US fashion brand Guess has become the latest to join The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a not-for-profit organisation that offers training to farmers on ways to use water efficiently, care for the health of the soil and natural habitats, reduce the use of the most harmful chemicals and apply decent work principles while cotton cultivation.
GUESS is excited to join BCI and the industry movement to improve the standards for global cotton production.
Markedly, H&M, Inditex, Puma, IKEA, Adidas and United Colors of Benetton are some of the brands that are already a member of the sustainable initiative. All in all, approximately 350 brands support the Better Cotton Initiative.
BCI members are committed to supporting a more sustainable future for cotton production. They pay a fee to BCI based on the volume of cotton sourced as ‘Better Cotton’. The amount is then utilised by BCI to train 1.6 million farmers associated with it on sustainable practices like reducing the usage of water and pesticides and addressing gender equality and child labour issues.
The fashion retailer will publicise its official goals for sustainable cotton sourcing later this year. “It’s become quite evident that we need to take the proper steps to source more sustainable cotton in the GUESS supply chain as cotton is used in many of our products,” the company said. Notably, raw material production, mainly cotton, uses 64% water.
