Sustainability in the Cotton Industry

The Cotton Industry has serious environmental and socio-economic effects, and the manufacturing methods are quite unsustainable. It needs a better supply chain transparency.

In this day and age, if you turn on your TV or scroll through your newsfeed, chances are you’ll read another article on water contamination or human rights abuses. These are disturbing news, and the cotton industry is no stranger to them. As a consumer, you begin to feel concerned with the brands you’re buying from. The products you purchase might have a significant impact on the environment or the local communities.

For example, do you know how much water goes into the cotton clothes you usually buy? About 10330 litres for one jacket, and that’s just to grow the cotton to make the clothes. As a consumer, when you find that out, you begin to think twice before buying a 100% cotton t-shirt. There are small changes that each of us can make, and we feel good making them, especially if they have such a significant impact on the world.

This is why sustainability is one of the consumers’ main concerns at the moment. Sustainable products are more than a buzz, and they might become a necessity in the future. Customers are growing more and more concerned with how their purchases affect the world. What is more, governments have developed new stimulants and regulations that motivate companies to check on their suppliers.

The UK requires companies to examine their supply chains and cut ties with suppliers engaging in human slavery. But in the end, it all lies in how you manage your supply chain’s visibility and transparency.

The Cotton Industry Needs a Better Supply Chain Transparency

We are all familiar with cotton. It doesn’t need any presentation. According to WWF, cotton is the most far-reaching non-food crop in the world. The cotton industry provides income for more than 250 million people worldwide. Almost 7% of the labour from developing countries are working in the cotton manufacturing industry. Roughly half of all the textiles in the world are made of cotton.

So, yes, cotton is massive. Nevertheless, the current cotton manufacturing methods are quite unsustainable. Conventional cotton is environmentally destructive. Organic cotton, on the other hand, is more eco-friendly. So, cotton in itself is not that harmful. However, the rate at which the world grows and manufactures cotton is dangerous to the environment.

Cotton is pretty versatile. It is a natural, strong, breathable and absorbent fibre that can be recycled. In addition, you can mix it with other fibres to create exciting blends.

So, when you put it like this, cotton has a pretty sustainable, renewable and biodegradable potential.

Nevertheless, the conventional cotton manufacturing process is not like that, and it’s probably time to shed some light on it.

1. Cotton farming damages the soil

Cotton has been cultivated for more than 70 years in pretty much the same areas, which has greatly damaged the soil. As those fields have been drained of nutrients, cotton farming has extended to newer areas. As a consequence, other natural habitats will get destroyed.

2. Conventional cotton farming uses pesticides

Pesticides keep the insects away from the crop. However, at the same time, they pollute the water supplies and soil. Some of them even end up in the very clothes we wear.

What is more, the dyes used to make the clothes are not safe for the environment either, especially if they are dumped in the waterways as waste.

3. Cotton is very “thirsty.”

The cotton industry is very thirsty. To grow cotton, you need a lot of water, more than you can get from rain. The irrigations used for cotton manufacturing have already contributed to the drying out of the Aral Sea in Central Asia.

All these are facts that are less-known to the wider population. Nevertheless, when a consumer reads an article or watches a video exposing the real damage done by the cotton industry, he is utterly bewildered.

There’s no real transparency into how cotton manufacturing works. Not a single peek is allowed inside. So, when you first find out that the t-shirt you’ve just bought took more than 10,000 litres of water to make, you become worried. You begin to look for other alternatives.

Is There Such a Thing as Cotton Sustainability?

Cotton does have a sustainable potential. We’re not saying, “Stop cotton production now!”. Instead, “start cotton sustainability and transparency now!”.

Organic cotton is more sustainable from the picking to the processing. It uses 91% less fresh water and a third of the energy needed to make conventional cotton.

Unfortunately, organic cotton production costs a lot more, and the bigger companies are not giving up on conventional cotton any time soon.

A regular brand with regular resources needs an immense capacity to be able to show full transparency without damaging its image.

There are both environmental and socio-economic problems in the cotton industry. What we think is needed is a little bit of transparency from top to bottom.

The Promise and Dangers of Supply Chain Transparency

Supply chain transparency works on two tiers:

1. Collecting data from all the nodes in your supply chain à Visibility
2. Disseminating the information, both internally and externally à Disclosure

Now, the main questions are:

1. What information do you communicate internally, and in what detail?
2. What information do you communicate externally, and to what extent?

With most companies, the answers to these two questions define their corporate culture and values. Unfortunately or fortunately, supply chain transparency means different things to different companies.

A brand specialising in sustainable grocery products will go to any lengths to collect data from its supply chain nodes and communicate them to the public. They will choose their suppliers very carefully because on this depends the very promise of their brand – sustainability.

Sustainability is a noble cause, and it also sells. It could serve as a very good brand promise. Nevertheless, you should walk the talk and provide your clients with truly sustainable products.

For this, you need visibility into your whole supply chain. You will need a whole network of people visiting your suppliers and checking on their manufacturing methods at all times. They will strike deals on your behalf, maybe even collaborate to innovate together. Everything is done behind transparent doors.

When you have clean suppliers and a clean manufacturing process, communicating them to the public should pose no problem, whether it’s about the cotton industry or not.

What is more, companies who prove transparency and a liberal disclosure of information also attract more talent and more potential business partners.

Impact investing is still hot. Investing in organisations to generate both financial returns and measurable social and environmental changes is a thing. The ESG ratings (Environmental. Social. Governance) are crucial in this respect.

Of course, there are also the dangers of going for too-expensive digitalised solutions for transparency. There is also the peril of not targeting the right audience interested in sustainable products.

You cannot put in place a proper digitalised supply chain transparency model that functions autonomously. You need people to help you with that – the right people. Transparency is done through people communicating. Learn more – let’s talk!