The revised bluesign Criteria and Scheme are open for public consultation

What is open for consultation

The revision covers the normative documents that define how companies and products are evaluated in the bluesign System. Five are open for comment, grouped by the step they apply to.

Company assessment

• bluesign Criteria for processing chemical products, for chemical suppliers
• bluesign Criteria for processing articles and B2B consumer products, for material suppliers and assemblers
• bluesign Criteria for processing B2C consumer products, for brands
• Requirement sheet by process (Excel), showing which company assessment requirements apply to which processes

The requirement sheet lets you filter the company assessment requirements to the processes your company actually runs. Comments still go through the consultation form.

Product registration

• bluesign Criteria for bluepass Products, covering chemical products, articles, and consumer products

Product certification (consumer-facing products only)

• bluesign Scheme for consumer-facing bluepass Products, for conformity assessment bodies

Why the Criteria are being revised

“bluesign is revising our Criteria to align with evolving regulations, scientific advancements, and market expectations, so they continue to drive meaningful environmental and social improvements in the textile and chemical industries. The public stakeholder consultation is a critical step in ensuring our revised Criteria reflect the real-world challenges and opportunities faced by brands, assemblers, material and chemical suppliers, and other stakeholders across the value chain.”

– Daniel Waterkamp, Head of bluesign Academy

The Criteria are now consolidated into a smaller, clearer set of documents, with simpler language and fewer levels of requirement. Four levels of requirement have been replaced by two, requirements and recommendations, and each requirement now lines up with the question an assessor asks on site. Certification process requirements are separated into their own Scheme document.

bluesign also benchmarked the Criteria against the regulations and reporting frameworks our customers already face, and closed the gaps. Guidance sheets and guidelines become Technical Guidance. They stay available, but requirements have been extracted from them, so they are no longer normative.

What is new in the draft

The drafts introduce new topics and expand existing ones. At a high level:

• For chemical suppliers, material suppliers, and assemblers: new topics across sustainability management, ecodesign, social responsibility, supply chain assurance, climate, and water stewardship, together with revised wastewater and air emission requirements.
• For material suppliers and assemblers: additions to product stewardship, including a PFAS phase-out strategy, microplastic shedding assessment, and packaging compliance.
• For brands: new topics covering sustainability management, management systems, and due diligence, with expanded requirements on supply network, product stewardship, and impact management.
• For product registration: simplified and updated modules for chemical products, including product carbon footprint as a sustainability attribute.

These are drafts. Every requirement and recommendation in them can still change based on the feedback we receive.

A new step: product certification for consumer-facing products

The draft introduces product certification as an additional step for consumer-facing registered products, on top of company assessment and product registration.

bluesign does not conduct it. Certification of consumer-facing bluepass Products is conducted by an independent, accredited conformity assessment body, legally and organizationally separate from bluesign. The independent conformity assessment body certifying consumer-facing bluepass Products is accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, the international standard for bodies certifying products, processes, and services. The bluesign Scheme is aligned with ISO/IEC 17067.

This is why the Scheme has its own consultation form. It is written for conformity assessment bodies, and the questions it raises are different from the ones the Criteria raise.

How to comment

There are two forms. One covers the four bluesign Criteria documents. The other covers the bluesign Scheme. Both close on Friday, 30 October 2026.

• Comment on the bluesign Criteria
• Comment on the bluesign Scheme

You do not need to comment on everything. A comment on a single requirement is useful. The most valuable ones name a specific clause and explain the practical consequence: where a requirement is unclear, where the evidence asked for would be difficult to produce, where a limit or timeline does not match how production actually runs, or where something important is missing.

Two of the seven EmpCo requirements for certification schemes are that requirements are publicly available, and set in consultation with relevant experts and stakeholders. A scheme that asks System Partner companies to substantiate their claims should be willing to open its own to scrutiny.

What happens next

The consultation closes on 30 October 2026. bluesign Academy reviews every submission and updates the documents. Final publication is planned for Q4 2026, followed by a general transition period of one year. Assessments carried out after the transition period ends will be based on the new documents.

The Criteria currently in force remain valid until the final publication of the revised documents. For our System Partner companies, nothing changes. Existing certifications remain valid, and assessment and product registration continue as they are.

Questions

System Partner companies can contact their assigned bluesign contact. Anyone else can write to info@bluesign.com.

Read the documents and send us your comments before Friday, 30 October 2026.