H&M Group, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Target, Bestseller, Gap Inc. and C&A helped Better Cotton develop its latest pro-transparency tool.
Three years in the making, the new Better Cotton Platform provides greater visibility of cotton for all stakeholders in the fashion and textile sectors. It is the first of its kind to collect and provide access to product information on this level and means that companies will be easily able to verify the origin of all raw materials in their products. Operated on the ChainPoint blockchain software for supply chain monitoring, it also gives them the ability to address any questionable activities in the areas of human rights or environmental impact.
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Brands and retailers on the Better Cotton Platform can now disclose the origin of raw materials and comply with changes in regulation coming along in the near future. Participants gain certainty that they’re sourcing from a specific country which will help them follow through on their own corporate due diligence.
Alan McClay, CEO of Better Cotton, forewarns of a seismic shift coming in the industry’s supply chains and noted how crucial the new traceability solution will be in smoothing the way for that shift.
“Never before has transparency been as imperative as it is now to our retail and brand members,” he said. “We’re grateful to every organization that has helped shape the development of the Better Cotton Platform and stand committed to its constant improvement.”
Traceable Better Cotton is defined as the “physical” Better Cotton within a product that contains cotton that has been tracked through the supply chain. It is different from Better Cotton’s long-existing Mass Balance Chain of Custody model, which tracks cotton volume and makes sure it corresponds to the volume of cotton sold. Earlier this year, Better Cotton launched the Chain of Custody Standard which lays out the compliance criteria for suppliers dealing in traceable cotton.
Using the Better Cotton Platform, those suppliers will log transactional information from ginning right through to the retailer or brand. Retailers welcome the innovation. Katharine Beacham, head of materials and sustainability, Marks & Spencer, noted how complex global supply chains remain despite all the progress made in the past few years.
“Since 2021, we have been proud partners working with Better Cotton to improve the traceability of cotton,” said Beacham, whose company sources 100 percent of its cotton from reliable sources. “We’re delighted to be able to be part of this first-of-its kind solution which will enable us to track our cotton at scale along the supply chain.”
This new program lays the groundwork for some of Better Cotton’s future programs like Impact Marketplace which will compensate farmers for field-level progress, enable country-level Life Cycle Assessments to surveil and calculate the environmental impact of Better Cotton compared to conventional cotton, as well as provide credible consumer and business-facing claims.
Better Cotton is the world’s largest cotton sustainability program whose mission it is to help cotton communities survive and thrive while protecting and restoring the environment. In the 2021-2022 cotton season, the program had 2.8 million farmers in 22 countries getting training in sustainable farming practices through its network of field-level partners. It also issued Better Cotton licenses to 2.2 million farmers. More than one-fifth of the world’s cotton is now grown under the Better Cotton standard.
Better Cotton recently renewed its strategic partnership with Egypt, where it has 3,589 licensed farmers, and cited progress in non-toxic pesticides in India where it also set up a traceability scheme. It is also working with the European Union on greenwashing issues.
