TS01(GT)v04en

Global Organic Textile Standard

certification process

Standard in force available on http://www.global-standard.org or sent on request.





1

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com
2

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en



Contents



1/ IWG GOTS technical committee ........................................ p3

2/ GOTS certification steps ....................................................... p4
Summary diagram of the steps in the certification process ................ p4
A. GOTS certification request ............................................... p5
B. Involvement signature of the quotation .......................... p5
C. Documents review .......................................................... p6
D. Initial approval audit ...................................................... p6
E. Processing of the audit report certification decision ........... p7
F. Monitoring ..................................................................... p7

3/ Corrective plan and penalties ............................................... p8
A. Minor discrepancies ........................................................ p8
B. Major discrepancies ........................................................ p8

4/ Claim and appeal ................................................................. p9
A. Claim ........................................................................... p9
B. Appeal .......................................................................... p9

5/ Suspension of activity .......................................................... p10

6/ End of contract .................................................................... p10

7/ Lexicon ................................................................................ p11



3

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


1/ International Working Group - GOTS Technical
committee

GOTS has been created by the following International Working Group (IWG) members:


www.naturtextil.com

www.soilassociation.org

www.ota.com

www.joca.gr.jp

The IWG has installed a Technical Committee which is coordinated by the Technical
Director and further consists of one textile expert appointed by each member of the
IWG.
According to its terms of reference the Technical Committee has the following main
functions/ authorities:
Generating revisions of the standard GOTS
Supervision of accredited certifiers to ascertain certifier's adherence
and consistent interpretation of the GOTS
Supervision of certified companies and products regarding
compliance with the GOTS
Update and information

ECOCERT GREENLIFE will inform regularly the operators undertaking to respect the
standard GOTS about the terms and updates of the standard, and about any provisions
issued by the IWG.
The Global Organic Textile Standard as well as the labeling and licensing guide, and the
manual with official interpretation are available on the web site: http://www.global-
standard.org

The list of operators GOTS certified by ECOCERT is available upon simple request to
ECOCERT and it is also possible to consult the database of GOTS certified operators on
the Global Standard Web site (see address above).

4

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


2/ GOTS Certification steps

Summary diagram of the steps in the certification process.

A. Application
Review
B. I nvolvement
C.
Documentation
Review
D. I nitial
Approval
Audit
E. Application
processing
and
certification
decision
F. Monitoring
5

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


A. Steps 1 to 4 GOTS certification request

You read the GOTS standard and formalize your certification request by filling the
provided Quote form GOTS and the list of products to certified, that you send back to
ECOCERT GREENLIFE in order to receive a cost estimate. You must declare all the
production sites entering in the process including the subcontractors uncommitted with
ECOCERT GREENLIFE for certification but having an activity relating to products to
certify.
ECOCERT GREENLIFE will check that a certification for your products is possible
according to the GOTS standard. If not, ECOCERT GREENLIFE will inform you by
writing.

On the basis of your application, ECOCERT GREENLIFE will establish an annual quote.
This quote will be sent to you along with the general terms and conditions of sale.


B. Step 5 Involvement : Signature of the quotation

Your involvement comes into effect by signing the quotation.

By signing the quotation, you undertake particularly to:
- Know the general conditions of sales
- know the standard and the certification process,
- respect all the criteria of the standard, the GOTS certification process, ECOCERT
labeling guide, and any provisions to GOTS certification program provided by the
IWG, and also the applicable regulation
- Declare all the sites concerned by the products to be certified (including the
subcontractors uncommitted with ECOCERT GREENLIFE for certification but having
an activity relating to products to certified.)
- accept all necessary audits (announced or not) in all sites concerned by products to
certified,
- accept that possibly samples be taken for analysis,
- accept that the auditor may have access to accountability, evidence elements and
corresponding registrations,
- be charged for any supplementary audit required by ECOCERT GREENLIFE
- allow for access ECOCERT GREENLIFE and the responsible authorities to all
premises, vehicles, data and other facilities, which ECOCERT GREENLIFE considers
in it best professional judgment to be related to the controlled Products, regardless
of whether those are owned by or used for the Client Company
- authorize ECOCERT GREENLIFE to exchange information related to the certification
of its Products with other GOTS approved certification bodies or with the responsible
authorities, in order to verify information, especially the certification status of the
certified products as part of its ongoing evaluation
- Record the claims concerning the certified products and submit them to ECOCERT
GREENLIFE.

