Gore is a well-known leader in the journey towards developing and innovating more sustainable materials, working to apply deep materials science expertise and passion for innovation to create solutions that help address global and environmental challenges, reducing impact.

#Transparency #collaboration #bluesign #GRS #higgindex

While internal best practices and innovation are imminently needed in the journey towards a sustainable industry, collaboration and transparency, information sharing, standardizing, and influencing change and progress as a cohesive industry is where the greatest impact will happen. With this in mind, Gore has invested time, energy and expertise into growing, and promoting, industry-wide transparency and collaboration through the use of international standards, certification, and data sharing platforms.

As the journey, for many brands, towards incorporating more recycled content into materials, progresses, transparency becomes increasingly relevant. For this reason, Gore is working in collaboration with the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) an international, voluntary standard setting requirement for third-party certification of recycled content and chain-of-custody. Incorporating GRS standards will ensure validity of source, and to reduce or eliminate harm to people and the environment caused by production. Each burgeoning initiative in the footwear, apparel and textile industry necessitates transparency and collaboration in order to ensure that the initiative is a wholistic process, not only offering a band-aid solution to one problem and negatively impacting another in social and environmental realms.

Another important standard, central to the Gore philosophy and practice, is the bluesign® Standard which verifies a company’s commitment to sustainable textile production, including the use of chemicals. Ensuring that products are made responsibly in respect to the environment and the safety of workers throughout the supply chain. The use of certification demonstrates responsible use of resources and the lowest possible impact of manufacturing processes in the environment and its people. Advocating for the greater industry to engage with the bluesign® Standard will encourage the industry to see this not as a best practice, but rather a standard operating procedure. A collaborative effort towards an industry operating at best practice standards on a daily basis.

As a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the apparel, footwear, and textile industry’s leading alliance for sustainable production, Gore is a strong promoter of leveraging scientific, LCA based and comparable data to assess environmental footprints. Through sharing the HIGG Facility Environmental Module (FEM) and HIGG Facility Social and Labor Module (FSLM) data with its brand partners, Gore offers transparency of their production impacts as well as the ability to trace progress and growth toward a less impactful production and development process. HIGG Index data sharing is a powerful tool for partners to explore and understand the most sustainable, least environmentally and socially detrimental, products available. Therefore, giving visibility to progress as well as potential for improvement and allowing partners to truly understand cradle-to-gate impacts.