Carbon-neutral textile manufacturing is a claim, not a process: a mill can call itself carbon neutral only for a stated subject and period, after it has measured that subject’s carbon footprint, cut it under a written plan, and retired carbon credits for whatever remains. The international rule for that claim is now ISO 14068:2026, which replaced ISO 14068-1:2023 in September 2026. In the EU, from 27 September 2026, a claim that a product is carbon neutral because of offsets is banned in consumer marketing, whatever standard sits behind it.
This page sets out the sequence the standard requires, in the order a mill does the work, runs one invented dyehouse through a base year and a reporting year in the site’s carbon footprint calculator, counts the credits left to retire, and then says what that mill may claim, to whom, and where the claim stops counting.
ISO 14068-1 is now ISO 14068:2026
ISO’s catalogue entry for ISO 14068-1:2023 marks it withdrawn and points to its revision, the first edition of ISO 14068, dated September 2026. ISO withdrew ISO 14068-1:2023 on 11 September 2026; ISO 14068:2026 replaced it, changing only the title and the part number. The new foreword calls it a minor revision. Its title is now “Climate change management — Carbon neutrality”, without the earlier “Transition to net zero — Part 1”. A verification or management plan written against ISO 14068-1:2023 therefore needs its references updated, not its substance; BSI has adopted the new edition as BS ISO 14068:2026.
PAS 2060, BSI’s earlier specification for demonstrating carbon neutrality, is gone. BSI’s catalogue records PAS 2060:2014 as withdrawn on 1 December 2025, and BSI’s transition notice set the run-down: BSI stopped delivering PAS 2060 verification on 1 January 2025, and every PAS 2060 verification was to be finished by 31 December 2025. An opinion already issued under PAS 2060 stays valid for the period it covered; a claim for a later period has no PAS 2060 to rest on.
What carbon-neutral textile manufacturing requires under ISO 14068
The standard applies to organizations and to products, not to territories (clause 1). It sets a hierarchy: cutting emissions, direct and indirect, and enhancing removals within the value chain come before offsetting. Its definition of carbon neutral (3.1.1) has three parts: a footprint for a specified period, reduced by those actions, and only then, if still above zero, counterbalanced by offsetting. Credits must meet the criteria of its clause 11 and are used only after the reductions set out in the carbon neutrality management plan. Offsetting means retiring credits, finally in a public registry, so that they cannot be used or traded again (3.3.1). The standard is programme neutral: if a buyer’s or a government’s programme applies, its rules come on top (clause 1).
| Clause | Step | What a mill keeps as evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Commitment to carbon neutrality | A dated commitment from management naming the subject and the target year |
| 7 | Subject and boundary | Which legal entity or sites (an organization), or which fabric and life-cycle stages (a product) |
| 8 | Quantify emissions and removals | Fuel receipts, twelve electricity bills, the factors used and their editions, the base period figure |
| 9 | Carbon neutrality management plan | Reduction targets with dates, the projects that deliver them, and when the plan is reviewed |
| 10 | Reductions and removal enhancements | Before-and-after metering for each project, quantified against the base period |
| 11 | Offset what remains | Registry retirement records naming the mill, the period and the number of credits |
| 12 | Carbon neutrality report | The report that ties the footprint, the reductions and the retirements together |
| 13 | Carbon neutrality claim | The claim itself, and the evidence behind it |
The right-hand column is this site’s reading of what each step produces at a mill, not the standard’s text. The standard names ISO 14064-3, the verification standard, as a normative reference (clause 2). The detailed rules for credits (11.2 and 11.3) and for claims (clause 13) are in the paid text and are not public, so a mill should read those clauses, with its verifier if it uses one, before it commits to wording.