6

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


During the year, you must communicate by mail to ECOCERT GREENLIFE:
- Any request to certify a new product, even if it belongs to an already certified
product line.
- Any modification affecting organization or production tools possibly questioning the
compliance of already certified products (for instance: processing aids change,
working with a not yet certified subcontractor).

C. Steps 6 to 7 - documents review

Your file will be allocated to a certification officer, who will be your first point of
contact. This officer will send you the forms needed to prepare for your approval audit
that are specific to your business. .
All the dyes and other processing aids, cleaning products must be declared and
submitted to ECOCERT GREENLIFE for validation according to the safety data sheets,
technical sheets, pre-inquiry questionnaire or positives lists of GOTS approved chemical
inputs.
The labeling and communication projects must be submitted to ECOCERT for validation
prior any use. These one must be developed in compliance with the GOTS labeling
guideline.

D. Steps 8 & 9 Initial approval audit

Audits are conducted on all sites carrying out operations on products covered by the
certification. ECOCERT GREENLIFE conducts audits on the basis of a defined inspection
plan, specific to your business.

An auditor is assigned to conduct your approval audit. Approximately ten days before
the audit date, the auditor will propose an audit plan and remind you of the documents
to be made available (by sending a notification of visit'). The audit plan and these
documents are determined by virtue of ECOCERT procedures, on the basis in particular
of your role in the products development, manufacture or distribution process and of
any third parties involved in the said process.

During the audit, the auditor will check the compliance of the operator and their
products with the criteria in the standard. During the audit closure meeting, you will be
given a report to sign. It includes a summary of the checks carried out and any
discrepancies noted. It is your responsibility to suggest your corrective actions, giving
the associated implementation timeframes. These proposed remedial measures must
be appropriate and comprehensive so that the certification process may continue.
Should this not be the case, we will ask you to propose a new action plan. Corrective
actions are typically made official during the audit closure meeting.

During audits, samples may be taken. They are then sent anonymously to one of our
partner laboratories for analysis. The cost of these analyses, plus management fees,
will be added to the invoice.

7

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


E. Steps 10 to 12 Processing of the audit report Certification
decision

The auditor will forward the audit report and your proposed corrective actions to the
certification department for examination by your certification officer. After checking
the relevance and completeness of the application, the certification officer will send you
the conclusions from his/her review of the report, including possible penalties relating
to each discrepancy. These conclusions may be supported, if necessary, by analysis
results.
The certification officer indicates discrepancies as resolved on the basis of evidence
gathered (in documents or on-site observation, as the case may be) and adherence to
penalties.
Once your application is fully compliant, the certificate(s) corresponding to the
compliant product(s) will be sent to you.

REMINDER:
Likewise, you are not allowed to put your products on the market with any reference to
the certification that once you hold a valid certificate for the concerned products.

F. Steps 13 Monitoring

In subsequent years, on the basis of an updated preliminary questionnaire, ECOCERT
GREENLIFE will update your annual quote after reviewing the application (steps 3 and
4).

IMPORTANT:
It is your responsibility to immediately inform ECOCERT GREENLIFE of any change in
the manufacture, production, composition, labeling of products and list of products to
be certified.

If any modification concerns the declared points in the quote form (for instance:
product number, number of subcontractors ), the process restarts at the step 3 in
order to take them into account.

To monitor certification, we implement the inspection plan which consists of various
evaluation measures, in-depth audits, follow-up, additional and supplementary audits.
The auditor checks that the corrective actions defined to deal with previous
discrepancies have been put in place and are effective. Steps 6 to 12 are reiterated
under this certification monitoring process.

REMINDER:
Likewise, you are not allowed to put your products on the market with any reference to
the certification that once you hold a valid certificate for the concerned products.



8

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


3/ Corrective plan and penalties

Throughout the certification process, your certification officer will make use of the
corrective action plan combined with the standard to deal with discrepancies. Each
potential instance of non-compliance is listed and categorized depending on its
seriousness. Any noted discrepancy will give rise to a request for corrective action, the
effective implementation of which will be verified.

Several types of treatment can be assigned to a discrepancy according to its gravity.
The fraudulent or expected character of a discrepancy, as well as the notion of first
infringement or recidivism in the incompliance, will be taken into account in the way to
respond to discrepancies. Depending on the seriousness of observed discrepancies,
corrective actions may be required, a conditioned certificate may be issued or else a
sanction may be imposed.

A. Minor discrepancies

1. Request for corrective actions

A request for corrective actions does not hinder certification of the products in
question, but if effective action is not taken within the defined timescales, this may
result in conditional certification or a penalty.

