STUTTGART – The organisation behind the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) has created an independent charitable foundation as part of a major overhaul of its governance structure. The newly established Global Standards Foundation has become the sole shareholder of the organisation responsible for operating GOTS, which has been renamed Global Standards gGmbH.
Global Standards said the new structure would strengthen its organisational independence and provide long-term oversight of its voluntary sustainability standards and related programmes.
A nine-member Governing Council has been established as the foundation’s strategic governing body. It will oversee the direction and ongoing management of Global Standards gGmbH.
The council includes four independent experts, representatives connected to each of the four organisations that originally established GOTS, and an independent chair. Members serve in a personal capacity and bring experience in sustainability, certification, finance, governance and public policy.
The inaugural council includes Pietro Bertazzi, chief policy, projects and interim growth officer at environmental disclosure organisation CDP, and James Cashmore, former managing director of the Soil Association. Other members include Organic Trade Association co-chief executive Tom Chapman; former Fairtrade International chair Laurence Tanty; Japan Organic Cotton Association chair Tsuyoshi Maeda; and Nicole Pälicke, director of People Wear Organic and a board member at German natural textiles association IVN.
Christian Berg, a former chief sustainability architect at SAP, and Georg Schürmann, a former managing director of Triodos Bank Germany, have also joined. Herbert Ladwig, policy and legal adviser to Global Standards gGmbH, is the council’s founding chair.
GOTS emerged from work begun in 2002 by four founding organisations: IVN, the Japan Organic Cotton Association, the Organic Trade Association and the Soil Association. The standard was formally established in 2006, with the first certification completed that year.
The governance changes come as Global Standards expands from an organisation focused primarily on organic textiles into a multi-standard operation. Alongside GOTS, it now operates the Global Responsible Textile Standard (GRTS), which was introduced in 2026 to extend the GOTS certification framework to a wider range of responsibly produced fibres.
GRTS applies environmental, chemical management, human rights, social, traceability and certification requirements across textile processing and manufacturing. It uses the same certification infrastructure as GOTS and allows companies covered by both standards to combine certification activities into a single audit.
The foundation, established under German law, will provide long-term stewardship of Global Standards gGmbH and its activities. The organisation currently employs around 50 people worldwide.
