Oeko-Tex Association, a leader in textile product and facility certifications, has introduced MySTeP, a robust, secure database application that houses a textile product manufacturer’s information related to its sustainable operations, at the Texworld USA trade fair.

MySTeP complements the STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, a comprehensive certification programme for brands, retailers, and manufacturers from all sectors of the textile supply chain who want to validate their sustainable production in a transparent, credible, and consistent manner.

“We were very pleased by our guests’ positive response to MySTeP,” said Dr Jean-Pierre Haug, General Secretary of the Oeko-Tex. “MySTeP has been designed specifically for the textile products industry and they clearly recognize and appreciate the benefits of that focus.”

Complicated supply chain

“Sustainability is very important to our company and to our customers,” commented Beatriz Bayo Gonzalez, of Mango. “MySTeP will make it easier to manage our complicated supply chain and, equally important, MySTeP will make it easier for our many partners around the world to work with Mango. It’s a beneficial tool for our entire supply chain and will help us all operate more responsibly and considerately.”

The MySTeP database facilitates private, confidential communication between customers and suppliers, ensuring that compliance data and other certifications are complete and up to date. It helps facility operators to manage many components of a comprehensive sustainable production strategy that is said to be both environmentally and socially responsible.

Communication and data sharing

Via the supplier dashboard feature, MySTeP provides a simple overview of a company’s textile supply chain and the manufacturers that define it. The MySTeP dashboard can also be customised with benchmarks key to particular aspects of a company’s sustainability strategy, as well as features to track the supply chain’s performance against them and other key performance indicators.

The new Oeko-Tex API (Application Program Interface) further aids communication and data sharing via portals and cloud-based vendor management platforms, the association reports.

“Communication, goal-sharing, and access to timely, accurate information are critical aspects for any company’s successful sustainability strategy,” said Tricia Carey, of Lenzing. “I applaud Oeko-Tex for creating a sustainability certification and a very useful management tool that helps textile product companies and their suppliers collaborate more effectively.”

Oeko-Tex

The International Oeko-Tex Association headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, was founded in 1992 by the Austrian Textile Research Institute and the German Hohenstein Research Institutes.

Currently, its membership includes 16 independent textile research and testing institutes with 51 offices in 62 countries.

To date, more than 141,000 Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificates have been issued—with more than 12,500 issued per year—and 10,000 companies in more than 90 countries are working with Oeko-Tex to ensure that their products are tested for potentially harmful substances.

www.oeko-tex.com