What the OEKO-TEX MADE IN GREEN Label on Clothing Certifies

If you have turned over a shirt collar or a shoe tongue lately, you may have seen a small green OEKO-TEX MADE IN GREEN tag with a QR code on it. Unlike a brand's own sustainability messaging, this is a label issued by a certification body, OEKO-TEX, and it comes with a defined set of requirements that a product and its supply chain must meet. That makes it worth understanding on its own terms: what is actually certified, and what is simply the issuer's framing.

OEKO-TEX describes the label as covering both the product and the conditions it was made under. On its own standard page, the organization states that textiles and leather items carrying the label "are produced more sustainably in socially responsible workplaces" and are "traceable and tested for harmful substances." Those are the issuer's claims; the concrete requirements behind them are more specific, and they are what the label actually obliges a brand to do.

What a product must have before it can carry the label

MADE IN GREEN is a label layered on top of other OEKO-TEX certifications, not a standalone test. According to the requirements listed on the standard page, a product has to satisfy several conditions before it can be labelled:

• Base certification: the product must already be certified under OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100, ORGANIC COTTON or LEATHER STANDARD, which cover testing for harmful substances. STANDARD 100 testing covers every component, including accessories such as threads, buttons and zippers, against a list of over 1,000 substances, per OEKO-TEX's own explainer.
• Certified making-up facilities: the facilities that assemble the product must be certified according to OEKO-TEX STeP, the organization's standard for production facilities.
• Key components: single components that equal or exceed 5% of the total weight of the product must be supplied by STeP-certified production facilities — but only where those are wet or chemical production facilities, such as dyeing or finishing plants.
• Traceable supply chain: for finished products, the making-up facility plus at least three components must be defined and confirmed, and the participating companies must register for the OEKO-TEX Connect platform and actively use the MADE IN GREEN dashboard.

What the STeP facility requirement covers

The facility side of the label is what most clearly distinguishes MADE IN GREEN from STANDARD 100 alone, which certifies a product's tested safety rather than how its factory ran. OEKO-TEX's explainer says that suppliers in a MADE IN GREEN supply chain "are obliged to take actions to protect workers, ensure safe working conditions and strengthen healthy labor practices" and that "Production facilities must be certified according to the OEKO-TEX® STeP criteria."

On its standard page, OEKO-TEX groups the STeP-related aims under three headings: environmental responsibility (verified chemical management and wastewater quality), product and consumer safety (testing for harmful substances such as carcinogenic dyes, heavy metals or pesticides, including every component and accessory), and social responsibility (fair working conditions, a ban on forced and child labor, and occupational safety). These are the areas the certification is designed to address; how thoroughly any individual facility performs in practice is a matter for the audits behind the certification, which the label itself does not show you.

The traceability part: a product ID you can check

The feature you can act on as a shopper is traceability. Every MADE IN GREEN product carries a unique product ID or QR code, and OEKO-TEX says each labelled product "can be traced using a QR code or unique product ID, providing insights into how and where it was made." The standard page is more concrete about what that reveals: information about the production facilities, the article, the stage of production each facility belongs to, and the countries in which production took place.

OEKO-TEX also frames this as an anti-fraud feature. Its standard page quotes Consuelo Carbonell, Head of OEKO-TEX Department at the institute Aitex, saying that "Traceability is a fundamental point to avoid fraud in labelling and with MADE IN GREEN we can be sure, so the label is a reliable insurance."

How MADE IN GREEN differs from STANDARD 100

It helps to keep the two labels separate. In OEKO-TEX's own framing, STANDARD 100 certifies that a product "has been tested for harmful substances to protect your health," with stricter limit values for products with more skin contact — Product Class 1 for babies and toddlers has the strictest requirements. MADE IN GREEN starts from that base (or ORGANIC COTTON or LEATHER STANDARD) and adds the STeP facility requirements and supply chain traceability. So a STANDARD 100 tag tells you about testing of the item; a MADE IN GREEN tag additionally points to certified production facilities and a checkable production path.

How to check a label yourself

OEKO-TEX offers a public verification tool, the Label Check, on its website. The steps, as the organization describes them, are short:

• Find the QR code or unique product ID on the MADE IN GREEN label of the garment, pair of sneakers/trainers, or leather item.
• Scan the QR code, or enter the product ID in the OEKO-TEX Label Check on the oeko-tex.com website.
• Check what comes back: the production facilities, the article, the production stage of each facility, and the countries where production took place.

If you are buying a labelled item, a straightforward check is to scan the code in the store or enter the ID in the Label Check and see whether the result names production facilities and countries that fit the product in front of you. If the details look wrong, that is a reason to ask the seller questions rather than take the tag at face value. Certification requirements are set by OEKO-TEX and can be updated, so for the current fine print the organization's MADE IN GREEN standard page and glossary are the reference points.