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Presentation of the Sustainability Awards, June 12 in Frankfurt am Main.
To honor the achievements of OEKO-TEX® certified companies that have demonstrated special commitment to the issue of sustainability, the OEKO-TEX Association will present its Sustainability Award for the first time on June 12, 2013, during an evening event in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The award presentation will also mark the official start of the new OEKO-TEX certification called “Sustainable Textile Production (STeP),” which will replace the current Standard 1000.
The Sustainability Award (which is not endowed with any prize money) was started in 2012 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the OEKO-TEX organization, and will be presented in five categories: environmental management, quality management, social responsibility, safety management and product innovation. From the company applications received in the period between March 2012 and March 2013, OEKO-TEX initially selected two “Companies of the Month” each month—one company certified according to OEKO-TEX Standard 100 and one certified according to Standard 1000. From among these companies, three were nominated for the Sustainability Award in each category (the list of nominees may be found here). A jury with seven representatives from the OEKO-TEX Association, NGOs, industry and research, as well as associations and the trade press, selected the winners of the award in the individual categories.
During the evening event, the awards will be presented to the representatives of the companies attending. In his keynote address, speaker Achim Feige will present “People, planet, profits—How good brands will profit threefold in the future,” discussing the question of how companies can increase their market success through sustainable, integrated management, and noting the requirements they must meet to do so. The host for the event will be Ingolf Baur, a popular and well-versed presenter of different television shows and events from the field of science.
The presentation of the award to five outstanding companies, representative of the more than 9,500 OEKO-TEX-certified companies worldwide and their proactive work, is also the platform for the official market introduction of the new OEKO-TEX certification system for environmentally friendly and socially responsible production facilities in the textile chain. The new tool, STeP, offers global brands, retail businesses and manufacturers a modular analysis of all relevant company areas, such as quality management, use of chemicals, environmental protection, environmental management, social responsibility and health and safety.
The STeP certification offers companies in the textile industry a modern, dynamic and transparent way of clearly documenting their sustainable commitment to the public. The scoring system makes it particularly clear where certified companies still have further development potential with regard to more sustainability, and makes successfully implemented measures visible to everyone.