Embracing Sustainability in Textiles: OCS and GRS
Environmental sustainability in the textiles industry is a complex and multi-layered topic, with no simple solutions to the increasing challenges posed by climate change.
At FibreGuard, our forward-thinking approach to sustainable design is one of our defining features.
For many businesses today, sustainability is a driving force for change, innovation, and new growth. At Bru, our growth drivers have always been forged in collaboration with our employees, partners, customers, and suppliers. Our process is consultative, grounded in an approach that encourages us to envision the future we all want.
As a textiles company, we have maintained relationships with many of our suppliers since our inception. We believe in the power of relationships. They have evolved in response to market demands, of course, including our push towards more sustainable products and responsible consumption behaviours.
We also recognise the importance of regulation and certification in the textiles and textile production sectors. Our eco standards are critical to the promises our suppliers make to us, and the promises we extend to our customers.
FibreGuard is working with globally recognised certifications and standards to ensure transparency, traceability, and credibility in our commitment to environmental sustainability. We are already releasing new high performance fabric collections that contain both Organic Content Standard (OCS) cotton and Global Recycled Standard (GRS) polyester.
The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) Guide
The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) is a certification that aims to ensure the traceability of recycled materials from their source to the final product. It promotes environmentally responsible production processes and encourages the use of recycled content in products.
It essentially aims to both align definitions of “recycled” content in textiles and verify whether there really is recycled content in a textile product, and how much of its construction consists of recycled materials.
The GRS traces recycled inputs through a chain of custody, which verifies that claims about the recycled content in a final product are accurate. This is crucial as raw materials often travel across the globe to be spun, dyed, woven, cut, and sewn.
Explainer: “Chain of custody tracks fibres at every stage of their journey. Chain of custody ensures that claims about the fibre content in a final product, such as “organically grown” or “recycled,” are accurate. It’s important because raw materials often travel all around the world to be spun, dyed, woven, cut, and sewn. By having your product certified to a third-party content claim standard like ours, you can make sure that at every stage along this journey, all necessary measures have been taken to ensure that what goes in, comes out.” – The Textile Exchange
The GRS certification process involves annual audits of production, trading, and manufacturing processes to ensure the authenticity of the recycled content in products. Globally, it is encouraging higher proportions of recycled content in textiles. As an eco-label, it gives brands (us) and consumers (you) a means to make informed buying decisions.
The Organic Content Standard (OCS) Guide
The Organic Content Standard (OCS) is a certification that verifies the ‘organically grown’ content in textile products. It aims to provide the industry with a means to confirm the organic content of the products they purchase and communicate these claims to consumers.
The OCS also grants organic fibre farmers access to the global organic market for their products. It ensures that only material from certified organic farms is accepted into the OCS.
There are two varieties of OCS fabric certification: '‘Organic Content Standard 100,’for those with more than 95% organic fibre, and ‘OCS Blended – Organic Content Standard’ for fabrics between 5-95%.
By incorporating the OCS into our eco standards, we’re proud that we can confidently communicate our content claims to the industry and to our customers.
The OCS certification process involves professional third-party certification bodies auditing each stage in the supply chain, ensuring that the identity of the organic content is maintained from the farm to the final product.
Please refer to our fabric samples to confirm which collections are OCS certified. Our unique OCS number is 1036513.
Explore Our Sustainability Commitment
Discover more about our dedication to environmental sustainability and the steps we're taking to make a positive impact. Learn more about our sustainability commitment.