.
Conventional (non-ecological) cotton is mainly GMO, which disrupts biodiversity.
Conventional cotton is the most water-intensive fiber in the world.
Many products manufactured from conventional cotton are in many textile-producing countries disposed of by being thrown into rivers and groundwater.

No, not everything in the garden is lovely just because a product is OEKO-TEX certified. But “what is OEKO-TEX?”, we asked. Considering the association’s human health-protecting criteria, its certification is a giant step toward sustainability and an ethical signet differentiating companies from each other. It won’t keep pesticides off the fields but will keep heavy metals off your customers’ skin. And that’s worth the extra effort, isn’t it?

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