GOTS Deputy Technical Director Mr. Sumit Gupta spoke at Integrity 101 Session at TE Conference in Mumbai, India on 6th October, 2015. His presentation gave an overview about GOTS standard, key criteria across supply chain and labelling guidelines. The presentation was followed by a very interesting exercise for the participants, wherein they were asked to find out correct and incorrect label uses from 5 given examples. Other speakers in the session were Mr. Lee Tyler from Textile Exchange and Mr. Richard Cepeda from prAna. Attendees of the conference can download a copy of the presentation from the link.
GOTS was also one of the sponsors of ‘Organic Cotton Round Table’, held on 8th October, 2015. Mr. Gupta participated along with Ms. Prachi Gupta (Technical Office Manager India) and also hosted a Lunch Table Discussion during the ‘Eat and Greet’ session on the topic, “Relevance of Supply Chain Certifications at Later Stages of Production”. There was a mix of academicians, fibre manufacturer, non-retailer brands, retail brands, natural dyes manufacturer at the table. One of the clear conclusions of the discussion was need for formation of Regional Working Groups, including brands, retailers and representatives of Standard Owner/ Certification Body. These groups will work towards promoting use of labels instead of self-claims. A summary of OCRT can be read at the link.