The International Oeko-Tex Association is to present ‘Sustainability and Value Creation in Textiles’ at the Synthetic Yarn & Fiber Association 2010 Spring Conference to be held 20-21 April at the Sheraton Airport Plaza in Charlotte, NC.  The SYFA conference theme is ‘Fibers and Textiles for a New Decade’.

Dina Dunn, who oversees the Oeko-Tex marketing efforts in North America, will present an overview of the Oeko-Tex fibre and textile certifications and the importance of those third-party validations to textile manufacturers, brands, and retailers in the US.

The most well known of Oeko-Tex’s certificates is the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 which guarantees that fibres and textile products are tested to be free from harmful levels of more than 100 substances that are believed to be harmful to humans. The Oeko-Tex Standard 1000 certifies the manufacturing process with respect to environmental and social impact.

“Sustainability is a complex equation, especially in the fibre and textile industry,” says Dunn. “Oeko-Tex is committed to helping manufacturers provide fibres and textiles that meet some of the highest safety and environmental standards in the world.”

More than 100 industry insiders will be in attendance. Discussions are expected to centre around the mechanisms by which the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 can help create value throughout the apparel and home textile supply chain, reaching all the way to the consumer.

For more information on the SYFA 2010 Spring Conference, go to the SYFA site at http://thesyfa.org/emailspring10.pdf

For more information on Oeko-Tex certification, visit www.oeko-tex.com

The International Oeko-Tex Association, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, was founded in 1992 by the Austrian Textile Research Institute and the German Hohenstein Research Institutes. Currently, its membership includes 14 independent textile research and testing institutes with offices in over 40 countries.

To date, more than 87,000 Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificates and more than 10,000 in 2009 alone, have been issued and 9000 companies in 91 countries are working with Oeko-Tex to ensure that their products are tested for potentially harmful substances. The association also offers the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000 certification for environmentally and socially responsible textile manufacturing facilities. For more information, visit the website at www.Oeko-Tex.com