If you’re new to Better Cotton, welcome! Mass Balance Better Cotton Claim Units (BCCUs) are a simple way to begin sourcing Better Cotton. Mass Balance is a chain of custody model that helps us achieve our impact at scale, bringing immense value to farmers.
Mass Balance is a volume-tracking system that allows Better Cotton to be substituted or mixed with conventional cotton by traders or spinners along the supply chain while ensuring that the amount of Better Cotton sold never exceeds the amount of Better Cotton purchased at all levels in the textile supply chain. It can be implemented from ginner onwards.
Segregation Model
Between the farm and gin, Better Cotton seed cotton and lint bales are always required to be segregated from other types of cotton. The Better Cotton Standard System requires a product segregation chain of custody model. This means that farmers and ginners need to store, transport and process Better Cotton separately from any conventional cotton.
This ensures that all Better Cotton bales produced by participating gins are 100% Better Cotton.
How does the Mass Balance system work?
To monitor the volume of Better Cotton in the supply chain, each kilogram of Better Cotton lint from the gin is assigned one Better Cotton Claim Unit (BCCU). As the cotton moves along the supply chain and is made into different products, these BCCUs move along with it to show the amount of Better Cotton in each order. The volumes of BCCUs allotted to Better Cotton orders are tracked on the Better Cotton Platform (BCP).
As BCCUs are not connected to the original Better Cotton sourced from Better Cotton Farmers, Better Cotton is not traceable to its country of origin. However, Mass Balance helps to simplify the complexity of cotton, textile and apparel supply chains while still delivering direct benefits to farmers, and will remain an important part of our offering alongside Physical Better Cotton.
Membership brings a range of benefits, including the ability to network with other organisations focused on sustainability, support cotton farmers’ productivity and livelihoods, access exclusive member-only training, and have your say in the future of the cotton sector.
