Background

In 1992, leading textile companies worldwide founded the eco-tex Consortium. The objectives of the Consortium were first to analyze and retrace all the stages of textile and garment production from the final garment to the fibre and secondly to offer assistance to all the members of the consortium.
In 1996, the eco-tex Institute for Applied Ecology was founded as an independent and market oriented consulting organisation. All the previous activities and experience of the consortium were taken over by the eco-tex Institute. We have an efficient working team and expertise in specialised areas of technical engineering, management consulting and communication. We extend to clients our empirical approach and experience pertaining to observation, control and improvement of the quality criteria and harmless substances as well as environmental friendliness, safety and social responsibility in production. We solve most of the complex functions for our customers in the context of strategic early-stage explanation and also root cause search.
Above all, we enjoy our position as a “global player” in the market due to our long experience. For production-oriented organisations, we offer a “weak point analysis” evaluation system worldwide for all the stages of production and production processes. In process oriented production, we have developed a system which enables us to trace back the entire stages involved in the production and supply chain, so that the customer defined criteria and requirements can be fulfilled.
In 2002, we carried out over 4.500 audits and our method of “weak point correction” was installed in many production organisations. 2003 was the starting point for our Social Monitoring activities covering the Codes of Conducts of several international retailers. In the same year, the eco-tex Consortium was re-established with the focus on global networking for sustainable management system in all industrial production areas. Nowadays, our partners consist of trade, industry, governmental, non-governmental and scientific organizations.

Competence

Begin of Pipe
• Root cause study
• Evaluation of all input materials and components through management tools during production and process within in-bound supply chain
• Compliance verification in supply chain
• Documentation of all substances in use and in process
• Development of improvement and optimization measures

Know-how Transfer for the Future
• Analysis: Systematic management methodologies
• Monitoring: An on-going process for optimization of ecological, ethical and improved quality production
• Sustainability: An integrated management system assuring sustainability

Responsibility
• Innovative: Development of market appropriate methods and solutions
• International: Partners, projects and worldwide contact offices
• Flexibility: Customer oriented modular solutions

Commitment

• Assisting and supporting textile and garment producing companies in implementing practical and feasible measures to comply with market and customer requirements on quality, environment and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The implementation of measures for the fulfilment of the requirements are based on sustainable management, leading the producing companies to sustainable development.

• Assisting buying and retail organizations worldwide (e.g., Migros, KarstadtQuelle in Europe; Aeon in Asia) in assuring their requirements on quality, environment, health and safety as well as social responsibility through monitoring systems.

• Launching the best management practices in textile and apparel industry, especially Integrated Management System (CSM 2000) for implementation and optimization of quality, environment and social standards and requirements.

• Providing concept for practical solutions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and economic development through business to business processes within the textile and clothing sector.