Espirit gets second 'R Cert' for recycled clothing line

The R Cert is now present in new consumer markets, including Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia before later in the year reaching New Zealand and Australia. Asian fashion NGO, Redress, developed the R Cert last year to encourage brands to up-cycle their textile waste and to educate consumers about the source and impact of their recycled textile clothing.

The R Cert is a consumer-facing standard that verifies that a brand recycled their own pre-consumer textile waste into their own recycled textile clothing, with a minimum requirement of 20% recycled fibres per garment.

It provides a traceable supply chain that allows consumers to track their recycled textile clothing’s journey from factory to retail by viewing English and Chinese animations on the www.rcert.org website. The R Cert is issued by Redress and includes a requirement for factory level suppliers to be GRS (Global Recycle Standard) certified.

“The R Cert catalyzes brands to move closer to closed-loop production by recycling their pre-consumer textile waste into their own recycled textile clothes. It is a scalable business solution for the industry’s excessive textile manufacturing waste rates that has demonstrated environmental benefits.

"Significantly, the R Cert provides a bridge for brands to communicate complex industry processes with simple, transparent and instant consumer education to engage consumers about the benefits of textile recycling,” said Christina Dean, Founder of Redress.

Giving consumers confidence in claims

Increasingly, consumers demand more sustainable commitments from fashion brands and have stronger expectations for transparency and credibility around sustainability claims. The R Cert cuts through complex technical industry jargon with instant and accessible information to provide supply chain transparency giving consumers confidence in their brand’s recycled content and source.

Redress’ addition of Chinese language animations and content to the R Cert is a significant strategic development to cater to Asia’s increasingly dominant and fast-growing mainstream fashion consumer.

Consumers can track their recycled textile clothing’s journey from factory to retail by scanning a QR code on the hangtag or by inputting a unique code into the R Cert website.

Consumers are then directed to their brand’s customized, mobile-friendly animation where they discover how their recycled clothes were produced and learn about their clothes’ environmental benefits. Alternatively, consumers can track directly though the R Cert website without the use of a QR code or track code.