Better Cotton has launched a traceability programme developed over three years that will provide visibility of cotton’s journey through the supply chain.

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, it said.

The organisation worked with 1,500 organisations, including H&M Group, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Target, Bestseller, Gap and C&A on the project.

In “the coming years”, it aims to 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”.

Traceable Better Cotton is defined as the ‘physical’ Better Cotton within a cotton-containing product that has been tracked through the supply chain. It differs from Better Cotton’s long-standing Mass Balance Chain of Custody model, which tracks the volume of cotton produced and ensures this never exceeds the volume of cotton sold.

Better Cotton launched a Chain of Custody Standard earlier this year, outlining requirements that suppliers wishing to trade traceable cotton must comply with. 

Using the Better Cotton Platform – operated by the software company ChainPoint – suppliers will log transactional information, creating visibility of where Better Cotton has originated from and how much is within a product. Traceability will span the cotton ginning stage right through to the retailer or brand.

Alan McClay, CEO of Better Cotton, said: “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.”

Share this story: