By partnering with Better Cotton, we're helping to strengthen their mission to help cotton communities survive and thrive while protecting and restoring the environment.
What is Better Cotton?
Better Cotton is the world’s leading sustainability initiative for cotton.
Their vision is to have a world where all cotton production is sustainable. They aim to help embed sustainable farming practices and policies into cotton production, enhance well-being and economic development for cotton farming communities, and encourage and drive global demand for sustainable cotton.
They have a strong focus on regenerative agriculture, too. Regenerative agriculture says that agriculture, including textile and food production, can give back to the land rather than just take from it. From improving soil health to empowering women in farming decisions, Better Cotton is putting regenerative agriculture at the heart of its sustainable practices.
When choosing products that carry the Better Cotton logo, you’re supporting our investment in Better Cotton’s mission. Better Cotton is sourced via a chain of custody model called mass balance. This means that Better Cotton is not physically traceable to end products. Read below for an explanation of mass balance.
What is Better Cotton’s mission, exactly?
Better Cotton abides by the seven principles, below:
- Better Cotton farmers minimise the harmful impact of crop protection practices — Better Cottons supports farmers by teaching them to use alternative pest control techniques and helps them phase out the use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides.
- Better Cotton Farmers promote water stewardship — Better Cotton encourages farmers to use sustainable practices in their water irrigation programmes, managing water quality, and understanding water sources to provide fair access to water for all.
- Better Cotton Farmers care for the health of the soil — Better Cotton works with farmers to implement their Soil Management Plan, which identifies and analyses a farmer’s soil type, maintains and enhances soil structure and fertility, and continuously improves nutrient cycling.
- Better Cotton Farmers enhance biodiversity and use land responsibly — Better Cotton encourages farmers to adopt practices that minimise the negative impact on habitats in and around their farm and increase biodiversity.
- Better Cotton Farmers care for and preserve fibre quality — Better Cotton supports farmers in adopting best practices during the harvest, storage, and transport of their seed cotton. The aim is to reduce man-made contamination and waste content present in fibres, therefore enhancing the value of the cotton and getting better prices for farmers.
- Better Cotton Farmers promote decent work — Better Cotton makes sure all workers enjoy decent working conditions like a fair wage and equal opportunities for learning and progression in an environment where they feel safe, respected, and able to express their concerns and negotiate better conditions.
- Better Cotton Farmers operate an effective management system — Better Cotton supports farmers to operate a management system that incorporates the policies and procedures needed to ensure they meet the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria.
What is ‘mass balance’?
Mass Balance helps to simplify the complexity of cotton supply chains while still delivering direct benefits to farmers. This is why it’s been so effective at driving demand for sustainable practices worldwide and scaling up our programme.
Better Cotton aims to improve the cotton sector by supporting the farmers who grow it. This allows the cotton to remain cost-effective to suppliers, increasing the demand for Better Cotton, and allowing more farmers to reap the benefits.
In simpler terms, mass balance is like using a green power company. Green electricity is fed through the power grid along with coal-fired electricity and others. We can't pick what kind of energy we want to come out of our socket, but we raise the demand, and therefore, the availability of renewable energy.
Why is this important?
Mass balance allows for safety in numbers and for Better Cotton to leverage the farming community in a stronger way. Sourcing Better Cotton means we are supporting their noble mission and elevating the cotton supply chain.
Cotton is a huge part of our clothing industry, so it’s important for us to partner with non-profits who are working hard to create a better future for the industry. We’re proud to source Better Cotton and we look forward to a brighter future with a more robust industry.