Twenty-three of the world’s most renowned clothing and textile companies, including Burberry, Adidas, Kathmandu and Timberland have pledged to source 100% more sustainable cotton by 2025. These companies join the original 13 major brands and retailers who made the pledge earlier this year, taking the total committed companies up to 36, including a number of BCI Retailer and Brand Members.
The pledge titled “The Sustainable Cotton Communique’ was the result of a high-level meeting attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and organised by The Prince’s International Sustainability Unit (ISU) in collaboration with Marks & Spencer and The Soil Association. Itdemonstrates that there is a demand for more sustainable cotton, and the commitment made by companies will help to drive sustainable practices across the sector. In turn, this will help alleviate the environmental and social costs that are too often associated with cotton production, including the over-use of pesticides, the release of greenhouse gases, the depletion of local water sources and rising costs of production.
The brands that have now committed to the 100% by 2025 pledge are: ASOS,Adidas, A-Z, BikBOk, Burberry, Burton Snowboards, Carlings, Coyuchi, Cubus, Days like This, Dressmann, EILEEN FISHER, F&F at Tesco, Greenfibres, H&M, Hanky Panky, House of Fraser, IKEA, Indigenous Designs, KappAhl, Kathmandu, Kering, Levi’s, Lindex, Mantis World, M&S, MetaWear, Nike, Otto Group, prAna, Sainsbury’s, SkunkFunk, Timberland, Urban, Volt,Woolworths and Wow.
The companies that have pledged their support areat various stages on their journey to sourcing more sustainable cotton, with some already securing all of their cotton from sustainable sources. However, all are clear that collaboration across the sector is needed to bring about transformative change.
The pledge announcement was made at the annual Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference, where more than 400 textile and apparel leaders have come together to discuss the most important sustainability issues facing the industry. Following the announcement,BCI’s Chief Operating Officer Lena Staafgard joined a panel discussion focusing on scaling the use of more sustainable cotton.
This story was originally published by Textile Exchange via CSRwire.
