ZDHC certification and testing programs

The textile and leather industries face growing pressure to reduce their environmental impact and enhance the sustainability of their supply chains. The Greenpeace Detox campaign calls for the complete elimination of hazardous chemicals from textile and leather supply chains, and their replacement with safer alternatives.

In response to this campaign, the Joint Roadmap toward Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) emerged to help organisations meet their hazardous chemical reduction goals. TÜV SÜD provides comprehensive services to help organisations in the textile, leather, garment, and footwear industries to make progress towards these goals.

ZDHC certification and testing can help you increase your compliance with environmental and occupational safety standards. You will be able to minimise the negative impacts of your processes on the environment. You will also be able to reduce the potential negative effects on human health from hazardous chemicals.

This testing process has some key challenges. Firstly, it can be difficult to trace the supply chain. Secondly, once you have identified hazardous chemicals, it can be difficult to phase them out because of a lack of knowledge of the supply chain, or high cost. A trusted and reliable partner such as TÜV SÜD can help you overcome both these challenges.

As an official contributor to the ZDHC Program, TÜV SÜD can provide certification of compliance with the ZDHC Program’s Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MSRL). We also provide testing, training and on-site assessment services to help reduce the discharge of hazardous chemicals into wastewater.

Our worldwide network of experts on ZDHC services ensures that you benefit from our global expertise, local experience, and reach through our network of labs. Our state-of-the-art facilities span the major sourcing locations and have advanced equipment.

We have a comprehensive suite of services – Our test laboratories offer a complete range of chemical testing services along with performance, safety, and regulatory testing. We can customise our solutions to your specific needs, helping you achieve your ZDHC objectives within your supply chain. 

Our market access teams keep a constant watch on the change in global regulations, standards, and requirements from time to time. This will help you keep up with ever-changing regulatory requirements and fulfil them.

Besides our services for chemical management, we can support you with other related sustainability projects. These may include CF verifications, energy efficiency, ESG Auditing programs, sustainable products and materials verifications, recycled content verification, eco-design compliance programs, and many more.

We test and certify based on the Roadmap to Zero programme which is organised into three focus areas:

• Input – Guide the industry to adopt safer chemicals with the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (ZDHC MRSL). Tools include the ZDHC Gateway-Chemical Module, the ZDHC ChemCheck^TM, and the ZDHC InCheck^TM Report.
• Process – Enable good chemical management practices by creating harmonised guidelines and providing the tools to implement within the value chain.
• Output – Verify input and process with the ZDHC wastewater guidelines, including the ZDHC Wastewater Module and ZDHC ClearStream report.

Input phase

Chemical formulation testing according to ZDHC MRSL v3.0 and certificates for Level 1, Level 2, Level 3
There are three levels of ZDHC MRSL Conformance. ZDHC MRSL Conformance Levels 1-3 provide suppliers & customers with an assurance that this requirement would be met consistently as they go from Level 1 to 3. More details are available at higher levels of ZDHC MRSL Conformance, which demonstrates a continuous production of chemical formulations.

Requirements for ZDHC MRSL Conformance levels: 

• Level 1 – Document review of SDS for information relevant to ZDHC MRSL and testing of the formulation which includes screening and analytical testing or only analytical testing.
• Level 2 – On-site assessment of management systems plus evidence that Level 1 principles of analytical evaluation for ZDHC MRSL conformance are fulfilled.
• Level 3 – Chemical hazard assessment capability plus evidence that Level 1 and Level 2 principles for ZDHC MRSL conformance are fulfilled.

Process phase

• On-site chemical management audits – To evaluate the supply chain and make sure the best practices and ZDHC guidelines are applied.
• ZDHC InCheck level 1 verifications – To establish the reliability of the supplier's chemical inventory. TUV SUD's level 1 InCheck report verification service for textile, garment and footwear facilities is designed to ensure fast, transparent and reliable processes. This helps to establish trust and credibility of facility claims, providing assurance to stakeholders throughout the supply chain.

Output phase

• Wastewater testing, sampling and pre-sampling coordination
• Wastewater plant technical advisory testing for improvement

Training

• ZDHC trainings – We offer a variety of training courses to assist organizations in understanding and implementing standards and ZDHC chemical regulations.
• Technical Industry Guidance (TIG) trainings
• Digital training for ETP operator LEVEL 1