Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)
Also known as: Better Cotton
World's largest sustainability programme for conventional cotton, training smallholders in resource-efficient farming and running a mass-balance system in trade.
Description
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), since 2021 simply called Better Cotton, was founded in 2005 with support from IKEA, H&M, WWF and others. Its aim is to grow cotton more sustainably without converting to organic: less pesticide use, more efficient irrigation, healthy soils, fair working conditions. Better Cotton is not comparable to GOTS or Fairtrade — it is a mass-market initiative.
Worldwide more than 22 % of the global cotton crop is now grown to the Better Cotton standard (2023 figures), mainly in India, China, Brazil, Pakistan and the USA. A key feature is the mass-balance system: brands buy "Better Cotton" as a volume, not as physically traceable fibre. An H&M shirt with a Better Cotton label therefore does not necessarily contain BCI cotton — H&M has bought the equivalent volume somewhere in the system.
Critics see potential for greenwashing; supporters argue that mass balance is the only realistic lever for millions of smallholders. Better Cotton is today present in almost every fast-fashion chain and increasingly also in the corporate-wear segment.
Properties
| Issuer | Better Cotton (Geneva), since 2005 |
|---|---|
| Scope | More sustainable cotton in a mass-balance system |
| Label | "We support Better Cotton" or brand claim |
Related product categories
Sources & references
2- Better Cotton offizielle Website Better Cotton https://bettercotton.org/
- Wikipedia: Better Cotton Initiative Wikipedia — Freie Enzyklopädie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Cotton_Initiative
