A five-year sustainability report from the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol confirmed that its 1,500-plus grower members achieved measurable environmental gains, meeting or exceeding most of their 2025 sustainability goals, against a 2015 baseline.
“This year’s annual report unequivocally demonstrates that sustainable practices deliver measurable improvements in efficiency, resilience and environmental outcomes that can directly impact the supply chain,” said Gary Adams, president of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol.
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The voluntary sustainability program for U.S. cotton growers—and a traceability platform for all state-grown cotton—reported key findings like exponential growth in supply chain traceability and record-breaking grower enrollment among widespread adoption of regenerative practices.
“This report is a testament to the dedication of our growers, whose commitment has resulted in tangible environmental gains, meeting or exceeding five of the six 2025 goals,” Adams said. “It proves that sustainable practices can deliver measurable impact at scale, providing brands with credible data to back their sustainability claims.”
To that end, the “landmark report” established the Trust Protocol as the sole sustainable cotton fiber program offering such comprehensive data, the organization said. Growers met or exceeded five of six 2025 national goals; highlights included an 87 percent improvement in water use efficiency, an 89 percent reduction in soil loss— preserving vital topsoil and bringing erosion levels well below USDA thresholds—and a 15 percent improvement in land use efficiency, all while “reversing the trend” of soil carbon loss.
“With emerging regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and growing stakeholder scrutiny, the need for verifiable, robust data has never been more important for brands and retailers,” said Daren Abney, executive director of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. “Our program helps deliver that assurance.”
In 2025, the Trust Protocol launched a pilot program “formally recognizing and verifying regenerative practices” to provide brands and retailers with a novel option to source traceable and regenerative U.S. cotton. The Protocol’s traceability solution, providing “article-level information” to brands and retailers alike, saw a 413 percent year-over-year increase in Protocol Cotton Claim Unit (PCCU) uptake. Twenty brands tracked 126,000 tons of fiber last season—translating to around 690 million finished products.
“The expanded use and scale of our traceability system clearly demonstrate that the supply chain is embracing this new level of transparency,” said Abney. “We are providing the essential tools for brands to track cotton to the finished product, enabling them to communicate their sourcing strategies with greater accuracy, confidence and compliance.”
And, despite challenging climate conditions, the program saw gains for the sixth consecutive year.
Trust Protocol growers met or exceeded five of the six ambitious 2025 “national goals for continuous improvement” benchmarks, demonstrating tangible and critical progress, per the Protocol. Its growers reportedly produced 20 percent more cotton per acre than the U.S. average, thus meeting the 2025 goal to reduce land use needed to grow one pound of cotton by 15 percent.
Gower membership rose 14 percent to reach 1,512, while enrolled planted acreage surged 18 percent to 2.58 million acres. Regarding regeneration, the report confirmed a continued uptake in regenerative practices, with 63 percent of growers planting cover crops and 57 percent of acres under no-till or conservation tillage, as further supported by the launch of a new Regenerative Cotton Pilot for the 2025 crop year.
“This expansion ensures a growing, reliable supply of sustainably produced U.S. cotton for the global market,” the Protocol said.
An 87 percent improvement in water use efficiency—producing the same amount of cotton with 47 percent less irrigation water despite droughts—exceeded the 2025 goal as well. As did a 28 percent reduction in energy footprint, which contributed to lower Scope 3 emissions for downstream partners, and a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as achieved through “optimized nitrogen use efficiency and precision irrigation technologies.”
