The International OEKO-TEX Association, a global leader in textile product and facility certifications, announced at TexWorld USA the introduction of MySTeP, a robust, secure database application that houses a textile product manufacturer’s information related to its sustainable operations.
MySTeP complements the STeP by OEKO-TEX certification, a comprehensive certification program for brands, retailers, and manufacturers from all sectors of the textile supply chain who want to validate their sustainable production in a transparent, credible, and clear manner that is consistent country to country.
Dr. Jean-Pierre Haug, General Secretary of the International OEKO-TEX Association, unveiled the latest OEKO-TEX innovation last week at a Texworld USA event attended by brands, retailers, and textile product manufacturers from around the world. “We were very pleased by our guests’ positive response to MySTeP,” he said. “MySTeP has been designed specifically for the textile products industry and they clearly recognize and appreciate the benefits of that focus.”
Beatriz Bayo Gonzalez, Deputy Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility at Mango, added her praise for the new MySTeP management tool. “Sustainability is very important to our company and to our customers. MySTeP will make it easier to manage our complicated supply chain and, equally important, MySTeP will make it easier for our many partners around the world to work with Mango. It’s a beneficial tool for our entire supply chain and will help us all operate more responsibly and considerately.”
The MySTeP database facilitates private, confidential communication between customers and suppliers, ensures that compliance data and other certifications are complete and up to date, and helps facility operators more easily manage the many components of a comprehensive sustainable production strategy that is both environmentally and socially responsible. Via the supplier dashboard feature, MySTeP provides a simple overview of a company’s textile supply chain and the manufacturers that define it.
The MySTeP dashboard can also be customized with benchmarks key to particular aspects of a company’s sustainability strategy as well as features to track the supply chain’s performance against them and other key performance indicators. The new OEKO-TEX API (Application Program Interface) further aids communication and data sharing via portals and cloud-based vendor management platforms.
“Communication, goal-sharing, and access to timely, accurate information are critical aspects for any company’s successful sustainability strategy,” says Tricia Carey of Lenzing, whose fibers have been OEKO-TEX certified for many years. “I applaud OEKO-TEX for creating a sustainability certification and a very useful management tool that helps textile product companies and their suppliers collaborate more effectively.”
OEKO-TEX also offers the globally respected OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification for textile products that are tested to be free from harmful levels of more than 300 potentially dangerous substances such as residual pesticides, carcinogenic dyestuffs, heavy metals like lead, and formaldehyde.
