The sentence in a denim label's sustainability press release that the brand controls least is usually about someone else: the manufacturer that makes its jeans. Green claims in fashion often start as a supplier's words and reach shoppers in the brand's voice.
That hand-over matters more in the EU now. The European Commission says the Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition, which strengthens consumer protection rules against greenwashing, has applied since 27 September 2026. Its rules reach environmental claims, sustainability labels and claims about social characteristics made to shoppers, as the Commission's Q&A below explains.
A manufacturer's statement becomes your claim the moment you repeat it. So before you publish, agree three things with your manufacturer in writing: the exact sentence, its tense (practice or goal), and permission to name it.
For a PR lead, that sentence usually lives in the boilerplate at the foot of every release, the paragraph our press release guide says to keep free of unverifiable claims.
What your denim garment manufacturer does, and how its words reach your copy
A denim garment manufacturer produces a brand's own-label jeans (private label or OEM manufacturing): it buys denim and trims, samples each style, then cuts, sews, inspects and packs. Any brand that sells jeans it does not make itself needs one, and for that brand's PR lead the manufacturer is also the source of most facts about how the jeans are made.
Those facts usually arrive through the manufacturer's website, sales deck and emails, written for buyers. The UK Competition and Markets Authority's Green Claims Code says that where one business supplies products to another, both may be liable for claims and may have to substantiate them, which "may mean ensuring they obtain evidence from others in the supply chain." The European Commission's Q&A on the new rules says they are "strictly limited to B2C practices", so they apply once a line reaches shoppers; other EU instruments govern certain aspects of business-to-business practice.
A single jeans page can carry claims about three businesses: "organic cotton denim" is about the mill, "low-impact wash" is about the laundry, and "made at an audited factory" is about the garment maker. The CMA says a claim should make clear what it relates to, or consumers are likely to think it covers the whole product, so name the business each sentence is about.
Green claims in fashion: what the rules ask of a sentence about your jeans
- Vague words need specifics. The CMA says terms like "green", "sustainable" or "eco-friendly", especially without explanation, are likely to be read as claiming a positive environmental impact for the whole product or business. The Q&A says generic claims such as "eco-friendly", "green" or "climate friendly" are prohibited if "recognised excellent environmental performance" cannot be demonstrated, but a claim specified clearly and prominently on the same medium is not generic.
- Offset-based carbon claims are out. The Q&A says carbon-neutral claims on products that rest on offsetting are prohibited.
- Labels need a scheme behind them. The Q&A says displaying a sustainability label not based on a certification scheme, or not established by public authorities, is prohibited, and the CMA says self-declared marks are more likely to raise concerns. Keep statements about your manufacturer as plain sentences, and ask a legal adviser before designing any badge.
- Social claims count too. The Q&A says the amended rules now refer explicitly to social characteristics, which can relate, for example, to working conditions, and that "traders should be able to furnish evidence as to the accuracy of factual claims."
The Q&A gives the Commission services' preliminary views, and this section is general guidance, not legal advice.
Practice or goal? Keep your denim manufacturer's tense
Manufacturers often put present practice and ambitions in one paragraph, and the verb tells them apart: "calculates" describes now, "is working towards" and "is moving to" describe later. Cut down for a boilerplate, "working towards carbon neutrality" can turn into a finished fact: the overclaim.
- Present practice can be repeated as practice, attributed. "Our manufacturer calculates its carbon footprint every year" describes what it does now.
- A goal stays a goal. The CMA says claims about future goals should be used in marketing only if the business has "a clear and verifiable strategy to deliver them". For EU shoppers, the Q&A says claims about future environmental performance, including a transition to carbon or climate neutrality, are prohibited, on a case-by-case assessment, without a detailed and realistic implementation plan with measurable, time-bound targets, regularly verified by an independent third-party expert.
- A company goal is not a product claim. The CMA says wider environmental goals should be clearly distinguished from product-specific claims. A factory's carbon goal says nothing yet about a pair of jeans, and a wash or fabric claim needs its own specifics.
