The upcoming Performance Days functional fabrics trade fair, scheduled for March 5-6, 2025, at Messe München, is set to address one of the textile industry's most pressing challenges: navigating the ‘certification jungle’. The new Focus Topic, ‘Certifications: Which Ones Matter?’, will take centre stage, offering clarity and actionable insights for manufacturers, brands, and suppliers.

As sustainability and transparency become critical pillars of the textiles industry, certifications have emerged as key tools for verifying environmentally conscious practices. However, with the rapid proliferation of different certifications, businesses face growing uncertainty about which ones genuinely add value. Performance Days aims to demystify this landscape by providing practical guidance on the certifications that align with current sustainability standards.

Under the theme Certifications: Which Ones Matter?, the Performance Days team is set to deliver a comprehensive approach to understanding certifications' roles in sustainable production. Developed in collaboration with Anna Schuster, Head of Sustainability at Performance Days, the initiative will include a guide detailing mandatory and optional sustainability standards. This guide reflects extensive research into the practices of retailers, wholesalers, and other industry stakeholders.

Key objectives of the initiative include:

- Supporting informed decisions: Empowering brands and suppliers to choose certifications that align with future-focused sustainability goals.

- Adapting to EU regulations: Helping participants anticipate and meet evolving regulatory requirements.

- Enhancing transparency: Presenting clear, accessible information on certification processes and data submission.

- Fostering collaboration: Building stronger relationships across the textile supply chain through shared knowledge and best practices.

- Beyond Certifications: A Holistic Approach

While certifications are crucial for ensuring transparency, Performance Days recognises their limitations. Certifications often focus narrowly on criteria such as material safety, labour conditions, or organic content, leaving broader environmental and social impacts unaddressed.

To bridge these gaps, Performance Days advocates for a more holistic approach:

- Supplementing certifications with tools like blockchain technology for improved traceability and declarations of conformity to highlight sustainable practices.

- Supporting smaller suppliers who may face financial barriers to certification through partnerships or alternative validation methods.

- Evolving standards to address emerging challenges like carbon emissions, circularity, and microplastics, while ensuring affordability and accessibility.

Setting a new industry standard

Performance Days is committed to helping the textiles industry achieve meaningful change. By addressing the nuances of certifications, the fair aims to empower participants to make informed, sustainable choices without being overwhelmed by the complexity of available standards.

The Focus Topic Certifications: Which Ones Matter will serve as a critical resource for manufacturers striving to balance environmental and social responsibility with the realities of production.

Save the date

Exhibition: March 5-6, 2025, Halls C4 and C5, Messe München

Day 0 Conference: March 4, 2025

www.performancedays.com