Foreward

Textile Exchange (TE) is an international, member-supported non-profit organization that was established

in 2003 under the original name of Organic Exchange. Textile Exchange’s mission is to accelerate

sustainable practices in the textile industry. This acceleration only happens when steps have been taken

to ensure that actions taken toward sustainability result in real and meaningful change. This requires a

strong understanding of the issues and a plan to substantiate the claims being made. Certification to a

third-party standard accomplishes this.

Textile Exchange’s chain-of-custody standards are developed to maintain the identity of a raw material

and track that raw material from input to the final product. The Content Claim Standard (CCS) applies

these two principles, and can be used for any raw material on a business-to-business basis, and forms

the foundation of the Organic Content Standard (OCS), used to identify and track organic materials, and

the TE Recycled Claim Standard (RCS), which identifies and tracks recycled materials.

The final drafts of all standards have been reviewed by the Outdoor Industry Association Materials

Traceability Working Group, along with broader industry stakeholder input.