Better Cotton, the world’s largest cotton sustainability initiative, has officially launched a first-of-its-kind traceability solution for the fashion and textile sectors. The solution has been developed over three years and will provide visibility of cotton’s journey through the supply chain by logging stakeholder input on the Better Cotton Platform.
The organisation has worked closely with a network of member retailers and brands. These include H&M Group, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Target, Bestseller, Gap Inc and C&A, to ensure that fashion companies can accurately trace and disclose the origin of raw materials and comply with emerging regulations.
Companies are now increasingly expected to verify the origin of the raw materials within their products and leverage improved transparency to address the potential adverse effects of their activities on human rights and the environment. Traceable Better Cotton will give member retailers and brands confidence that they are sourcing product from a specific country, and establish greater supply chain visibility, enabling them to incorporate insights into their own supply chain due diligence activities.
In the coming years, the organisation will scale the availability and sourcing granularity of traceable Better Cotton to do the following: Serve as the foundation for an Impact Marketplace that would compensate farmers for field-level progress; enable country-level Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to calculate the environmental impact of Better Cotton in relation to conventional cotton, and provide credible consumer and business-facing claims.
Commenting is Better Cotton’s CEO, Alan McClay.
“Traceability at scale for cotton will drive a seismic shift within our industry’s supply chains. Better Cotton’s traceability solution is poised to help the industry deliver that shift. Never before has transparency been as imperative as it is now to our retail and brand members. We’re grateful to every organisation that has helped shape the development of the Better Cotton Platform and stand committed to its constant improvement.”
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