Which emissions count: organization or product
For an organization, the footprint is the one ISO 14064-1 produces: direct emissions plus indirect emissions, and the boundary takes in the significant indirect emissions that follow from the organization’s activities (3.2.4, 3.2.16). A gate-to-gate Scope 1 and Scope 2 total is therefore not the whole footprint of a mill that buys dyes, chemicals and freight in quantity. For a product, the footprint is a life-cycle figure under ISO 14067, over the full or a partial life cycle (3.1.1, 3.2.4).
| Scope | What it covers | At a dyeing and finishing mill |
|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | Direct emissions from sources the mill owns or controls | Coal, gas or oil in the boiler and thermic fluid heater; diesel in the genset and the mill’s own trucks |
| Scope 2 | Indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam or heat | Grid electricity for jets, stenters, compressors, humidification and the effluent plant |
| Scope 3 | Other indirect emissions in the value chain | Dyes and chemicals bought, greige fabric where the mill buys it, inbound and outbound freight, sludge and waste disposal |
Worked example: one dyehouse, a base year and a reporting year
The mill is invented. It dyes and finishes knit fabric, 24,000 kg a day for 330 days (7,920 tonnes a year), and its subject is the organization. The base period is FY 2025-26. Grid electricity is multiplied by 0.675 kg of CO2 per kWh, India’s FY 2025-26 average as the site’s grid emission factors by country guide sets out (Central Electricity Authority, CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0), and the factor is held constant in both years so that the change is the mill’s own. Coal is multiplied by the calculator’s default of 2.42 tonnes of CO2 per tonne, its bituminous coal figure; a verifier uses the mill’s tested coal instead.
Between the two years the mill carries out two projects from its management plan. Condensate recovery and insulation of the steam mains cut coal by 12%, from 9 to 7.92 tonnes a day. Rooftop solar used on site, plus drives on the jet and stenter fans, cut grid purchases by 20%, from 20,000 to 16,000 kWh a day. Solar consumed behind the meter never appears on the bill, so it enters the calculator only as lower grid purchases.
| Run | Grid electricity, kWh a day | Coal, tonnes a day | Scope 2, tonnes CO2 a day | Scope 1, tonnes CO2 a day | kg CO2 per kg of fabric | Tonnes CO2 a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Run 1: base period, FY 2025-26 | 20,000 | 9 | 13.50 | 21.78 | 1.47 | 11,642 |
| Run 2: reporting period, FY 2026-27 | 16,000 | 7.92 | 10.80 | 19.17 | 1.25 | 9,889 |
Run 1 in the calculator gives the base period: 11,642 tonnes of CO2 a year. Run 2 gives the reporting period: 9,889 tonnes, a cut of 1,753 tonnes or 15.1%. In the reporting year the mill burned 2,613.6 tonnes of coal and bought 5,280 MWh, and the boiler still carries 64% of the total, which is where the next plan period has to look.
What remains has to be offset. On Scope 1 and 2 alone that is 9,889 credits, one credit being one tonne of CO2 equivalent, rounded up because a fraction of a credit cannot be retired. The mill then adds its significant Scope 3 categories, which this calculator does not cover, and retires one more credit for each tonne of those.
The grid factor needs care here. The cut is measured at a constant factor so that it shows the mill’s own actions. The credits a mill retires for a real claim, though, are counted on the reporting year’s own footprint, using that year’s grid factor once the Central Electricity Authority publishes it. So 9,889 is the Scope 1 and 2 figure at the 2025-26 factor, not a fixed number: a cleaner grid in 2026-27 lowers it, a dirtier one raises it, and Scope 3 is added either way.
Two points the example shows. First, the reductions are not optional extras. Had the mill bought 11,643 credits (11,642.4 t, rounded up) against its base-year footprint and changed nothing, it would not meet the standard’s definition, because credits are used only after the reductions in the plan. Second, the reductions are what the mill’s buyers can use, as the next sections explain; the credits help only the mill’s own claim.
What the mill may then claim, and what it may not
- An organization claim. With the footprint quantified, the plan’s reductions made, the credits retired and the report written, the mill may claim that the organization was carbon neutral for FY 2026-27 under ISO 14068:2026, stating the claim and its evidence as clause 13 sets out, which a mill should read with its verifier. The claim is about the mill and that year (3.1.1, 3.1.3, 3.1.6); it does not carry over to the next year without a new footprint and new retirements.
- Not a product claim by extension. A carbon-neutral mill does not make carbon-neutral fabric. A product claim needs an ISO 14067 footprint of that fabric over the life-cycle stages the claim names; a cradle-to-gate figure starts with the fibre, long before the dyehouse.
