AHFA announced that the International Oeko-Tex® Association will present “Greening the Home Textile Supply Chain” at the American Home Furnishings Alliance’s fourth annual Sustainability Summit being held at the Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park in Asheville, NC on December 1-2, 2010. This year’s summit is themed “Weaving Sustainability into the Corporate Fabric: Competing in the Global Marketplace”. The event will bring together a cross section of decision-makers and thought-leaders from manufacturing, retailing, and supplier companies to share ideas about elevating sustainability within the home furnishings industry. The summit will feature expert panels and presentations.
“Sustainability is a high interest initiative within the home furnishings industry, both as a response to consumer and regulatory demands and as a key component of corporate strategies that emphasize environmental accountability,” says Bill Perdue, AHFA vice president for environment, health, safety and standards. “Third party certification is a critical tool for manufacturers to ensure their supply chains are delivering products that meet desired quality and ecological standards.”
Dina Dunn, who represents the International Oeko-Tex® Association in the US, will address the role textile certification should play in corporate sustainability strategy and will outline the scope and requirements for two important global Oeko-Tex® certifications. First, she will overview the well known Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 certification which ensures that textile products are tested to be free from harmful levels of more than 100 potentially dangerous substances and second, the Oeko-Tex® Standard 1000 which certifies that textile manufacturing facilities operate with environmentally and socially conscientious methods.
For almost 20 years, the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 has been acknowledged as the world’s most comprehensive and verifiable method for ensuring that textile products and the supply chains that create them do not use hazardous chemicals such as pesticides, carcinogenic dye stuffs, heavy metals, or other concerning substances that can hurt people and damage the environment. The Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 is the most effective certification tool for “greening” the total textile supply chain. The certification can be applied to every phase of production, from fiber to fabric to finished products, confirming that all elements are free from harmful levels of dangerous substances.
For AHFA Sustainability Summit online registration, go to www.ahfa.us. Click on EVENTS and select “2010 Sustainability Summit”. Companies need not be AHFA members to attend.
For more on Oeko-Tex® global textile certifications, visit www.Oeko-Tex.com.
About Oeko-Tex®: The International Oeko-Tex® Association, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, was founded in 1992 by the Austrian Textile Research Institute and the German Hohenstein Research Institutes. Currently, its membership includes 15 independent textile research and testing institutes with offices in over 52 countries. To date, more than 95,000 Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 certificates have been issued—and more than 10,000 in 2009 alone—and 9,500 companies in 91 countries are working with Oeko-Tex® to ensure that their products are tested for potentially harmful substances. The Association also offers the Oeko-Tex® Standard 1000 certification for environmentally and socially responsible textile manufacturing facilities. For more information, visit the website at www.Oeko-Tex.com.