Sustainable fashion certifications: what GOTS, OEKO-TEX, B Corp and Fairtrade actually certify

Sustainable fashion certifications are the labels that sit between a brand's claim and proof, and in 2026 two of the biggest changed their rules. This guide covers four you will actually see on clothes: GOTS, OEKO-TEX, B Corp and Fairtrade. For each, it says what is checked, what is not, and what changed this year, using the certifiers' own pages and one independent trade report.

The short version: each label certifies a different slice of the supply chain. None of them tells you a garment is "sustainable" in total.

GOTS: organic fiber, and everything after the farm

The Global Organic Textile Standard says it "starts where organic farming activities ends." Its certification covers every step from fiber processing and spinning to wet processing, manufacturing and trading. To label a product as GOTS-certified, all companies involved in its production must be certified by approved independent certification bodies. The standard requires annual on-site audits of certified facilities, and it covers environmental criteria, social requirements and wastewater treatment.

The label grade tells you how much organic fiber is inside. The "Organic" grade means at least 95% certified organic fibers. The "Made with organic" grade covers products with 70% up to 95% certified organic or in-conversion fibers. A GOTS label must also show the logo, the grade, a reference to the certification body and the certification number of the certified entity.

What GOTS does not do: it says nothing about how many garments a brand makes, how far they ship, or whether anyone wears them for more than a season. It certifies how a textile was made, not whether making more of it is a good idea.

OEKO-TEX: two labels with different jobs

Do not mix these up. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is a label for textiles tested for harmful substances. OEKO-TEX says every thread, button and accessory is tested against a list of over 1,000 harmful substances, that stricter requirements apply the more intensive the skin contact, and that limit values are reviewed at least once a year. That is a product safety test. It is not a statement about labor or the environment. We unpack the details in our guide to what the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 label means.

OEKO-TEX Made in Green is the broader one. It requires the product to be certified under Standard 100, Organic Cotton or Leather Standard, requires making-up facilities to be certified under OEKO-TEX STeP, and requires single components that make up 5% or more of the product's weight to come from STeP-certified wet production facilities. For finished products, the making-up facility plus at least three components must be defined and confirmed. Each label carries a unique product ID or QR code you can check in the OEKO-TEX Label Check.

B Corp: a company label, rewritten this year

B Corp certification is awarded to companies, not garments. B Lab's UK page says all B Corp submissions are now on B Lab Standards (V2), and describes the change this way: "The new B Lab standards are moving away from individual point scoring to minimum requirements across seven Impact Topics." Certifications are now verified by a third-party assurance provider.

There is a hard date attached. According to B Lab UK, the EU's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition directive comes into effect on September 27, 2026, and B Corps affected by it that have neither recertified on V2 nor signed an amendment to the B Corp agreement will lose the right to use the B Corp logo or describe themselves as a Certified B Corporation. That date has now passed, so a brand selling into the EU that still uses the logo should be on the new standard or have signed the amendment. If you see an older "80 points" claim in a brand's copy, it describes the previous scoring system.

Fairtrade: narrower scope since September 1

Fairtrade's textile standard is the one that changed most in 2026. Fairtrade's page lists the standard as valid as of September 1, 2026, with a new scope of tier 1 factories and cut-make-trim factories. FashionUnited reports that the standard now applies only to the final stage of garment production, where fabric is cut, sewn and assembled, instead of the whole chain from cotton seed to garment.

The wage rules shifted too. FashionUnited reports a base wage set at 55% of the regional living wage, or 10% above the legal minimum wage, whichever is higher, plus a brand-paid wage supplement called the Living Wage Differential, which the factory pays out in cash every six months. It also reports that the deadline for reaching living wages has been removed. Fairtrade's own summary page, as we read it, still lists "living wage implementation within six years," so check the standard document itself before repeating either version.

The seal changes meaning as well. Per FashionUnited, certification of the garment factory is now enough for the textile seal, and companies can use a cotton seal for the raw material, a textile seal for production, or a combined seal for both. The same report says Max Havelaar France calls the environmental criteria strengthened, while the standard's list of banned substances and ban on hazardous processes such as chlorine bleaching are no longer in it. Those are two readings of the same document.

How to read a label in a store

Ask four questions. What is certified: the fiber, the factory, the finished product or the whole company? Who checks: an independent certifier with a certificate number you can look up? When was the standard last revised? And what is the claim attached, "organic," "tested for harmful substances," "fair" or "responsible"?

An OEKO-TEX label can be checked online through its Label Check, and a GOTS label must carry a certification number you can put to the certifier. A Fairtrade seal now means something narrower than it did in August, so read the wording around it. For the wider picture of what claims on labels do and do not mean, see our guide to sustainable fashion, labels and claims.

Our take

Certifications are useful when you match the label to the question. GOTS answers "was this made from organic fiber under audited conditions." OEKO-TEX Standard 100 answers "was it tested for harmful substances." B Corp answers "does this company meet a published bar," and Fairtrade now answers "was the sewing factory held to a wage floor." We would trust a label with a checkable number, and skip any brand that stacks several logos and still cannot say what is inside the garment.