Produced by: 2025 Sustainable Cotton Challenge Second Annual Report 2020 CONTENTS © 2020 Textile Exchange Page 1 Foreword from La Rhea Pepper Time for action Toward a more sustainable future We’ve proven a pathway to scale better cotton, now adopted by many of the world’s largest brands. We enthusiastically encourage others to As we release this report, we are in the midst of What is next? A greater focus on continuous join the journey. discovering what the impact of the Coronavirus will improvement and positive impacts. be on our communities. The entire supply network is Set a target being impacted – including farmers who continue to Next year's report will showcase how these initiatives Commit to transitioning your cotton usage to sustainable sources plant and harvest with the changing of the seasons. are delivering on impacts. Be sure to check out such as organic, BCI, Fairtrade and others featured in this report. Set This is an excellent opportunity to pull in sustainable the status of The Delta Project on page 11. It's an quantitative, time-bound targets to help track progress. and preferred fibers as we reset and restart the textile inspiring undertaking that will allow us to adopt these core key performance indicators as ways to measure industries' powerful engine. Secure your supply the progress we are making, while we encourage Now is the time to make the paradigm shift from a each other along this journey. Start by mapping your suppliers, using chain of custody to make a Price to Value-driven business model, and to convey content claim, and going beyond certification to ensure impact. the value of our products in a way that will give factory I am so pleased with the direction that our leaders and farm workers a fair price. are taking. They are expanding programs, developing Invest in transitional cotton new organic projects including transitional, and The 2025 Sustainable Cotton Challenge continues building more ways to engage. You'll see some great Looking for innovative ways to do great things? Invest in cotton in to grow with the number of initiatives, brands and highlights on pages 29–37, all to inspire methods of transition-to-organic cotton blended with your certified organic cotton. manufacturers that are engaged. And the impact? increasing positive impact. Diversify your sourcing We're increasing the amount of more sustainable, organic and regenerative cotton that is entering the For those of you who were with us in Vancouver for Consider a diverse approach to building your organic supply base; marketplace. the annual conference, when we announced our 2030 different regions offer different opportunities. Strategy: Climate+ Goal, you will understand that 30 additional brands and retailers and 5 the 2025 Sustainable Cotton Challenge is one of the Join a Round Table or Working Group manufacturers are participating, and their strong partnerships that is working to enable proactive sustainable cotton usage is up by 19 percent. innovation around new business models to support Pre-competitive, peer-to-peer and group exchanges through Textile more sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Exchange’s convening platforms is the best way to transform the With the recent addition of the U.S. Cotton Trust industry. Protocol, farmers in key regions have access and I invite you to join us and be part of the solution. options to participate in a variety of solutions to Sustainable, Organic and Regenerative Cotton Do business differently address the many challenges they face. is contributing to mitigating the climate crisis Look at your business model. Can you adopt natural based and provides positive impacts in cotton-growing accounting practices? How do you re-engineer your sourcing We also see more brands proactively engage with communities. practices? OCA, ChetCo and OrganiMark’s “cluster” programs each farmer groups on the ground – be sure to check out help brands and suppliers leverage scale they create together. what OCA (page 65) and REEL (page 75) are doing to – La Rhea Pepper, link brands to farmers. Managing Director, Textile Exchange Start your journey with the CottonUP Guide. Cover image: Jane Dever, Professor – Cotton Breeder, Texas A&M AgriLife Research - Lubbock. Photo by Mark Arnold, Senior Research Associate (retired), Texas A&M AgriLife Research CONTENTS © 2020 Textile Exchange Page 2 How is COVID-19 Impacting Farmers? What can we do? The 2025 Signature Brands are the Leaders in driving real and meaningful change. "CottonConnect feels a deep responsibility "We may not know what a to the cotton farming communities we work post-COVID-19 world will The impact of COVID-19 is yet to be “Overstocked” is the theme for the in. In April 2020 we launched the campaign look like, but it is important ‘Sustainable Lives: Mission Hope,’ which is that we do not falter in our determined. However, we know that entire supply network, with the final currently focused on COVID-19 awareness and efforts towards a more the effect will be far-reaching across all domino falling on some of the most response, providing accurate information and sustainable future for the