Participants of the Better Cotton Conference 2022 in Malmö, Sweden, and online, can access materials relating to the conference sessions here.

22 June 2022: DAY ONE

Keynote and morning plenaries

Speaker: Alan McClay, CEO, Better Cotton

▼ Location: Mega

Speakers:

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Plenary Presentation ▼ Location: Mega

Speakers:

Facilitator: Charlene Collison, Associate Director, Sustainable Value Chains and Livelihoods, Forum for the Future

Useful links:

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Speaker: Better Cotton Lead Farmer, Director of Somnath Farmer Producer Company, Gujarat (India)

Video

■ Plenary Address ▼ Location: Mega

What is needed to shift the economics of cotton farming, and so improve the livelihoods and wellbeing of smallholder farmers and their communities?
How does climate change affect the options available to us?

Speaker: Isabelle Roger, Senior Policy Advisor, Solidaridad Network & Better Cotton Council Member

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Plenary Address ▼ Location: Mega

Exploring the challenges and opportunities facing smallholders in a world with a changing climate, from the perspective of farmers and partners from India, Egypt and Tajikistan.

Speakers:

  • Balubhai Parmar, Better Cotton Lead Farmer, Director of Somnath
    Farmer Producer Company (India)
  • Mona Kassem, Better Cotton Division Manager, and Export and
    Impact Manager, and ALKAN Mohamed Nossier for Trading and
    Industry (Egypt)
  • Sharipov Habibullo, Better Cotton Farmer (Tajikistan)

Facilitator: Saleena Pookunju, Capacity Building Manager, Better Cotton

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Breakout Sessions 13:00 – 13:55

Exploring the frameworks, investments, market mechanisms, platforms and funding that are needed to enable successful landscape approaches.

Speakers:

Facilitator: Anita Chester, Head of Materials, Laudes Foundation

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Taking a systemic approach to climate adaptation. Explore why adaptation approaches need to look beyond policies and programmes to consider complex relationships, power and mindsets, and understand how systems thinking and futures approaches can help overcome the critical gaps and challenges in current approaches to climate adaptation

Speakers: N/A – interactive session

Facilitators:

  • Hannah Cuneen, Principal Change Designer – regenerative, just and
    resilient value chains and livelihoods, Forum for the Future
  • Charlene Collison, Associate Director, Sustainable Value Chains and
    Livelihoods, Forum for the Future

Presentation

■ Breakout Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Blackbox

Leading partners – what innovative approaches could hold the key to greater impact at scale?

Speakers:

Facilitator: Angela Russ, Senior Manager, Programmes, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel Discussion ▼ Location: View

 Breakout Sessions 14:05 – 15:00

Going beyond the buzzword: how regenerative agriculture can help with climate change and more.

Speakers:

  • Rui Fontoura, Fiber & Materials Strategy Lead, Textile Exchange
  • Marco Reyes, Senior Director Industry Initiatives and Portfolio
    Management – Responsible Sourcing, Walmart
  • P Vamshi Krishna, Associate Director (Sustainable Agriculture), WWF India

Facilitator: Lena Staafgard, Chief Operating Officer, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Blackbox

How can ecosystem service payments be used effectively to benefit farmers? What are the opportunities and challenges?

Speakers:

Facilitator: Emma Dennis, Senior Manager, Sustainable Agricultural Practice, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Creating a shared approach to measuring and communicating sustainability progress – the Delta Framework.

Speakers:

  • Francesca Mancini, Lead Sustainability Consultant, Delta Project
  • Kristin Komives, Director of Programmes, ISEAL
  • Evonne Tan, Data & Technology Director, Textile Exchange

Facilitator: Eliane Augareils, Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel Discussion ▼ Location: View

Keynote and afternoon plenaries

Speaker: Safia Minney, MBE, Founder and Director, Fashion Declares & People Tree

safia-minney.com 

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Plenary Address ▼ Location: Mega

How do retailers and brands plan on continuing to innovate and what will be the key driver that pushes them to meet the global target; net zero 2050?

Speakers:

  • Gerson Fajardo, Director – Sustainability, Raw Materials, and Benchmarking, Walmart
  • Caroline McGarvey, Material and Innovation Area Manager Textiles, IKEA
  • Jeremy Lardeau, VP Higg Index, Sustainable Apparel Coalition
  • Elodie Gilart, Senior Sustainability Manager, Marks & Spencer

Facilitator: Ashley Barrington, Membership Manager, Better Coton

Useful links:

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Three women field staff from Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan, who are working to inspire climate action in cotton communities.

