As of October 2022, the entire econscious supply chain will be SEDEX members with current SMETA audits on file. SMETA is Sedex’s social auditing methodology, enabling businesses to assess their sites and suppliers to understand working conditions in their supply chain. https://www.sedex.com/our-services/smeta-audit/ At econscious we are aware of recent media attention related to the challenges faced by the organic cotton certification process resulting primarily from surging demand, reduced global supply and farmers losing their organic certification. Despite the challenges, the organic cotton supply chain remains one of the most transparent, strictly regulated certification processes and enforcement systems created to ensure authenticity claims. As a result, instances of fraud can be quickly detected and addressed. Our commitment to maintaining the integrity of our products continues to be fundamental to our mission. Our compliance specialists track each buy to ensure the fibers we use are accompanied by the proper documentation as certified by an independent third-party agency. We only work with vendors with whom we have long standing relationships, or who have been thoroughly vetted. In many cases, we are working with the same manufacturers we started with when econscious was founded in 2006. This, coupled with an assortment that replenishes the same fabrications year after year, allows our suppliers to forecast fiber needs in advance of production with the assurance that each fabric will be used in future production and have a long product life cycle. This slow fashion approach provides the stability associated with products that live year-round, year after year. The marketplace has a lot of new players entering it as the world wakes up to the central role sustainable textiles will play in our future. We are glad to see this new growth spurt but clearly the organic agriculture is experiencing growing pains. At the same time, the oversight processes are also evolving. We welcome the increased attention to organic cotton certification processes. Shining a light on the challenges will contribute to our shared efforts to strengthen requirements on 3rd party inspectors, detect and eliminate fraud, and protect consumers. Thank you for helping us continue to support the increased use of organic agricultural production methods. From all of us at econscious
