Cotton is a major cash crop in the Jalna district of Maharastra, India, but cotton farmers there can experience numerous challenges. Frequent drought and extended dry spells, along with complex geological conditions make accessing water difficult.
Read moreThe World Trade Organisation (WTO) will host the launch of World Cotton Dayon 7 October 2019 at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
World Cotton Day will celebrate cotton, from its qualities as a natural fibre to the benefits people obtain from its production, transformation, trade and consumption. The event will also serve to shed light on the challenges faced by cotton industries around the world, and particularly in the least-developed countries.
The day’s events will include:
Representatives from the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) will attend the event and Alan McClay, CEO, will moderate a panel discussion organised by the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC). Join BCI and industry experts from Cotton Incorporated, C&A Foundation, H&M Group, World Textile Information Network, Esquel Group and Vardeman Farms between 15:30-17:00 CET on 7 October. The panel will address many of cotton’s challenges, including climate change, population growth, plastic pollution, innovation and changing consumer preferences.
In addition, Lisa Barratt, BCI Africa Operations Manager, will deliver a presentation on sustainability issues in the cotton sector in Africa, before participating in a panel discusson focused on market and policy trends in the cotton sector.
For further information and to register, please visit the World Cotton Daywebpage. Online registration must be completed no later than 20 September 2019.
Additional details
The WTO Secretariat is organising the event in collaboration with the Secretariats of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC). This event stems from the Cotton-4’s (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali) official application for the recognition of a World Cotton Day by the United Nations General Assembly, reflecting the importance of cotton as a global commodity.
Read moreMeasuring the numbers of farmers participating in projects and meeting the Better Cotton Standard, or the volumes of cotton licensed, is important but it is not enough.
Read moreOn the Front Line of Climate Change with BCI Farmers in Madagascar
Read moreThrough Collaboration and Working in Harmony With the Environment
Read moreWe invite you to explore BCI’s first decade through an interactive timeline which celebrates the milestones that enabled BCI to evolve into the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world.
Read moreDiscover the outcomes Better Cotton Farmers experienced in the 2018-2019 cotton season by participating in the Better Cotton programme.
Read moreOver 300 representatives from across the cotton supply chain – from farmers to retailers and brands – met in Shanghai on 12 and 13 June for the 2019 Global Cotton Sustainability Conference.
Read moreAs BCI celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, we caught up with Michael Kobori, Vice President of Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co., to discuss the fashion industry’s shifting attitude toward cotton production and sustainability.
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ISEAL, WWF and Rainforest Alliance have developed a new website, Evidensia, which brings together credible research into the effects and impact of sustainability initiatives to enable more informed decisions.
Credible evidence underpins decision-making and supports businesses and governments in addressing pressing sustainability challenges at scale.Currently, much of the available information on the impacts of sustainability tools is not presented in an easy to understand format that is useful for decision-oriented analysis. This makes it difficult for decision-makers to easily identify and understand what information already exists about the impacts, effectiveness and business value of sustainability initiatives.
To address this challenge, ISEAL, WWF and Rainforest Alliance have developed a new website, Evidensia, which brings together credible research into the effects and impact of sustainability initiatives to enable more informed decisions.
Evidensia is designed to meet the needs of business leaders, policy makers and researchers. It hosts evidence and information on a range of sustainability supply chain tools and approaches, including standards, company sourcing codes and jurisdictional approaches.
The content on the site covers a whole range of sustainability issues, from climate change and deforestation to biodiversity and water conservation. The content is represented in a variety of formats including independent scientific studies, evaluation reports and case studies. It is also easily accessible and usable through a range of searching, filtering and mapping tools.
Having a site that collates this evidence and information makes it possible to clearly identify research gaps and priorities for researchers and funders. This minimises the duplication or misalignment of research efforts.
Through these efforts, Evidensia can help companies and others identify and implement effective mechanisms for sustainable production and sourcing, and will help improve the effectiveness of sustainability tools and approaches.
One Woman’s Journey to Improve the Lives of Rural Women
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The Better Cotton Initiative’s (BCI) Retailer and Brand Members are forging the way for more sustainable cotton production by integrating Better Cotton into their raw material sourcing strategies and driving demand for more sustainable practices worldwide.
In 2018, 92 BCI Retailer and Brand Members sourced more than one million metric tonnes of Better Cotton – a record for BCI! This represents 4% of global cotton consumption*. BCI’s demand-driven funding model means that retailer and brand sourcing of Better Cotton directly translates into increased investment in training for cotton farmers on more sustainable practices.
