GOTS Certification & the Digital Product Passport: What to Enter and Where

GOTS — the Global Organic Textile Standard — is the most widely recognised certification for organic textiles worldwide. With the EU's Digital Product Passport (DPP) mandate approaching, brands carrying GOTS certification need to understand exactly how that certificate maps into the DPP data structure. This guide focuses on the practical data entry, not the certification process itself.

GOTS and ESPR: Why They Align

The EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) requires Digital Product Passports to disclose material composition, production origin, certifications, and harmful substance compliance for textile products. GOTS certification addresses several of these requirements simultaneously:

• It verifies that at least 70% (GOTS Grade 2) or 95% (GOTS Grade 1) of fibres are certified organic
• It covers the entire processing chain — spinning, knitting/weaving, dyeing, finishing — with environmental and social criteria
• It restricts the use of harmful substances throughout production, directly supporting the ESPR's harmful substances disclosure requirement

In short, a valid GOTS certificate is one of the most comprehensive pieces of evidence a textile brand can present in a DPP. The challenge is knowing where each element of that certificate goes.

The Two GOTS Certificate Types

GOTS issues certificates to processors and manufacturers (Scope Certificates) and to individual product batches (Transaction Certificates). Both are relevant to a complete DPP:

• Scope Certificate (SC): Issued to your supplier or factory. Proves that the facility is approved to process GOTS-certified fibre. This maps to the Supply Chain section of the DPP — the supplier name and country where the certified processing occurred.
• Transaction Certificate (TC): Issued for a specific shipment of GOTS-certified goods. This is the certificate number you enter in the DPP's Certification Scheme field, because it directly ties the certificate to the product batch.

Mapping GOTS Data to DPP Fields

Here is how each piece of GOTS certification information maps to epassportify's product wizard:

Step 2 — Materials

Enter the organic fibre as a material row. For a 100% GOTS Grade 1 jersey:

• Component: Main Fabric
• Material: Cotton
• Percentage: 100%
• Is Renewable: Yes (organic cotton qualifies as a renewable natural fibre)

If the product is GOTS Grade 2 (minimum 70% organic), add the non-organic portion as a separate material row with the remaining percentage.

Step 3 — Supply Chain

Add the GOTS-certified processing facility as a supplier entry. Include the supplier name and country. This documents which facility in your supply chain holds the Scope Certificate — a key audit trail for ESPR compliance.

Step 4 — Compliance

• Certification Scheme: Enter "GOTS" (Global Organic Textile Standard) and specify the grade if relevant (Grade 1 or Grade 2).
• Certificate Number: Enter the Transaction Certificate number for this product batch. GOTS TC numbers follow the format issued through the GOTS database and can be verified publicly at global-standard.org.
• Harmful Substances Declaration: GOTS prohibits a defined list of restricted substances throughout the supply chain. You can reference GOTS compliance here as supporting evidence for the harmful substances declaration — for example: "All substances comply with GOTS Annex 6 prohibited and restricted substances list per certificate [TC number]."

GOTS Grade 1 vs Grade 2 in the DPP

GOTS Grade 1 ("organic") requires at least 95% certified organic fibres. GOTS Grade 2 ("made with organic materials") requires at least 70%. This distinction matters for the DPP's material composition section — the exact percentage of organic fibre must be entered accurately, not rounded to 100% when a non-organic portion exists. ESPR's anti-greenwashing provisions specifically target imprecise recycled or organic content claims.

Expired Certificates and the Variant System

GOTS certificates expire annually and must be renewed. When a batch is produced under a newly issued TC for the same product, create a new variant in epassportify. The new variant carries the updated certificate number. Previous batches' QR codes continue to resolve to the original variant data — preserving accurate historical records without modifying past entries.

What GOTS Does Not Cover in the DPP

GOTS is a comprehensive standard, but it does not cover everything the ESPR requires in a DPP:

• Microplastics information: GOTS applies to natural organic fibres, so synthetic microplastic shedding is generally not relevant for GOTS-certified products. However, if the product contains any non-GOTS synthetic trim (e.g., a nylon zip), the microplastics field should reflect this.
• Care instructions: GOTS does not specify care instructions — these must be entered separately in the Compliance step.
• Take-back and repair information: These sustainability fields are independent of GOTS and must be completed based on your brand's own programmes.

Conclusion

GOTS certification is one of the strongest foundations for building a compliant Digital Product Passport. The organic fibre percentage, processing facility, and transaction certificate number each map cleanly to specific DPP fields. By structuring this data correctly in epassportify — rather than attaching a PDF — brands transform their existing GOTS investment into verifiable, machine-readable compliance evidence ready for EU market requirements.