NSF International has released the new Global Traceable Down Standard (GTDS) based on Patagonia's proprietary 100% Traceable Down Standard, which both organization say is more stringent than one being promoted by a consortium led by The North Face.
NSF and Patagonia contend GTDS is the strongest public, animal welfare standard available to companies that use duck or goose down because it reaches back a step further into the supply chain to ensure the parents of the birds harvested for down are also not live plucked or force fed. Ensuring birds are treated humanely is a huge challenge because geese farmers earn the overwhelming majority of their money selling the birds for meat. Practically speaking, it requires training and auditing hundreds of small farmers in Eastern Europe and China as well as the facilities that gather and process down to ensure non-compliant down does enter the supply chain.
Patagonia has been striving for 100 percent traceable down for years but the goal became more urgent in 2010 when animal rights groups in Europe reported the brand's vendors were supplying it down from live plucked birds despite assurances to the contrary. Patagonia responded by changing vendors and committing to developing its own 100 percent traceable supply chain. Last fall, it became the first outdoor brand to claim that all the down used in its products could be traced to farms that that neither live plucked or force fed birds.
The North Face consortium, however, pushed Patagonia out of the spotlight by bringing its Responsible Down Standard (RDS) to market first. Since RDS was launched at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2014, H&M, Eddie Bauer, Marmot, Mammut, Montane, Helly Hansen, Outdoor Research, DownLinens, Down & Feather Co. have adopted it. Although most of those companies have not converted their entire product lines to the standard, they have garnered a publicity windfall.
It was unknown last week, how many brands were lining up to embrace the Global Traceable Down Standard, which NSF says “moves beyond current industry programs to include the full lifecycle of waterfowl and more fully protect all birds in the supply chain.”
NSF International’s Sustainability division will provide independent third-party auditing and certification services for product manufacturers to this standard following publication this month.