2. Pending certification/ Conditional certification

The issue of a new certificate will be pending if awaiting the delivery of documents or
the completion of an additional audit.

B. Major discrepancies

APPLICATION OF PENALITIES:

In the event of a major discrepancy, repeat offences, or accumulated discrepancies,
penalties will be applied:

1. Formal demand:

Compliance must be ensured within the timeframe allowed. Once this time has passed,
the outcome is automatic rejection, suspension or withdrawal of the certificate.

2. Refusal, suspension or withdrawal of certificate (affects products):

Certain major discrepancies or repeat or accumulated discrepancies may result in
suspension of the certificate. The terms and conditions and the duration of
suspensions will be defined in the corrective action plan or, if necessary, proposed by
the Certification Supervisory Committee.
9

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


Refusal of certification equates to declining a product application for certification.
Certification may only be granted after examination of an additional audit report at the
applicants expense. If the product is already certified, we talk about the withdrawal of
the product.
IMPORTANT:
A product that has had certification rejected, withdrawn or suspended cannot be
marketed with reference to the certification. This ban also applies to any other
communication materials.

ATTENTION:
The suspension or the withdrawal of the certificate implies the end of validity of the
certification document. All non valid documents have to be resent to ECOCERT
GREENLIFE and you are also obliged to inform your own customers about the end of
validity of the certificate.

4/ Claim and appeal

A. Claim:

You can file a claim by sending a mail to ECOCERT GREENLIFE regarding:
- The compliance of your products with the concerned standard,
- The quality of ECOCERT GREENLIFE service provision or any other cause of
discontentment

ECOCERT GREENLIFE systematically answers all claims.

B. Appeal:

You can formulate an appeal by sending a mail to the certification department,
regarding a certification decision, and within 15 days following the receipt of the mail
informing you of this decision. This one will be treated by the certification service upon
receipt of the mail.
If you are not satisfied after your first use, you could send a second appeal to the
Supervisory Certification Committee. This second appeal is billed and must be done
within 15 days. The resort requests do not suspend decisions made previously.

10

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com

TS01(GT)v04en


5/ Suspension of activity

In the event that you plan to suspend your business activities (halt manufacture, or
sale of the ECOCERT GREENLIFE certified products), we offer you the option of
suspending our service for one or two half-year periods, with our contract remaining in
force during this time. We must be notified of this arrangement before the start of the
half-year during which you wish to place your business on hold.

Your certification documents are no longer valid during this period. You are therefore
no longer permitted to manufacture or sell products certified by ECOCERT GREENLIFE.
No reference to certification wording and/or ECOCERT GREENLIFE is permitted,
regardless of the communication materials (labeling, website, communication
documents, etc.).

At the end of this on-hold period, the certification process restarts at Step 1 -
application review, followed by an initial approval audit as for any initial application.

6/ End of contract

If you wish to disengage and stop our certification services, you have to notify it to us
in writing according to the advance notice planned in the general conditions of sales.
The end of your contract, at the end of the advance notice, will lead to the end of
validity of your certificate.
Consequently, from this moment on, you can not put your products on the market with
any reference to the certification or to ECOCERT GREENLIFE.

In case you would have stock of certified products to be sold after the expiration date
of your certificate, you have to indicate us how long would it take to sell the whole
stock. From this moment, your contract will be prolonged but you will not be
authorized to produce any new products and you will be allowed to sell your stock
of certified products with an annual control as "distributor", charged at the
appropriate rate. The contract and the certificate will stay in force until the date
considered as necessary to sell the whole stock of certified products.

During any such contract extension period, you may no longer MANUFACTURE
new product with any reference to the certification and/or ECOCERT
GREENLIFE.



TS01(GT)v04en


11

ECOCERT GREENLIFE SAS
www.ecocert.com
7/ Lexicon

CERTIFICATE: Attestation of conformity issued by ECOCERT GREENLIFE stating for
each product that it complies with GOTS standard and that allows the manufacture and
the sale of the product. Unless otherwise defined by ECOCERT GREENLIFE, the
certificate is valid until the end of semester + one year following your in-depth audit
within a validity period of 16 months maximum. Renewal of the certificate depends
upon the ongoing certification process concerning the operator.

OPERATOR: any physical or moral person who requesting certification following GOTS
standard for one or more products in the aim of commercialization.

STANDARD: Technical document defining the characteristics that a product must show
(criteria or requirements), the terms and conditions of inspection for compliance with
these characteristics and the terms and conditions for communication regarding the
certification.