The EU Ecolabel promotes products that have a low environmental impact across their entire life cycle - from extraction of raw materials, to manufacturing and packaging, use, and finally disposal or recycling. Developed by the European Commission in 1992, the EU Ecolabel features a green flower surrounded by 12 blue stars. Its main objective is to educate and guide consumers to choose environmentally conscious products. Close to 70,000 products bear the logo.

Virtually every product that is manufactured for distribution, consumption or use in the EU market is eligible for the EU Ecolabel. Focusing on the part of the process where the product has the highest environmental impact, the EU Ecolabel product-specific criteria ensures that any product bearing the EU Flower has passed the most stringent environmental tests. The product’s impact on the environment, biodiversity, energy and resource consumption, waste generation and emissions are examined.

Because of its size and scope, the textile industry is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters on earth. Textile products have a great environmental impact—they use large quantities of water and pesticides to grow cotton, use water in natural fiber production, create emissions stemming from producing synthetic and cellulosic fibers and use non-renewable resources for synthetic fibers.