The Gore fabrics division, part of W.L. Gore & Associates, has announced that both of its manufacturing plants in Shenzhen, China, and Putzbrunn, Germany, have received full Global Recycled Standard (GRS) accreditation. This is a significant step forward in the company's ongoing efforts to lessen the environmental impact of offering high-performance products.

GRS is a voluntary international standard that establishes requirements for third-party certification of recycled material, social and environmental practices, chemical limits, and chain of custody (CoC).

Beginning with the recycling step and continuing until the final transaction, the CoC needs a certification at each stage of production. Self-declaration, document collection, and on-site visits are required at the material collection and material concentration locations.

The GRS' major purpose is to promote the usage of recycled materials in goods while reducing or eliminating the harm that their manufacture causes to people and the environment.

Thomas Kiebler, Global Application Engineer Leader, W. L. Gore & Associates, said that transparency informs the way the Gore Fabric Division operates and builds trust with buyers, customers, end-users, and partners. To assure traceability of recycled content used in their goods, they opted to become certified according to the Global Recycled Standard.

Kiebler added that their manufacturing locations and others went above and beyond to help them achieve this success. They completed pre-audits and applied the standard's environmental, social, and chemical requirements that were not covered by their previous certifications, such as bluesign® and ISO 14001. Now that they've achieved GRS certification, they're integrating the processes and standards into their existing management system to ensure they keep the certification and continue to enhance their performance.

Gore adapted its production and warehouse set-up which allows meeting the standard's requirement of separating GRS and non-GRS certified goods.

Gore uses third-party warehouses to send laminates to its licensed partners and purchasers, and the business collaborated with those warehouses to integrate them into the GRS system.

Gore plans to introduce GRS-certified laminates to its customers in both the consumer and GORE-TEX Professional Workwear businesses by the middle of 2022. To allow Gore to provide product-related certifications, known as 'transaction certificates,' to consumers and buyers, IT systems will need to be modified.

Kiebler explained that they’ll introduce more holistic portfolio management for their GRS certified laminates so that they can continue to grow their offering to consumers and purchasers. They'll start with a small number of laminates from their Gore Fabrics portfolio at first, but they'll work with their suppliers and manufacturing sites in the future to certify all laminates with recycled textiles according to GRS.