As a core deliverable of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) project "Sustainability in the textile value chain, promoting Ecolabel and Sustainable Public procurement ", the Technical Specification for Eco-products Certification – Textile Product (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard") was jointly released by China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC), Nanjing Customs Textile and Industrial Products Testing Center (JTC), Qingdao Product Quality Testing Research Institute (QTC), and Wuxi Textile and Apparel Council.
As a flagship project of UNEP’s global initiative "Greening Supply and Demand: Advancing Eco-Labels and Sustainable Public Procurement for Climate and Biodiversity Protection (EcoAdvance)", CEC has actively leveraged its dual roles as the lead agency for the One Planet Network's Sustainable Public Procurement Programme and advisory member of the Consumer Information Programme to drive project implementation forward. The project is based on the UNEP’s report, “Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain – Global Stocktake”, drawing on practical experience from Attestation of Chinese environment mark and government green procurement practices. It adopts a full lifecycle approach and methodology, focusing on reducing the impacts of textile products on human health, climate change, biodiversity, and environmental pollution. The project incorporates raw material traceability, low-carbon production, circular utilization, and corporate social responsibility into the standard system, achieving full-process control from cotton fields to finished garments. The established standards also guide suppliers in optimizing production processes and encourage purchasers to prioritize green, low-carbon products throughout the textile value chain. By defining clear and actionable pathways for corporate green transformation, this project promotes the systematic adoption of sustainable public procurement practices across China.
Moving forward, the four institutions will collaborate representative enterprises in textile-intensive regions to initiate pilot certification work, driving the implementation of the standard across the upstream and downstream segments of the industry chain. This will create replicable and scalable models, which will be shared on international platforms. Through the mutual empowerment of local practice and international cooperation, the standard will be transformed into a universal tool for the green upgrade of the global textile value chain, contributing to the sustainable development of the industry.
 

[Background]
   The project EcoAdvance
Ecolabels and Sustainable Public Procurement is jointly implemented by the German Cooperation for Development (GIZ), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Öko-Institut, receiving financial support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The project aims to increase the use of sustainable public procurement and ecolabels (ISO 14024) as tools to improve climate mitigation, biodiversity, and resource protection. By supporting ecolabels and sustainable public procurement the project helps to create incentives for cleaner production focusing on high-impact sectors, addressing a major barrier to changing consumption and production patterns: the complexity of communicating the environmental impacts of products and services to consumers and public authorities.

   One Planet Network  
“One Planet Network” initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), aims to advance the global Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) by promoting international cooperation mechanisms for sustainable consumption and production. It comprises six thematic programmes: Sustainable Food, Sustainable Lifestyles and Education, Sustainable Buildings and Construction, Consumer Information (CI-SCP), Sustainable Tourism, and Sustainable Public Procurement. China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC) joined UNEP’s One Planet Network CI-SCP programme in 2016 and was approved as a member of the CI-SCP Programme’s Monitoring and Advisory Committee (MAC) in 2021.