Cotton grown under organic agricultural standards.
Organic describes the farm, not the finished garment. Textile Exchange defines organically grown material as the output of a farm certified to the USDA National Organic Program, the EU organic regulation or another standard in the IFOAM Family of Standards.
Textile Exchange’s Organic Content Standard (OCS) tracks that material from farm to final product: OCS 100 requires at least 95% certified organic fiber, OCS Blended at least 5%. The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) starts where organic farming ends and covers processing, from spinning to manufacturing and trading, with environmental, human-rights and social criteria. Its “organic” grade requires at least 95% certified organic fibers, its “made with x% organic materials” grade 70 to 94%.
A garment can contain organic cotton without being GOTS-certified, so a careful house names the standard and the percentage. In the EU, Directive (EU) 2024/825 adds to the practices unfair in all circumstances: “Displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or not established by public authorities.”
In job listings
Organic cotton turns up with its certifications: materials development roles aim to widen the use of certified materials such as GOTS organic cotton, and sustainability roles ask for knowledge of GOTS, OCS and similar standards. See current roles that name GOTS.
