Is owned and managed by Textile Exchange.
Was developed through an open and transparent process led by Textile Exchange and a multi-stakeholder group which included representatives from across the industry and different sectors, including animal welfare groups, industry organizations, supply chain members, brands and area experts.
Is an international, voluntary standard that addresses animal welfare in the duck and geese supply chain and chain of custody of down and feather material from certified farms to the final products.
Aims to ensure that down and feathers come from animals that have not been subject to an unnecessary harm.
Can be used to reward and influence the down and feather industry to incentivize practices that respect the humane treatment of ducks and geese.
The goals of the Responsible Down Standard (RDS) are to:
- Ensure to the highest possible extent that down and feathers do not come from animals in a supply chain that have been subjected to any unnecessary harm.
- Reward and influence the down and feather industry for practices that respect the humane treatment of ducks and geese.
- Education and development of the supply chain in order to drive continuous improvement of best practices.
- Provide companies with a tool to know what is in their products, and to make accurate claims.
- Ensure strong chain of custody for certified materials as they move through the supply chain
Scope of Responsible Down Standard (RDS):
- RDS requires all sites to be certified, beginning at the farm and slaughterhouse, processing of down or feather, assembly of the final products, through to the seller in the final business-to-business transaction.
- Farms and slaughterhouses are certified to strict animal welfare requirements.
- Subsequent stages of the down supply chain are required to be certified against the requirements of the Content Claim Standard (CCS) up to the seller in the last business-to-business transaction. Facilities are certified to the standard, and each shipment of goods must be accompanied by a transaction certificate (TC).
- When requesting RDS certified products, a TC will ensure that the down and feather material came from certified farms.
- RDS may be applied globally.
- Applies to supply chain sites of down and feather material from waterfowl only.
- Materials collected from wild birds are ineligible for certification.
- Recycled down is ineligible for certification.
- The Standard applies to products that contain at least 5% RDS material, calculated as a percentage of the down or feather material.
If you are interested in certifying your project under this program, click on the following link https://certifications.controlunion.com/icu/cert-tex-application/index.html, complete the requested information and one of our commercial representatives will contact you. Contact or write to us at the following e-mail comercial.peru@controlunion.com
See the link for the process flow (RDS Link)
You can find Certification General Rules and Textile Certification Rules in this website under Terms and Conditions: https://peru.controlunion.com/en/terms-conditions
Documents:
RDS Standard (Responsible Down Standard) versión 3.0: https://textileexchange.org/knowledge-center/documents/responsible-down-standard-rds/
Logo Use Specification: https://textileexchange.org/app/uploads/2020/10/TE-302-V1.2-Standards-Logo-Use-Specifications.pdf