While all BCI Retailer and Brand Members are contributing to the sustainable future of cotton, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the leaders. The following members are the top 15 (in descending order) based on their total Better Cotton sourcing volumes in the 2018 calendar year. Together they represent a significant proportion (88%) of the Better Cotton that was sourced last year.
1 – Hennes & Mauritz AB
2 – IKEA Supply AG
3 – Gap Inc.
4 – adidas AG
5 – Nike, Inc.
6 – Levi Strauss & Co.
7 – C&A AG
8 – PVH Corp.
9 – VF Corporation
10 – BESTSELLER
11 – DECATHLON S.A.
12 – Target Corporation
13 – Marks and Spencer PLC
14 – Tesco
15 – OVS Spa
Access the Better Cotton Leaderboard 2018.
”Since September 2015, all of the cotton we source for IKEA products is responsibly sourced – 85% of that is sourced as Better Cotton.It took a decade of determination and hard work to embed sustainability into our supply chain and we are pleased to have reached our 100% sustainable cotton target. We won’t stop there though. We are committed to creating positive change throughout the entire cotton industry and continue to collaborate with our partnersto make this a reality,” says Rahul Ganju, Sustainability Manager Textiles, IKEA of Sweden.
“Cotton is our main raw material and it’s a natural choice for our consumers. However, we know that being natural doesn’t necessarily mean being sustainable. That’s why, in 2016, we decided to source only more sustainable cotton by 2020. BCI represents a core pillar in our strategy to reach that goal as the initiative increases cotton farmers’ capabilities to adopt sustainable agricultural practices and focus on continuous improvement,” says Simone Colombo, Head of Corporate Sustainability, OVS Spa.
“BESTSELLER joined BCI in 2011 and we’ve been an active member since then. We’ve increased our uptake of Better Cotton year on year and invested in farmer training and support. BESTSELLER has a target to source 100% of its cotton more sustainably by 2022 – to achieve this we source Better Cotton, Cotton made in Africa, organic cotton and recycled cotton,” says Dorte Rye Olsen, Sustainability Manager, BESTSELLER.
In addition to considering the absolute volumes of Better Cotton sourced, the proportional amount of Better Cotton as a percentage of total cotton consumption is important to highlight. For some Retailer and Brand Members, Better Cotton accounts for a substantial percentage of their total cotton sourcing. In 2018, the companies who sourced more than 90% of their cotton as Better Cotton were adidas AG, HEMA BV and Stadium AB. Decathlon SA, Fatface Ltd, Hennes & Mauritz AB, and IKEA AG sourced more than 75% of their cotton as Better Cotton.
The “fastest movers’ of 2018 (listed in alphabetical order) are Benetton, Burberry Ltd, Fatface Ltd, GANT AB, Gap Inc., HEMA BV, La Redoute, Nike Inc., Olymp Bezner KG, Peak Performance, PVH Corp. and Stadium AB. These retailers and brands increased their volumes of cotton sourced as Better Cotton by more than 20 percentage points compared to 2017, demonstrating that sourcing cotton more sustainably can become the norm for organisations of all sizes.
BCI has a goal to reach and train fivemillion cotton farmers by 2020.In order to achieve this, BCI calls upon its current Retailer and Brand Members as well as new members to be as ambitious as possible in setting Better Cotton sourcing targets. Increased sourcing generates essential funding for farmer training and support. We’re pleased to note that of BCI’s current 125 Retailer and Brand Members, 27 already have a public target to source 100% of their cotton more sustainably by 2020. An additional 23 members have sustainable sourcing targets that are set for just beyond 2020.
We’re now looking for the next wave of sustainability leaders to join BCI and close the gap between the supply of Better Cotton on the market (19% of global cotton production in the 2017-18 cotton season) and demand from Retailer and Brand Members (4% of global cotton consumption in the 2017-18 cotton season*). In the 2019-20 cotton season, Better Cotton is forecast to account for 30% of global cotton production.
Access the Better Cotton Leaderboard 2018.
As demand for Better Cotton increases, more and more organisations throughout the cotton supply chain are joining BCI and supporting increased uptake of Better Cotton. In the coming weeks, we will launch cotton merchant and cotton mill leaderboards, highlighting who sourced the largest volumes of cotton as Better Cotton in 2018.
*Global cotton consumption figures as reported by ICAC. More information is availablehere.
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