The basis of sustainable cotton schemes.

What is ‘sustainable’? We all think we know it, instinctively, because it is part of our modern lexicon. But do we? It can be even more confusing when mentioning the term ‘regenerative’. How do we then dig down to defining sustainable agriculture? Sustainable cotton? Does sustainable cotton exist in a vacuum as a single crop? Or does it need to be sustainable in a wider farming, processing and rights system that covers labour, women’s, and human rights? All standards do have some common foundations – and all interpret them, which explains why there are many standards, and why there can be major differences in focus and adoption of elements between them, defined by practicalities, as well as geography. The principles come from theories, including agroecology, which will sometimes cover non-production related items as well as farming. But Integrated Pest Management (IPM) focuses specifically on the agricultural and ecosystem elements. Regenerative, coming in many shapes and forms, can vary as a system. Sustainable implies something that can be continued over time. It implies, perhaps, no damage, although there is a grey-zone: damage may predate sustainable production, such as deforestation.

All cotton standards andprogrammes use the same toolboxes to develop their unique criteria, and all make trade-offs and compromises as they do, depending on their end goals, and final targets. The common goal is a desire to reduce cotton’s negative impacts and improve some elements. It’s hard to find the right standard or scheme, because it can be hard to find summaries and details that don’t come with a sales pitch. This guide tries to do just that. The International Trade Centre has a standards map1 that lists many of the standards available for farming and processing of many products, including cotton and fibres. It maps them according to what they do, and how they are organised, certified, verified and traced. It covers new concept areas like due diligence. We recommend looking at this resource as well (not all schemes are covered, however). We also recommend that you look at the Textiles Standards & Legislation guide from MCL News & Media for independent standard snapshots and links.2 A search on the ITC map for agriculture and due diligence shows 46 standards covering both areas, with cotton and natural fibres added. A search for standards covering cotton and agriculture returned 83 standards, out of 351standards listed on the map (almost a quarter). It is likely many of these will not actually certify any cotton, and the non-expert would find searching these results a difficult task. Some of them are not used in or relevant to cotton. Some are useful add-ons, like the OECD guidelines, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) human rights guidelines, or carbon standards. The table overleaf shows the returned standards, and which ones we chose to cover. Those coded dark Green (we cover in depth), light Green (we cover in short or to be reviewed), and Yellow (not covered). In this guidebook we have only covered the main cotton and sustainability standards in use, and a few of the less popular ones that are still interesting standards and schemes for readers to consider. First, before we look into the more prominent cotton standards and schemes, we will revisit some of the theories and buzzwords that underpin them, from agroecology and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to “regenerative agriculture”. We’re sure that this will prove to be a very useful tool for our industry. Please read on …!

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