Better Cotton Brings Together Global Fashion Brands to Ensure Cotton Traceability

This is an old news post – to read the latest about Better Cotton traceability, please click here. 

New Traceability Panel invests over £1million in supply chain innovations.

Better Cotton has convened a group of leading international retailers and brands to help enable the delivery of new traceability solutions and bring greater visibility to the cotton supply chain. These include names like Marks & Spencer (M&S), Zalando and BESTSELLER.

The panel has pulled together an initial £1m tranche of funding. It will work with suppliers, NGOs and independent experts in supply chain assurance to develop an approach that meets the pressing needs of industry today.

Traceability within the cotton supply chain will soon become a market “must” with legislators on both sides of the Atlantic moving to toughen rules. New rules presented this March by the European Commission aim to better protect consumers against false environmental claims and introduce a ban on greenwashing.

For example, sellers will not be allowed to put a sustainability label on their product if there is no certification or recognition by a public authority for it. It also prohibits sellers from making generic environmental claims such as “eco-friendly” or “green” if they cannot demonstrate environmental performance.

The Better Cotton Traceability Panel will address all aspects of the cotton supply chain, from farmers in the field through production to the consumer. Better Cotton has gathered input from over 1,500 organisations so far who have made it clear that traceability is business-critical across the whole industry but also that retailers and brands need to integrate sustainability and traceability into their standard business practices. Findings from this research highlighted that 84% indicated a business ‘need to know’ where the cotton in their products was grown. In fact, 4 in 5 suppliers surveyed sought the benefit of an enhanced traceability system. Currently only 15% of apparel companies claim to have full visibility of the raw materials that go into their products according to a recent study by KPMG.

Specifically Better Cotton and the new panel will provide substantial investment to:

• Further develop existing farm to gin tracing arrangements to underpin physical traceability
• Build on its existing trading platform tracking movement of a quarter of the world’s cotton through 8000 organisations to make it possible. Fully trace any of the cotton that enters the system within a few years. 
• Use different technology solutions and credibility arrangements to clearly distinguish country of origin initially and environmental and social practices by growers eventually.
• Create new market mechanisms that bring value for farmers, such as rewarding them for carbon sequestration.
• Focus on farmers – both big and small – providing training, ensuring proper working conditions, helping them access preferential financing and securing their ability to enter international value chains.

Better Cotton and its partners have also trained over 2.5 million farmers in 25 countries, having raised €99 million since 2010 to fund capacity building and other field-level activities. This is projected to grow to just over €125 million by the 2021- 22 season.

Learn more about Better Cotton traceability journey.

Better Cotton Members can join our upcoming traceability webinar series, kicking off on 26 May. Register here.