With a view to help humane treatment of animals from hatching to end product, Textile Exchange, a global nonprofit dedicated to sustainability in the apparel and textile industry, announced the latest version of its Responsible Down Standard (RDS) – a third-party certification standard that can be applied to any waterfowl-based supply chain.
This is being done for accurate labeling and help consumers to make informed choices as the goal of the RDS is to recognise and encourage best practices in animal welfare and to enable traceability. An international working group comprised of brands, animal welfare groups, and supply chain members have worked to revise the original standard over the past year.
The RDS is the most comprehensive, global, third-party certified animal welfare and traceability standard for down and feathers available for use by any company since January 2014. Down, which comes from geese and ducks that are grown primarily for the food industry, remains one of the highest-quality, best performing materials for use in apparel, bedding and home goods. Due to the attention given by animal welfare groups to issues such as live-plucking and force-feeding, in late 2012 The North Face combined forces with Textile Exchange and Control Union Certifications, an accredited third-party certification body, to design and implement the RDS across primary sourcing regions in Europe, Asia, and the United States. This included working closely with leading suppliers Allied Feather & Down and Downlite to analyze and certify every step of the down supply chain.
Upon completion of the standard, The North Face gifted it to Textile Exchange to administer and evolve the standard as needed with the hope of engaging more brands and down suppliers to begin to implement the RDS. In the following months, TE created the International Working Group tasked with revising the standard.
Textile Exchange (TE) is a global non-profit organisation that works closely with all sectors of the textile supply chain to find the best ways to minimise and even reverse the negative impacts on water, soil, air, and the human population created by this $1.7 trillion industry.