Speakers:

  • Gülan Oflaz, Field Facilitator, GAP UNDP (Turkey)
  • Narjis Fatima, Field Facilitator, WWF-Pakistan (Pakistan)
  • Mona Kassem, Better Cotton Division Manager, and Export and Impact
    Manager, and ALKAN Mohamed Nossier for Trading and Industry (Egypt)

Facilitator: Njeri Kimotho, Global Gender and Social Inclusion Linking, Learning Lead & Policy Advisor, Solidaridad Network

Useful links:

Presentation

Video – Narjis Fatima

Video – Gülan Oflaz

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Closing address

▼ Location: Mega

23 June 2022: DAY TWO

Keynote and morning plenaries

▼ Location: Mega

Speaker: Christina Niemelä Ström, Head of Sustainability, IKEA

Useful link:

Video Recording

■ Plenary Address ▼ Location: Mega

Learning from others – perspectives on traceability opportunities and challenges.

Speakers:

Facilitator: Johan Zandbergen, CEO, Chainpoint

Useful links:

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Exploring where Better Cotton is now with its work on traceability – and what comes next.

Speakers:

  • Amit Shah, CEO & Founder, Spectrum Cottfibers LLP
  • Arvind Rewal, Global Cotton Development Manager, IKEA Group
  • Francisco Ferreira Dos Santos, CEO, San JFS
  • Jacky Broomhead, Traceability Manager, Better Cotton

Facilitator: Alia Malik, Senior Director, Data and Traceability, Better Cotton

Useful links: 

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Speaker: Lacy Vardeman, Owner of Cotter Key Farms, Cotter Ranch Ltd., and partner of Vardeman Farms Partnership

Useful link:

Video Recording

Plenary Address Location: Mega

Exploring climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as other sustainability challenges and opportunities from a medium and large farm perspective.

Speakers:

  • Nigel Burnett, Cotton Grower Emerald Queensland and Cotton
    Australia Chair / Cotton Australia
  • Thiago Souza, R&D Management and Innovation on Regenerative Agriculture, Scheffer Group
  • Lacy Vardeman, Owner of Cotter Key Farms, Cotter Ranch Ltd., and
    partner of Vardeman Farms Partnership
  • Fuat Tanman, Better Cotton Farmer & Chair, IPUD

Facilitator: Amna Bajwa, Programme Coordinator, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Video Recording

■ Plenary Panel Discussion ▼ Location: Mega

Breakout Sessions 13:40 – 14:35

Sustainability claims and greenwashing legislation – What’s going on? What is best practice?

Speakers:

  • Imola Bedo, Policy Officer, DG Environment, European Commission
  • Felix Fehling, Senior Coordinator, Membership and Engagement, ISEAL
  • Heike Blank, Partner, CMS Germany
  • Philipp Meister, Global Lead Fashion and Sporting Goods, Quantis

Facilitator: Ellie Gaffney, Member Communications Manager, Better Cotton

■ Breakout Panel ▼ Location: Blackbox

Useful links:

Video Recording

Examining innovative practices around impact measurement & reporting

Speakers:

Facilitator: Kendra Park Pasztor, Senior Manager, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Better Cotton

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel ▼ Location: Mega

Breakout Sessions 14:45 – 15:40

How can we unlock the potential of smallholder farmers through sustainable finance, including impact investing?

Speakers:

Facilitator: Rebecca Owen, Director of Fundraising, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel ▼ Location: Blackbox

How does climate change exacerbate vulnerabilities of farm workers?
What urgent collaborative action is required to reduce these vulnerabilities, and to monitor and mitigate the changing needs and risks on the ground?

Speakers:

Facilitator: Chelsea Reinhardt, Director, Standards and Assurance, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel (Virtual) ▼ Location: View

Due diligence management systems for identifying and addressing risks to support traceability requirements, meet due diligence regulations and help the industry prioritise risk mitigation.

Speakers:

Facilitator: Lisa Ventura, Public Affairs Manager, Better Cotton

Useful links:

Presentation

Video Recording

■ Breakout Panel ▼ Location: Mega

Afternoon plenaries

Speakers:

  • Jason Clay, Senior Vice President, Markets | Executive Director,
    Markets Institute, WWF
  • Lena Staafgard, Chief Operating Officer, Better Cotton

■ Plenary Interview ▼ Location: Mega

Useful links:

Video Recording

Closing Address

Speakers

  • Yasemin Arhan Modéer, CEO and Founder at Altitude Meetings
  • Alan McClay, CEO, Better Cotton

▼ Location: Mega

Useful link:

Video Recording