The claim ladder for jeans: what to agree before you print it
Seven jeans claims, and how far each can go:
| You want to say | Agree with your manufacturer first | Stays inside it | Goes beyond it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audit: "made at an audited factory" | Its exact audit sentence, and which site that covers | "Made at a factory audited through Sedex", if that factory made your jeans | Certification wording, "passed", or a badge or seal |
| Working conditions: "ethically made jeans" | Its own words on working conditions, and permission to quote them | A specific statement, attributed to it | "Ethically made" or "fair wages" as an unsupported verdict |
| Wash: "eco wash" | The exact wording for your style's wash, and whose statement it is | The specific process, named on the same page and attributed | "Eco wash" or "sustainable wash" on its own |
| Carbon: "carbon-neutral jeans" | What it measures, and how it words that | "Our manufacturer calculates its carbon footprint every year", if it does | A neutrality goal presented as reached, or "carbon-neutral jeans" based on offsetting |
| Energy: "made with renewable energy" | Whether the change is installed or planned, in its words | "Our manufacturer is moving to solar panel systems", worded as its goal (for EU shoppers, see "A goal stays a goal") | Describing the switch as finished |
| Materials: "sustainable denim" | Your fabric's attribute, and whose statement it is | The attribute, and who stands behind it | "Sustainable jeans" or "eco denim" on their own |
| Naming: "made by [manufacturer], a leading..." | Whether you may name it, and the exact descriptor | Its name plus a factual descriptor it has approved | Naming it without agreement, or adding "leading" |
On the audit row, Sedex's own answer is plain: "Sedex is not a certification scheme." It adds that its audit method gives no pass or fail. When a manufacturer's answer is vague, print the narrower claim.
How to choose a denim manufacturer whose claims you can repeat
If you will talk about your production, add one test to fit, quality, price and delivery: can you repeat the manufacturer's statements accurately? If you are comparing sustainable denim manufacturers, or any others, start with what they publish: statements that keep present practice apart from goals, and say which steps are outsourced, are easier to quote.
Then send each candidate these seven standard questions:
- What exact sentence may we print about your audit, and about which site?
- Which of your published statements describe what you do now, and which are goals?
- For each goal, what wording do you use, and may we quote it as your goal?
- What may we say about the fabric and the wash on our style, and in whose words?
- May we name you, and in which words?
- Who approves a sentence about you, and how quickly can they answer a journalist's fact-check?
- Who tells us when the evidence changes?
Prefer the manufacturer that answers in writing, keeps its goals worded as goals and agrees the sentence before you publish.
Worked example: wording a line about a real denim manufacturer
Urgan Textile (Urgan Tekstil), established in 1995, is a denim garment manufacturer based in Turkey. It works from a head office in Istanbul and a production facility in Kastamonu, making denim and non-denim garments for brands in Europe and worldwide.
Its org chart labels embroidery, print and laundry "outsource", while cutting and sewing sit in its own departments, so a line about jeans it makes can say "cut and sewn by Urgan", but any wash claim must name the wash as a partner's (ladder row 3).
What earns it a place here is its sustainability statement, which uses different verbs for the yearly practice ("calculate") and the goals ("strive towards", "actively pursuing").
- Practice: it calculates its carbon footprint every year, using specialized software and a team of experts. Repeat that as practice, attributed.
- Goals: it is working towards carbon neutrality and moving to solar panel systems. Repeat these only as its goals (question 3), and for EU shoppers only once you know the plan behind them (see "A goal stays a goal").
- A word to make specific: it says it offers "sustainable alternatives". Name the one chosen for your style, and whose statement it is.
Urgan's own audited denim garment manufacturer in Turkey page keeps the tenses apart the way this guide asks, answering "Not yet" to "Are you carbon neutral?", and it says a Sedex audit is not a certification.
A template, to use only once the manufacturer has approved the wording, agreed to be named and confirmed that "audited through Sedex" covers the site that cuts and sews your jeans (question 1):
Our jeans are cut and sewn by Urgan Textile, a denim garment manufacturer in Turkey that is audited through Sedex. Urgan Textile calculates its carbon footprint every year.
Two sentences keep "every year" attached to the footprint, not the audit. "Cut and sewn" keeps the outsourced wash out of the claim, and "in Turkey" locates the manufacturer rather than claiming product origin.
FAQ
Can our press release say "ethically made" because our manufacturer is audited?
Print what the audit supports instead: "made at a factory audited through Sedex", with the site confirmed. "Ethically made" is a verdict about working conditions, the Q&A's example of a social characteristic, and needs its own evidence.
Do we have to name our manufacturer?
No. If you do, agree the name and the exact words first (ladder row 7). Named or not, the claim itself still needs support.
How long is a Sedex audit valid for?
Sedex says audit frequency is determined by the buying and supplying companies in a supply chain, based on factors such as previous audit findings and inherent risk. So there is no single expiry date to quote. Date the claim, and re-check it at each boilerplate update or reported change (question 7).
What happens if a claim about our manufacturer turns out to be wrong?
The story can stall at verification, one reason a story never runs after a journalist says yes. If it has run, it may need a correction you do not control, and consumer authorities in the EU and UK can act on misleading claims. A smaller claim you can support beats a bigger one you cannot.
Get the sentence agreed before the next release
Put the seven questions to your manufacturer before the next release or product page, and file its written answers next to the claim. Considering Urgan Textile? Ask it which sentence about its audit and carbon work it would be happy for a brand to print, and compare that answer with the others. Then draft an editor-ready press release with PR Rush.
Disclosure: this guide was produced in collaboration with Urgan Textile, which appears here as the worked example.