sectors and communities. Some of the vulnerable people. There have been a distributing essential supplies. We are working textile industry. Despite the most vulnerable are our farmers and the lot of conversations about the impact with our farmers, through remote systems as challenging times, we are communities in which they live; many are that this pandemic is having in the much as possible, on ways to increase their continuing to develop the without access to clean water, much less textile manufacturing supply network. farms’ resilience, specifically through building U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. health care. Let’s not fail to link everything back to shock-resistance and diversified forms of This project will inventory and the source. We need to build solutions incomes. We encourage brands, supply chains validate progress U.S. cotton The turn of the seasons goes on – to support farmers as we plan for and the wider sector to come together and growers continue to make regardless of what is going on in the rest short- and long-term recovery. As we leverage each other’s support, while at the towards the U.S. 10-year of the world. In the southern hemisphere, turn on the economic engine, let’s same time, helping the marginalized cotton sustainability goals and will farming community overcome the crisis." help make USCTP cotton cotton harvest is underway, and in the do it in a way that supports the most a preferred fiber choice for north, soils warm and the world’s cotton sustainable, regenerative and organic apparel brands and retailers." farmers are making decisions for what supply and production systems. This is – Amol Mishra, Global Commercial Director, crops to plant. Cotton, as well as other our opportunity to push the reset button. CottonConnect crops are facing the influence of a buildup Knowledge is power, action is change. – Jesse S. Daystar, in stocks and continued downward price Chief Sustainability pressure. – La Rhea Pepper, Managing Director, "In partnership with Higg Co and Boston Officer, Cotton, Inc. Textile Exchange Consulting Group (BCG), we recently launched The International Cotton Advisory “Weaving a Better Future," a report that Council’s (ICAC) May 2020 report states highlights how sustainability in fashion is at risk “Now, more than ever, the that cotton prices are $.71 for 2019/2020 in a post-crisis world and lays out a framework cotton and textile sector must year end and $.56 for 2020/2021. This is for a phased rebuilding that elevates the role of come together to support one the lowest that cotton prices have been in social and environmental commitments within another and share the burden over 12 years. The ICAC May 2020 report business resiliency strategies. Although the so that we can mitigate the also highlights that “Cotton will suffer a future remains unknown, we hope that we're damages and emerge on the able to articulate that those companies who are 12 percent decline in consumption due to other end of this crisis.” integrating sustainability efforts more deeply into the COVID-19 pandemic.” 1 the business and not retreating from them are poised to come out of the crisis in a position – Alan McClay, CEO, BCI of strength. I believe that there is much our group can do together to ensure that we are And check out an interview with supporting the industry now and in the future." Alan here, as well as Alan's new (1) ICAC- Cotton: May 2020 edition of "Cotton This Month" blog series on this issue here. – Amina Razvi, Executive Director, BACK TO CONTENTS Sustainable Apparel Coalition © 2020 Textile Exchange Page 3 What’s inside Welcome to the 2019 edition of the 2025 Sustainable Impacts and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 28 Focus on Organic Cotton: Q&A with Bart Vollaard 65 Cotton Challenge Report 5 Q&A With Margot Lyons 29 Organic Cotton: The Year in Numbers 66 What is the 2025 Sustainable Cotton Challenge? 6 Burton Makes Progress 30 Recycled Cotton 68 How to Participate 7 C&A Goes High Tech 31 Recycled Cotton: Evrnu 70 Project Leadership 7 Well Along the Journey 32 Recycled Cotton: Re:newcell 71 Partners in the Evolution to Preferred Cotton 8 Q&A With Suhas Khandagale 33 Recycled Cotton: Recover 72 Our Vision for the Future of Cotton 9 Lindex Case Study 34 Recycled Cotton: TENCEL™ Lyocell fibers with REFIBRA™ Cotton 2040 10 Brooke Summers Chats With Eloise Bishop 35 technology 73 Delta Sustainability Framework 11 MetaWear's RESET Project 36 Recycled Cotton: Worn Again Technologies 74 Terminology: “Sustainable” and “Preferred” Cotton 12 The Answer Beneath Our Feet: The Importance of Soil REEL Cotton 75 Understanding Regenerative 13 Health 37 Regenerative Organic Cotton 77 Where to Find Sustainable Cotton Across the Globe 14 Q&A with Elizabeth Whitlow 78 Sustainable Cotton Initiatives 38 Spotlight on Sub-Saharan Africa 15 Transitional Cotton 79 Working Toward The Same Goal 39 Bergman Rivera Supports Transitional Cotton 80 Global Cotton Production 16 A Direction of Travel 40 Global Cotton Production 17 ABRAPA 41 Looking Ahead 81 Global Preferred Cotton Production 18 BASF e3™ 43 Our Newest Initiative: The U.S.