U.S. cotton producer Jimmy Webb.
Sustainability is more than just a buzzword in the textile industry – it’s a necessity. Fortunately, cotton – the natural fiber we love to wear – can give more to the Earth than it takes while delivering the trifecta of activewear: sustainability, comfort and performance.
In the world of textiles, every step of the supply chain can have a significant impact on the health of our planet, particularly when it comes to the use of water and chemicals. From the farm to the factory, Cotton Incorporated – along with a worldwide network of universities, cotton textile manufacturers, and equipment and chemical suppliers – continues to identify and promote the most up-to-date strategies to reduce water, energy and chemical (WEC) use.
Setting & Achieving 10-Year Conservation Goals
Cotton growers and industry organizations are committed to reducing their use of both water and chemicals in farming and manufacturing. In its pursuit of ongoing improvement, the U.S. cotton industry has collectively set 10-year goals that aim to continue reducing the fiber’s environmental impact. These goals are outlined in the chart below and are helping drive continued innovation in the industry.
“Through our efforts at Cotton Incorporated, U.S. cotton growers have invested for decades in fundamental research into water, soil health, greenhouse gas emissions and best production practices. This research led to dramatic improvements and positioned the industry to meet the challenge of continuous improvement for the next decade and beyond,” explains Mark Messura, senior vice president of global supply chain marketing at Cotton Incorporated.
Starting with farming practices that include irrigation and water usage, fertilizer and pesticide use, U.S. cotton growers continue to change or modify processes to reduce the impact of production on precious natural resources and air quality.
Cotton & Water in Farming – Producing More With Less
As the demand for cotton and sustainable fibers continues to increase, cotton growers are focused on developing new strategies for growing more cotton using the same amount of water. Fortunately, cotton isn’t a water-intensive crop. In fact, it’s only responsible for using three percent of the world’s total agricultural water consumption1. It’s an ideal crop for water-limited areas because of the plant’s heat and drought tolerance.
Sixty-four percent of U.S. cotton land requires no irrigation while 31 percent receives supplemental irrigation.2,3 In the 5 percent of cotton crops that do require irrigation, the process can be optimized using innovative processes. When used responsibly, irrigation can result in a 400 percent increase in overall yield, making every drop count and improving land use efficiency and decreasing other impacts per pound of cotton.2,3
Technologies making this possible include new water delivery systems (e.g. Pipe Planner, laser leveling, low nozzle center pivots and drip irrigation) that increase irrigation application efficiencies. Similarly, the use of improved irrigation scheduling tools (e.g., computer programs and crop and soil sensors) has also helped improve water-use efficiency. The use of sensor-based irrigation can help growers achieve 100 pounds high yield/acre without increased water use when compared to those producers not using sensors.4 These newer irrigation technologies also can reduce over-irrigation and make inputs more available to the plant.
“Over the past few decades, the cotton industry has come such a long way when it comes to reducing water usage,” explains Dr. Jesse Daystar, chief sustainability officer at Cotton Incorporated]. “When you look at where we were 20 years ago, growers produce much more cotton per acre of land with less water than before.”
Cotton & Chemicals in Farming – Reducing the Usage
Fertilizers and pesticides are important tools in modern agriculture – they allow farmers to provide nutritional, plentiful and affordable food for our world’s growing population, as well as the textiles we need for clothing. Without them, experts estimate that more than 80 percent of the global cotton supply would fail to survive5. Instead, the plants would succumb to insects, fungi and weeds. With that said, cotton remains one of the lowest users of agricultural pesticides – accounting for less than five percent of the world’s total pesticide sales6.
Over the past 30 years, improvements in biotechnology, new cotton varieties and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs have helped growers reduce the number of insecticide applications by more than 50 percent7. In 2017, the average acre of land yielded 905 pounds of cotton. This means less than one tenth of one ounce of pesticides were used per pound of cotton produced 8.
Similarly, depending on the soil, the use of fertilizer is necessary at times to ensure optimal yield and land use efficiency. Fortunately, cotton farmers are using precision soil sampling and sensor technology that allows them to apply fertilizers only when and where absolutely necessary – which can significantly reduce the total usage of fertilizer. While the use of these fertilizers releases CO2 and greenhouse gas (GHG) to the environment, cotton growth can naturally remove CO2 from the environment through photosynthesis.
