The non-profit organisation Better Cotton has launched a new traceability solution for the fashion and textile industry called Traceable Better Cotton, which has been developed over the course of three years. It will provide visibility of the journey of cotton through the supply chain by logging stakeholder input on the Better Cotton platform.
The organisation claims that in order to guarantee that fashion companies can precisely trace and disclose the origin of raw materials and comply with emerging regulations, it has worked closely with a network of member retailers and brands, including the H&M Group, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Target, Bestseller, Gap Inc., and C&A.
Although all of the cotton used in our clothes at Marks & Spencer comes from more ethical sources, the industry worldwide supply chain is still very complicated. Head of Materials and Sustainability at Marks & Spencer Katharine Beacham said, We are thrilled to be able to be part of this first-of-its-kind solution which will enable us to track our cotton at scale along the supply chain. We have been proud partners working with Better Cotton to improve the traceability of cotton since 2021.
Through the Better Cotton platform, operated by software company ChainPoint, suppliers can log transactional information from the cotton ginning stage to the retailer or brand, thus keeping track of where Better Cotton originated from and how much of it is within a product.
A game-changing transformation for supply chains
The supply chains in our business will go through a seismic shift as a result of cotton scalable traceability. Better Cotton has a traceability system that will assist the sector in bringing about that change. Transparency has never been more important to our retail and brand members than it is today. Better Cotton CEO Alan McClay stated in a news statement, We are thankful to every organization that has contributed to the development of the Better Cotton Platform and are committed to its continuous advancement.
Not to mention that in order to promote transparency and address any potential negative consequences of their operations on human rights and the environment, corporations are now expected to verify the origin of the raw materials used in their goods.
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, so the press release.
An Impact Marketplace that would reward farmers for advancements at the field level is intended to be built upon Traceable Better Cotton in the upcoming years. It is also anticipated that it will make it possible for life cycle assessments (LCAs) at the national level to determine how Better Cotton compares environmentally to conventional cotton and to make verifiable claims for consumers and businesses.
