For the cotton market, “leveling up” means a little bit less of everything: less water, energy, emissions, land use – and the list goes on. But for the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, the firm’s pledge to deliver continuous improvement fuels a steadfast momentum as it leads the industry with transparency.
Launched in October 2020, the Trust Protocol was created to meet a growing demand for cotton transparency, and the industry’s swift response proves the solemnity of that plea: Within just a year of its launch, it has seen 450 mills, manufacturers, brands, and retailers join its initiative – and 1.5 million bales of U.S. cotton have been entered in its system.
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The Trust Protocol holds continuous improvement central to U.S. cotton production, and does so through its exclusive offering of measurable, verified data for growers, brands, retailers, and broader stakeholders.
Growers that work with the Trust Protocol have emphasized the value of its data for sustainable farming operations. Nathan Reed, a Trust Protocol grower member, told the Trust Protocol that its data “helps me see more into the sustainability of my cotton production. The program also shows me practices I haven’t yet implemented but are becoming standard practice, and that really pays off.”
Here, Tara Luckman, advisor to the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, talks to Fairchild Studio about how it measures improvement, reaching its SDG goals by 2025, and the evolving sustainable fashion consumer.
Fairchild Studio: How are cotton growers continuously improving their methods in sustainable farming practices?
Tara Luckman: Cotton grown in the U.S. is among the most meticulously regulated in the world and meets a variety of stringent guidelines and standards. As an industry, U.S. cotton has ambitious environmental impact goals for continuous improvement, and the Trust Protocol is one way to advance a path to greater success. It also understands the importance of demonstrating this progress to brands and retailers. That is why the Trust Protocol was launched in 2020—to set a new standard in more sustainably grown cotton and ensuring it contributes to the protection and preservation of the planet.
The Trust Protocol is grounded in science-based measurement and feedback. Our mission is to bring quantifiable and verifiable goals and measurement to the key sustainability metrics of U.S. cotton production including land use, soil loss, water reduction, soil carbon, greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. These six continuous improvement metrics are aligned with the U.S. cotton industry’s 2025 national goals of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent, soil loss per acre by 50 percent, water use by 18 percent, and energy use by 15 percent while increasing soil carbon by 30 percent and land use efficiency by 13 percent.
Fairchild Studio: What role do the SDGs play in incentivizing continuous improvement? Are there any success stories/examples to share?
T.L.: The Trust Protocol is aligned with the UN SDGs and brings quantifiable and variable goals and measurement, which in turn, drives the continuous improvement of growers in the industry. Using precision agriculture and other innovations has enabled growers to reduce water use, energy use and improve the health of the soil.
We’ve seen the direct impact this has made in the pilot data the Trust Protocol has received regarding the six continuous improvement metrics. According to findings, in 2020/21 Trust Protocol grower members’ aggregate yield was 1,162 lbs/acre, above the 2015 representative group of 867 lbs/acre, and the U.S. average yield of 825 lbs/acre. For land use, Trust Protocol grower members used 38 square feet to produce a pound of cotton, compared to the 2015 U.S. representative group average of 48 square feet. In irrigation water use efficiency, Trust Protocol grower member aggregate showed for each cubic foot of water, 0.018 lb/ft3 was produced, increasing the efficiency by 14 percent over the 2015 U.S. representative group of 0.016 lb/ft3. The 2025 goal is to increase water use efficiency by 18 percent. This information is published in our 2020/2021 Annual Report.
Fairchild Studio: Do you have any advice for fashion brands that are wanting/needing to become more sustainable?
T.L.: Sustainability is of great importance to the apparel industry and critical for its long-term success. There are many aspects that the industry needs to focus on. Today more than ever before, customers want to know that the products they buy are responsibly sourced. On top of that, we’re starting to see governments regulate in this area, so for a brand that is wanting to become more sustainable, it’s crucial to have visibility on what’s happening in your supply chain.
I’ve always thought of value chain visibility as a great enabler. Understanding what is happening in your supply chain starts to open more doors into other improvement opportunities you can make, and this is where the rich data of the Trust Protocol is so informative. The Trust Protocol is the only system that provides quantifiable, verifiable goals and measurement and drives continuous improvement in the six key sustainability metrics that I mentioned earlier—land use, soil carbon, water management, soil loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency.
Fairchild Studio: In your opinion, how has the sustainability sector evolved of late? Are there any recent wins?
T.L.: I think a lot of brands will identify that sustainability is a challenge that everyone in the industry has been working on for a very long time, and a lot of things had to be done the hard way, like manually mapping supply chains to uncover when and how products were being made. This was previously done by interviewing suppliers or visiting factories—trying to always understand the next tier of relationships.
What’s happened in recent years is the growth and expansion of responsible material sourcing initiatives such as the Trust Protocol, which is designed to deliver data and supply chain transparency—two highly sought-after elements in sustainability reporting that were hard to come by with previous methods. The Trust Protocol is the world’s first sustainable cotton fiber to offer its members article-level transparency across the supply chain. This is made possible by the Protocol Consumption Management Solution, or PCMS, which harnesses blockchain technology to record and verify the movement of U.S. cotton fiber along the entire supply chain beginning at the gin.
At the end of the process, brands and retailer members are able to consume Protocol Cotton Consumption Units, which gives them confidence that they’re getting what they paid for, that they can make sustainability claims and communicate clearly to their customers and include that in their reporting. This is one of the key deliverables and value propositions of the Trust Protocol.
Fairchild Studio: What’s next for the Trust Protocol?
T.L.: The Trust Protocol has made significant strides in its first year. Not only did we establish the world’s first sustainable cotton fiber to offer article-level supply chain transparency, but we have also brought in 560 organizations across the supply chain as members.
There’s no doubt that expanding the program is one of our priorities, with the ambition of bringing on 100 global brands and retailers, 1,000 mills and manufacturers, and enrolling 50 percent of U.S. cotton in the coming years. There is hope that as we grow the scope of the Trust Protocol, we will see an even greater impact. Continuous improvement drives the entire industry. One aspect of this that we’re seeing comes from the concept of association. When we present the Trust Protocol in our discussions with brands and retailers, and specifically with mills and manufactures, they’re encouraged by the robust data that it delivers, and they want to know how they can become involved. It almost becomes a contagious aspect of the program, and each conversation amplifies the need for collaboration and a collective sense of purpose.
As we look to the year ahead, we are encouraged by the changes we see around us—the growing appreciation of the urgency of our collective environmental challenge, the enthusiasm of people from all walks of life to play their part in leading more sustainable lives, and the commitment of industry to lead change. Time, however, is of the essence.