Sustainable Fabric and Material Claims for Bags

What Counts as a Sustainability Claim?

Any statement about the environmental or social character of a product: what it is made from, where that came from, what happens to it at the end, or what the maker does. The rules apply to the claim rather than to the intention, so an unqualified word on a product page is a claim whether or not anyone meant it as one.

Which Claims Can Actually Be Evidenced?

Recycled input through a certificate, substance limits through a test, chain of custody through the certificates of every site in the chain, and fibre content through a composition result. Four families, and each needs a document with a number on it. Outside those four, the evidence usually does not exist in a form anyone can check.

Which Claims Cannot?

Comparative claims about water, energy or carbon, because they need a baseline that is rarely available and a method that is rarely agreed. Claims about end-of-life, because the conditions in a test are not the conditions in a bin. And claims about what a company does, because they are about an organisation rather than an article and are held to a different standard.

What Does a Recycled Input Claim Need?

A transaction certificate for the shipment, naming the parties, the product, the quantity and the input percentage, issued by a recognised certification body. The claim states the figure on that certificate or lower. Nothing short of it supports a recycled input claim of any kind.

What Does a Substance Claim Need?

A test result to a stated method, for the substance named, or a certificate against a named standard with its limit values. A statement that a product is free from a substance covers only that substance; a statement that it is safe is a different claim and a much harder one to evidence.

What Does a Chain of Custody Claim Need?

A valid certificate for every site that handled the material, each holding scope for the activity it performed. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and a gap at any point means no certificate can be issued at the end of it.

How Specific Does a Claim Need to Be?

Specific enough that someone can check it. A percentage, a named substance, a named standard, or a named document behind it. A general word with none of those is the claim that regulators describe as unqualified, and it is the one most likely to have to be withdrawn.

What Words Create Exposure?

Three families. Unqualified words that describe a product as good for the environment without saying how. Claims about end-of-life that depend on conditions the product will not meet. And comparative claims with no stated baseline. Each is an invitation to be asked for evidence that does not exist.

What Do the Marketing Rules Require?

That a claim is substantiated, specific, and not misleading by omission. The main consumer protection regulators publish guidance that is consistent on all three, and the enforcement pattern follows it: the claims that are challenged are the broad ones, not the narrow ones.

Who Carries the Risk?

Whoever puts the claim in front of the customer. A supplier statement does not transfer it, and a certificate does not either, because both describe one part of one chain. The party publishing the claim is the party that has to be able to evidence it.

What Happens When a Claim Falls Short?

It has to come off the product, and in most markets the printed and published material carries the cost of that. A review prompted by one claim usually extends to the others on the same product, and sometimes to the range, which is why one unevidenced word is more expensive than it looks.

How Should a Retailer Requirement Be Handled?

Ask for it in writing, map each requirement to a document, and work out which ones will take longer than the order. The requirement that arrives last is usually the certificate, because it is issued after the goods ship and nobody can issue it earlier.

What Should Be Written Into the Purchase Clause?

The documents required, the date each has to be held by, the standard each refers to, and the wording they support. Four items, and they are the same four that appear in the publication checklist, which is the reason to keep them in one place.

What Records Should Be Kept?

Every certificate and report, the invoice each references, the agreed wording and the date the claim was published. Filed under the order number, they answer a review in minutes rather than weeks.

• Tie every claim to a document held before publication.
• State percentages as the figure on the certificate, or lower.
• Name the substance and the method in every substance claim.
• Avoid unqualified words entirely, whatever the intention.
• Keep every record under the order number it belongs to.
• Agree the wording in writing before anything is printed.

How Should Claims Be Reviewed Each Season?

Check the certificates are current, the percentages being achieved, the wording still in use and the records still complete. Four checks, and the third is the one that drifts, because wording gets paraphrased as it travels.

Where Do Programmes Usually Go Wrong?

