Textile products: apparel, sleeping bags, rucksacks and pack/luggage accessories, climbing harness, tents, ropes, gloves, gaiters, belts, hammocks, plus other textile products
Footwear products: high- and mid-cut boots, approach and running shoes, and sandals
Hard goods products: helmets, climbing devices/equipment and non-textile components on climbing equipment, tent poles and pegs, walking poles, outdoor accessories (lighting, cooking, eating and hydration etc), skis and snowboards, ski and snowboard boots
Customers
There is an increasing demand from customers to understand more about the products they purchase. This includes information about material composition, preferred materials, country of origin, working conditions under which a product was made and in the future the impact a product has on various environmental aspects, measured via a Life CycleAssessment (LCA).
Legislator
Multiple European laws will oblige companies to report on product sustainability data. This could include aspects like preferred materials, repairability and durability.
Via the SDEX template, Brands can share product related sustainability data (Textile-, Footwear-, Hardgoods Tab) and company related sustainability data (Brand Tab, Climate Tab). Usually, product data is shared twice a year (see below), while company data is shared only once a year to minimise the effort for retailers and brands.
With regard to the product level, there are two possible moments throughout the year to exchange sustainability data, depending on whether it is viewed as part of the ordering data or the product content data.
Please speak to your retail partner about their preferred timeline.
Ordering Data
If the data is part of the ordering data, the sustainability data should be exchanged about 8-10 months before the season. For example, for SS 2025 the data would need to be exchange in Juli – September 2024.
Content Data
If the data is part of the product content data, the sustainability data should be exchanged about 2-4 months before the season. For example, for SS2025 the data would need to be exchange in January- March 2025
The completed SDEX questionnaire is to be directly transferred directly between brands and their retail partners.
If the file is too large to add as an attachment and email directly, we recommend using an online file transfer platform, for example WeTransfer.
1. General points
We recommend filling in the SDEX to the best of your ability. It is not unusual that not all data points can be filled in. Please consider the SDEX to be at aspirational level.
Start with the brand and climate tab. Every brand should be able to fill this information in.
We are aware that product/material composition data is often not readily available. We recommend brands to make a start and fill out those attributes that they have available.
To prevent errors and maintain standard data collection, SDEX contains a function that indicates when an incorrect/unaccepted value is entered into a cell. When this happens, the cell will turn red. As such, if when filling in the SDEX questionnaire the cells turn red, please check entries are correctly formatted, and/or contained in dropdown lists where applicable.
If you need to copy or cut information from the SDEX questionnaire, please note that using the keyboard shortcut ‘Ctrl-x’ (cut) is not possible with sheet protection activated. To copy from the SDEX questionnaire, please use the keyboard shortcut ‘Ctrl-c’ (copy).
2. Component & materials structure
The SDEX component structure does not fit our internal component structure?
Since there is little to no standardisation in product components, we are aware of this. We recommend brand to take a decision about how to best fit their internal components to the SDEX components and continue this throughout the season.
For textile products we recommend using the data as it is listed on the care label. This is compliant with the textile labelling regulation and should be readily available.
The SDEX does not give enough spaces for all the materials in a component and/or not enough spaces for raw materials/fibres in a material blend.
The number of fields the SDEX offers is a compromise. Adding fields for all raw materials a product contains, would lead to an overload of information. We are recommending the brands to make an informed decision about what they consider the main material(s)/raw materials of a fabric blend and fill this information in.
3. Certifications
The certification is issued for my material blend, consisting of several raw materials/fibres types?
Please indicate the certification next to each raw material/fibres it applies to, meaning you must fill in the same certification multiple times.
Can I add copies/evidence of my certifications to the SDEX questionnaire?
No, unfortunately not. We are aware that the exchange of certifications is a huge challenge within the industry but had to exclude this point from the scope of SDEX project.
The certification is a certification for the chain of custody, making it difficult to list the correct certification number to each individual product at the point of ordering?
Please speak to you retail partner about the timeline for the data exchange (see “When to exchange sustainability data?”).
Is SDEX asking for Scope or Transaction Certificates?
This is not predefined as it depends on what is needed and available. We recommend speaking to your retail partners or decide in favour of one or the other and then communicate this to your retail partners.
4. Chemical Attributes – General Recommendation
We are asking brands to use chemical attributes only if they want to make a specific claim about the product. For example: a rain jacket could be indicated as“PFC-free”.
Please leave the space blank or use the “n/a” option for products where such a claim would be non-sensical. For example: a cotton t-shirt would be left blank or“n/a”, since the chemical attributes do not apply to this product.
*Publication date: 05.07.2024
*Updated 28.04.2025
