Shirtworks is Europe's first garment embroidery company to be awarded Soil Association accreditation

Oct. 15, 2009 - PRLog -- Shirtworks is delighted to announce that it has been awarded Soil Association accreditation. The certification dictates certain organic standards for both a range of organic garments as well as screen printing and embroidery processes. At the time of writing, Shirtworks is Europe's only certified organic garment embroidery company. The accreditation is recognition of Shirtworks' commitment to environmentally friendly methods of promotional garment production. For more information visit http://www.shirtworks.co.uk/making-tshirt-printing-greener.php or call 0800 0725334.

"We were thrilled to be awarded this accreditation, as providing environmentally friendly products for our customers is such a critical part of our company ethics," commented Arron Harnden, MD of Shirtworks. "The Soil Association accreditation provides a comprehensive set of organic principles that guide our work and standards. Therefore, whenever our customers need to ethically source a range of organic and Fairtrade t-shirts and sweat shirts, it is these standards that will give them confidence in the finished customised product as one of organic, ethical and environmentally friendly origin."

The rigorous requirements of the Soil Association certification involves the necessity for all organic products using Soil Association certified garments to be marked and tracked through the supplier chain and Shirtworks production and delivery. "They are subject to a quarantine procedure whereby they are kept separate from all other orders," explained Arron. "Shirtworks staff are made aware of organic orders in advance so any required surfaces can be prepared and packaged in organic bags (if required). They are then repacked in the same boxes used by our suppliers. Standard polythene bags are not used at any time and we have also reviewed all of our processes to recycle and reduce waste were possible."

In addition, all preparation and production surfaces are prepared using organic materials and liquids, screen printing uses only designated Soil Association approved inks, and embroidery is only carried out using Soil Association approved threads and backing products. "The criteria extend throughout our supply chain," Arron added. "We have committed to ensuring that no child labour is involved at any point in the entire supply and production chain, for example. It's great to be recognised for the implementation of ethical and environmental criteria that embody our core principles," Arron concluded.

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About Shirtworks

Shirtworks was founded in 1985 and is now a leading direct supplier of promotional clothing, corporate gifts and promotional merchandise with the capacity to print orders of any size. At the Shirtworks promotional clothing workshop, there are screenprinting machines capable of printing logos and designs up to 10 ink colours, and machines which can embroider logos up to 7 thread colours. Shirtworks also holds large stocks of the most popular garments, including products from Screenstars, Jerzees, Hanes, Kustom Kit, Beechfield and Result.

Shirtworks' promotional clothing clients range from local schools, companies and clubs to large national plcs, charities and promotional companies. Shirtworks has always been committed to providing good quality promotional products at competitive prices combined with a friendly and helpful service.