Greenpeace Detox campaign

The environmental organization Greenpeace has been campaigning for the reduction of hazardous chemicals in textile production for many years. Its Detox campaign focuses on combating water and soil pollution, together with the effects on the health of employees in production countries.

What will Coop do?

By signing the declaration of intent, Coop is demonstrating its commitment to sustainability in the area of fair, environmentally friendly textile production. Coop will now undertake various measures to reduce the use of chemicals for all its own-brand textiles. These include a minimum standard for textile products during manufacture which specifies requirements for chemical use and supply chain transparency, and defines a sanctioning and monitoring system. Coop will present the progress made in its Sustainability Report.

What has Coop already done?

Naturaline, Coop's own-label sustainability brand, stands for fair and environmentally friendly textile production and has proven a huge success over the past 20 years. The supply chains are transparent, the use of chemicals is very tightly regulated, and hazardous chemicals are prohibited in all stages of production. An independent monitoring body inspects the various processes on an annual basis.

In its Sustainable Sourcing Guideline, Coop also bans the use of chemicals that are classified as hazardous according to recognized EU institutions. As this list does not cover all the substances classified as hazardous by Greenpeace, Coop is making every effort to rectify this deficit by 2020.

Coop and Greenpeace: Detox Solution Commitment, January 2013 (PDF)