Cotton, primarily produced for the textile industry, hardly needs an introduction. Although well known to most consumers, is there more to it than meets the eye?

The beauty of cotton is that it has enormous potential to be a sustainable source of textile fibre. It is renewable, recyclable, and can be grown in areas most other cash crops struggle.

Unfortunately, if mismanaged it can also cause huge environmental damage through excessive water and pesticide use and land use change.  It’s genetically modified (GM) variants and association with forced labour makes the sustainability of cotton a much debated topic.

This blog will explore some key organisations which help us identify sustainable sources of cotton, give a brief overview of what they do and what differentiates them from each other.

Sustainability Certification

In the simplest terms, a sustainability certification is a voluntary assessment carried out by a qualified third party based on an established standard. They simplify and unite complex ethical, environment, poverty, health and/or social issues in a single indicator. Although not their primary focus, they do end up providing business benefits for retailers, manufacturers and producers who participate in them.

There are several options for sustainably certified/verified cotton.  Some of the big names with an international scope are Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), Fairtrade and Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) while players like Cleaner Cotton™ have a more regional presence.

Better Cotton Initiative

BCI was established in 2005 and has a mission to “make global cotton production better for people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sectorΆs future”. They are a not-for-profit and work with people from field to store. BCI uses a verification system, which includes self-assessments, credibility checks and third party verification visits.

BCI encourages participation of all individuals and organisations involved with cotton. Thus the BCI membership is available under the categories of Civil Society, Producer Organisation, Retailers and Brands and Suppliers and Manufacturers. It also runs a Standard system certifying cotton produced by farmers based on a set of production principles and criteria.

Of the standards that are discussed in this blog, BCI is the only one who permits GM cotton. They take a “technology neutral” stance, neither encouraging nor restricting the farmers from GM cotton.

Why is this so important?  Recent studies suggest that GM cotton accounts for 2/3 of the worldΆs cotton. Excluding this would mean that majority of the cotton produced will not have the opportunity to realise the other benefits associated with sustainability certifications.

For the longest time BCI did not allow on-product labelling by their retail and brand members. However, since the latter part of 2015, they have started giving the option of use of the BCI logo on products by brands. This means that they have the potential to remain the biggest source of sustainably certified cotton for the foreseeable future.

In 2015, 11.9% of all the cotton produced globally was Better Cotton and they have an ambitious target of bringing this up to 30% by the year 2020.

Fairtrade

Fairtrade stands for “better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers.”

Unlike BCI, Fairtrade covers 14 food products (like coffee and bananas) and 8 non-food products. Fairtrade cotton was launched in 2005. Although the Fairtrade Standard for sustainably certified cotton does cover the three pillars of economic, social and environment sustainability, their primary aim is to tackle poverty amongst cotton farmers in the developing countries that they operate in.

For retailers and brands the Fairtrade Foundation offers one of two options.

The “Fairtrade Certified Cotton Mark” provides physical traceability of the cotton from the farmers who grow it all the way up to the labelled end garment. This lets us know that all the cotton in that particular product is Fairtrade certified.

The Fairtrade Cotton Sourcing Program is more flexible. It gives the scalability to organisations to achieve sourcing commitments to sustainable cotton volumes. Companies may purchase Fairtrade cotton and mix it with conventional cotton and communicate their overall sourcing achievement under the Fairtrade Cotton programme after they have met an agreed volume.

In 2013, more than 7.4m Fairtrade cotton items were sold in the UK, an estimated retail value of £23.4m.

Cotton made in Africa

CmiA is a social business which has a goal to “sustainably improve the living conditions of smallholder cotton farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa”. They are an Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) initiative.  This mean they use trade for development instead of aid.

They have two standards for sustainably certified cotton; Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and Cotton made in Africa-Organic (CmiA-Organic) Standard.

CmiA also builds up an international alliance of textile companies who purchase their cotton and who pay a license fee to the foundation. This fee is then reinvested to benefit small holders.

They also allow products to be labelled to show on the product to indicate that it is produced using CmiA cotton. With CmiA labelled products consumers can take an active part in protecting the environment and securing fair working conditions for smallholder farmers and workers in cotton ginneries (or factories).

Established in 2005, around 100 million garments with the CmiA seal were put to market by the end of 2014.

Cleaner Cotton™

Cleaner Cotton™ is produced by farmers taking part in The Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP).

SCP is a Californian-farm based programme which has worked to “lessen the toll that the soil-to-shirt cotton production process takes on the environment and society of the cotton growing areas” since 1996.

The programme utilises ecologically sensitive farming practises; enabling its farmers to use 50-73% less chemicals than others in the same region.  This is at the same time as supporting family farmers and rural economies in California.

Organic Cotton

Organic cotton is not nearly as simple as it sounds. There is no single standard for organic sustainably certified cotton.

The Soil Association is quite active in the UK. Both CmiA and Fairtrade also certify organic cotton, although they are not exclusive to organic cotton certification.

All this complexity confuses retailers and shoppers alike. However, whichever organisation does the certifying, itΆs a safe bet to say that the cotton is grown using, ecologically sensitive techniques.  In theory this makes organic products more environmentally sustainable.

Organic cotton has been on the market since the late 1980s and total volumes produced are increasing. However, the share of organic cotton in the standard compliant cotton market has decreased since 2010.

The rapid growth of BCI and CmiA have contributed to this trend. However the main cause is the difficulty farmers have getting non-GMO cotton seeds in the major producing countries like India.

More Acronyms and Standards!

On top of BCI, CmiA, SCP, Fairtrade and the complexity of the organic options, there are many other sustainably certified cotton standards available. Plus there are other organisations that do not certify, but link retailers and brands with more sustainably grown cotton, likeCottonConnect.

A Growing Trend

However, whatever method you use to find more sustainable cotton, it is fast becoming mainstream.  Leading retailers and brands are making big commitments to increase the use of standard-complaint cotton in their clothes. With this leadership and commitment, we can expect the amount of sustainably certified cotton reaching our shops to continue to grow in the coming years.

If you would like more information about the topics and organisations discussed above, or are interested in sustainable retailers, or how your competitors source their cotton, please feel free to contact us.

Best Wishes,

Novus