- Not on an EU consumer label. Directive (EU) 2024/825 adds to the EU’s list of commercial practices that are always unfair a claim, based on offsetting, that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive greenhouse gas impact (Annex, point 4c), and Member States apply it from 27 September 2026 (Article 4(1)). It amends the business-to-consumer directive, so it bites on the brand’s hangtag and website, not on the mill’s invoice.
Which other environmental words a brand may still print for consumers is set out in the site’s hangtag claims guide.
What buyers accept
Where a brand’s climate targets are set with the Science Based Targets initiative, its Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, released on 11 June 2026 and effective from 1 February 2027, bases emissions reduction claims on changes in the physical greenhouse gas inventory, and reports actions and instruments outside that inventory separately (section 5, printed page 60). Carbon credits appear only in its optional Ongoing Emissions Responsibility recognition programme (CNZS-C43), where mitigation outcomes may not be counted toward Scope 1, 2 or 3 targets or netted from the inventory (C43.1), and credits are retired when claimed (C43.4). For new targets on Version 1, the Standard says Version 1 stays open until the end of 2027 (printed page 6); SBTi Services, which runs validations, gives 31 January 2028.
For a supplier that means the 1,753 tonnes the dyehouse cut can move its buyer’s Scope 3 figure, where the buyer uses the mill’s own figures rather than spend-based averages; the credits it retired cannot. A buyer’s form will ask for Scope 1 and Scope 2 in tonnes, often with a figure per kilogram, and the site’s supplier carbon questionnaire guide shows how to fill it from bills. Where a mill wants its green-tariff, PPA or certificate-backed power to count in a market-based Scope 2 figure, the renewable electricity proof guide lists the documents a buyer will ask for. A carbon-neutral certificate is worth attaching to either, but neither form will let it stand in for the numbers.
A US rule that is not in force
- The US SEC climate rule. The rule adopted on 6 March 2024 required large accelerated and accelerated filers to disclose material Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions; it did not require Scope 3. The SEC stayed it on 4 April 2024 pending litigation, voted on 27 March 2025 to end its defence, and proposed on 29 May 2026 to rescind it in its entirety; the Eighth Circuit has held the case in abeyance since 12 September 2025. It never took effect, and no final rescission had been announced by 22 October 2026.
Before you say carbon neutral to a buyer: the order of work
- Measure. Fix the subject (organization or a named fabric) and a base period. Build the footprint from fuel receipts and electricity bills, then add the significant Scope 3 categories. Keep every factor with its source and edition.
- Plan. Write the carbon neutrality management plan: reduction targets with dates, the projects behind them, and when it is reviewed. For the projects themselves, see this site’s guide to reducing a textile carbon footprint.
- Reduce. Carry out the projects and meter each one against the base period.
- Offset what remains. Buy credits that meet clause 11 of the standard, retire them in a public registry in the mill’s name for the reporting period, and keep the retirement records.
- Report. Write the carbon neutrality report. Read clause 13 on how the claim and its evidence are stated, ideally with a verifier, and settle the wording before it appears anywhere.
- Claim, narrowly. Name the subject, the period and the standard. Give buyers the Scope 1 and 2 numbers alongside it, and keep the word off any product sold to EU consumers.
How this page is kept
Last verified: 22 October 2026, against ISO’s catalogue and the published preview pages of ISO 14068:2026 (foreword, scope, contents and definitions), BSI’s catalogue and transition notice, the Official Journal text of Directive (EU) 2024/825, three SEC press releases and the SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0. The standard is paraphrased, never quoted at length; clause numbers are given so that a reader can check them in the purchased text. The India grid factor is the one the site’s grid factor page uses, from the Central Electricity Authority’s version 22.0 database. The dyehouse in the worked example is invented, and every figure attributed to the calculator was computed with the calculator’s own formula and checked on the calculator page through the two links above. This page explains published rules and standards; it is not legal advice or verification, and a mill’s verifier and its buyers’ own terms govern. Corrections are welcome through the contact page.