At the same time, the cotton industry is working with scientists to decrease the amount of nitrogen required to produce each pound of cotton through efforts to increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). This is one of many steps the cotton industry is taking as part of their goal to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent over the next ten years.
In the Factory: Driving Innovation for Cotton Products
As cotton manufacturing processes and products evolve and change, Cotton Incorporated has a history of helping manufacturers and brands reduce their environmental footprint by sharing and promoting the latest technologies and practices.
“Because Cotton Incorporated represents a leading natural fiber, we’re committed to supporting the industry’s sustainability goals. As such, we’ve identified dozens of processes, chemicals and dyes, and types of machines that have been successfully implemented to reduce WEC in cotton textile manufacturing. These technologies can be employed to varying degrees with wovens, knits, denim, and yarn-dyeing operations,” says Mary Ankeny, vice president of product development and implementation at Cotton Incorporated.
Fabrics dyed with EARTHCOLORS cotton dye.
Sustainable Innovations in Action
On the preparation side, one of these such innovations is enzymatic scouring. An alternative to conventional alkaline scouring that uses more chemicals and harsher ingredients, enzymatic scouring speeds up chemical reactions and limits processing time, reduces water and energy usage, and decreases or eliminates the need for chemical processing.
When compared to conventional methods in a production trial, enzymatic processing for preparation and dyeing delivers9:
• Up to 30% faster processing times (minutes)
• Up to 84% reduction in water use (L)
• Up to 34% reduction in steam use (lbs.)
• Up to 28% reduction in power use (kWH)
When it comes to dyeing, scientists at Archroma and Cotton Incorporated teamed up to determine if there was a way to utilize cotton waste to synthesize a more sustainable dyestuff made from a renewable bio material instead of petroleum-based inputs typically used to synthesize dyes for textiles. As a result, Archroma’s EARTHCOLORS cotton dye offers a responsible solution to dyeing cotton textiles with a petroleum- free dyestuff created from biodegradable cotton gin waste. Utilizing nearly 100% gin waste, this sulfur-based, biosynthetic dye is developed without harmful chemical waste during processing.
An overview of innovative technologies can be found in Cotton Incorporated’s concise guides, World of Ideas Volumes I and II. Cotton Incorporated surveyed 40 cotton textile processing companies from around the world to identify 36 practical and effective technology solutions to reduce WEC requirements. Each technology’s potential for reducing the WEC environmental footprint is assessed with an easy-to-use graphical scale, along with estimates for costs and rate of return.
In conclusion, as our world’s population continues to grow, we know the demand for textiles and apparel products also will increase. Fortunately, the cotton industry continues to take aggressive steps to ensure the long-term health of our planet through reductions in chemical and water use. As such, manufacturers and brands can continue to deliver the high-quality cotton products consumers demand while focusing on sustainability and circularity.
- Hoekstra, A. Y. & Chapagain, A. K. (2007). Water footprints of nations: water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern. Water Resource Management, (21)1, 35–48
- United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service. (2019). 2019 Agricultural Statistics. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Ag_Statistics/2019/2019_complete_publication.pdf
- United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (2018). 2018 Irrigation and Water Management Survey. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2017/Online_Resources/Farm_and_Ranch_Irrigation_Survey/fris.pdf
- Daystar, J.S., E. Barnes, K. Hake, and R. Kurtz. 2017. Sustainability trends and natural resource use in U.S. cotton production. BioResources 12(1):363-392.
- Oerke, E.-C., & Dehne, H.-W. (2004). Safeguarding production—losses in major crops and the role of crop protection. Crop Protection, 23(4), 275–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2003.10.001
- Phillips McDougall, (2017). World Pesticide Sales Data
- National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference Proceedings 1987-2016 & Mississippi State University Cotton Insect Losses Reports
- United States Department of Agriculture NASS QuickStats. (2020). Cotton Yeild and Production Data. https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/ 9. Source: Cotton Incorporated Technical Report: Enzymatic Processing of Knit Fabrics
