Method
What you get here that you do not get elsewhere.
Six commitments. Each one is a constraint on what can be published, not a description of intent — and each one is checkable against any page on this site.
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Every figure carries its source and the date it was checked
Not "studies show". The certifying body’s own document, the regulation itself, or the study — linked, with a verification date on the page. If the date is old, you can see that it is old.
Why it matters
Because the most common way a sustainability figure becomes wrong is not fabrication. It is a true number from a superseded version of a document, repeated long after the document changed.
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The gaps are named instead of filled
Where the published material does not answer a question, the field reads unverified and the question is listed. Nothing is estimated into place to make a table look complete.
Why it matters
A complete-looking table is worth less than an honest one. An estimate that reads like a finding is the single failure mode this reference exists to avoid.
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What each mark does not cover is stated as plainly as what it does
OEKO-TEX does not assess environmental impact. GOTS does not assess carbon footprint. FSC does not cover textile processing chemistry.
Why it matters
That column is the one that decides whether a claim is defensible. Citing a chemical-safety mark as evidence of a carbon claim is how a true statement becomes an indefensible one.
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Qualifications travel with the numbers
Hemp uses 38% or 91% less water than cotton depending on which water you count. Both figures are real. The qualifier is never dropped in the retelling.
Why it matters
Quoting the larger figure without its qualifier converts a defensible claim into an unsubstantiated one, and the regulator tests the claim as the reader understood it.
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Corrections are logged in public, with dates
When something here is wrong it is fixed openly and the change is recorded — what it said before, what it says now, and when it changed.
Why it matters
Nothing is edited silently, which means you can tell what changed since you last relied on it. The full procedure is in the editorial policy.
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Nothing is ranked, sponsored or sold
No certifier, lab or brand pays to appear. These standards measure different things, so there is no "best" — only what you need to establish, and which mark establishes it.
Why it matters
Ranking compresses a judgement that belongs to the reader, and the compression always serves whoever did the ranking.
The version with the procedures in it
This page is the summary. The editorial and corrections policy has the four-tier source hierarchy, the correction clock, the conflict rules and the right of reply — the parts you would need to hold the site to any of the above.