Marketing runs ahead of the documents. A listing date is set, the copy is drafted, and the certificate that supports it has not been issued yet because the goods have not shipped. The fix is chronological: the document arrives after the goods, so the copy has to be planned after the document.

How Should a Range Be Handled Where Only Part Is Certified?

Keep the certified quantity as its own line, with its own paperwork, treated as a separate product for the purpose of the claim. Mixing a certified quantity with an uncertified one means neither can be evidenced and both become hard to sell to anyone who checks.

How Is a Claim Kept Current?

By re-checking the certificates and the reports on the schedule they were issued against, rather than when someone happens to ask. Most claims fall because a document expired quietly and the wording carried on unchanged without anyone noticing.

What Does a Supplier Statement Actually Do?

It records what a supplier asserts, and it is useful as a record of what was asked and what was answered. It does not substantiate a claim, because the party making the claim is the party that has to evidence it.

How Should a Buyer Phrase a Question About Evidence?

Ask for the document, the standard and the date, in that order. Three questions, and a supplier that can answer all three usually has the file. One that answers with an assurance usually does not.

What Is the Difference Between a Product and a Company Claim?

A product claim is about an article and can be evidenced with a document for that article. A company claim is about how an organisation operates, and it is held to a different standard with different expectations attached. Confusing the two is where most of the difficulty starts, because the evidence does not transfer.

How Do Requirements Differ Between Markets?

In which claims are regulated, in what registration a claim requires, and in the period records have to be kept. The same wording can be ordinary in one market and a registration question in another, so the market has to be settled before the wording is.

What Should Be Agreed With the Marketing Team?

The exact wording, the document behind it and the date the claim may be published. Three things, agreed before the copy is drafted rather than after it is written. Wording written first and evidenced afterwards is the usual origin of a withdrawal.

How Is a Claim Handled on a Marketplace?

The same as anywhere else, and usually with a listing form that asks for specific fields. A claim entered into a marketplace field is published the moment it is saved, which means the evidence has to be held before the field is filled in.

What Does a Packaging Claim Need?

The same evidence as the product claim it sits beside, since a claim on a carton is a claim about the article in it. Packaging is printed earlier than most people expect, which makes it the place where a claim most often gets published before it is substantiated.

How Should Evidence Be Held for a Reorder?

A new certificate for each shipment, held against the same agreed wording. A reorder is not covered by the previous order documents, and a standing claim needs a standing flow of them rather than one good example on file.

What Does a Fibre Content Claim Need?

A composition result to a stated method, reported with the tolerance the market allows. It evidences what the article is made of, and it is the basis a recyclability statement stands on where facilities exist.

What Should the Evidence File Contain?

The certificates and reports, the invoice each references, the agreed wording and the publication date. Four things under one order number, and they are what turn a review into a short meeting.

• Every certificate and report, with the standard it refers to.
• The invoice each document references, in the same quantity.
• The wording that was agreed before anything was printed.
• The date each claim was published, recorded as it happened.
• The reviews that were carried out, with their dates.
• A standing note of what expires next and when.

How Should the Programme Be Reviewed?

Check what is current, what is being used, and what is about to expire. Three questions, asked on a schedule rather than when a retailer asks first, and recorded each time so the review itself can be evidenced if anyone asks for it.

How Should a Programme Handle a Range With Mixed Evidence?

One line at a time. A range where only some products carry a certificate can only make the claim on those products, and the cleanest handling is a list beside the file recording which do and which do not. A range treated as one unit tends to acquire a claim it cannot carry.

What Should Be Done When Evidence Is Missing?

Remove the claim, then decide whether to obtain the evidence or to leave it off. Doing it in that order means a product is never published with a claim it cannot support while the question is still open.

What Does a Composition Result Add?

It evidences what the article is made of, which supports a fibre content claim and a recyclability statement where facilities exist. It does not evidence where the material came from, which is the certificate job. Two different documents for two different claims, and neither one substitutes for the other when someone asks for evidence of the claim it covers.

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