Technology will now track India’s cotton as it moves throughout the supplier networks of participating brands and retailers as Better Cotton pilots innovative traceability technologies as part of its ongoing work to revise its Chain of Custody (CoC) model.
TRANSPARENCY SOLUTIONS: Digital and physical traceability solutions from Retraced, TextileGenesis, Haelixa, and Tailorlux are currently being tested to determine the best way to establish greater transparency across cotton supply chains.
- Being done in collaboration with companies like C&A, Marks & Spencer, Target, and Walmart, the project will see each technology track cotton as it moves throughout the supplier networks of participating brands and retailers.
- It will help establish greater visibility of the journey cotton takes from field to fashion and provide an opportunity to test advanced solutions ahead of Better Cotton offering traceability at a limited scale this year.
- Both digital and physical traceability solutions are being deployed in discrete cotton supply chains to assess their performance, with the results set to inform the scaled direction of Better Cotton’s traceability programme.
THE COTTON FIELDS: There are over one million Better Cotton farmers in India, and it is one of the largest producers of Better Cotton globally.
- However, domestic supply chains are amongst the most complex in the world and are far more fragmented than in other regions. Until now, it has been difficult to get a holistic view of traceability in the supply chain. Better Cotton’s new traceability system will need to align and eventually go beyond the capabilities of existing traceability solutions to provide full end-to-end visibility.
- With physical traceability, Better Cotton will be able to verify the provenance of certified materials with greater accuracy. This pilot programme will expand upon Better Cotton’s Chain of Custody framework that incorporates the concept of “mass balance” – a widely-used volume-tracking system.
- Mass balance allows Better Cotton to be substituted or mixed with conventional cotton by traders or spinners along the supply chain while ensuring that the amount of Better Cotton sold never exceeds the amount of Better Cotton produced.
- The new traceability framework will allow greater flexibility and visibility of the physical flow of cotton through supply chains as the network grows.
THE PLAYERS: Digital traceability is being provided by leading platforms, Retraced and TextileGenesis. Better Cotton is also trialling two additive tracers, Haelixa and Tailorlux, before determining the potential of each solution. These traceability pilot activities are supported in part by the Verité STREAMS project, a traceability project funded by the US Department of Labour.
- Better Cotton is the world’s largest cotton sustainability programme, helping cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment. In the 2020-21 cotton season, Better Cotton’s network of field-level partners reached 3.9 million people, and 2.9 million farmers in 26 countries received training on sustainable farming practices. A fifth of the world’s cotton is now grown under the Better Cotton Standard.
- Retraced is one of the leading platforms for sustainable and transparent supply chain management for the fashion and textile industry. Its global network digitally connects all participants along the entire supply chain — from farmers and ginners to brands and retailers. The automated data collection in one central location not only enables efficient use of resources, but also provides a previously missing overview.
- TextileGenesis ensures the authenticity and provenance of sustainable textiles against generics. The innovative system engages all 5-6 tiers of the textile ecosystem to create radical supply chain traceability and is currently used by 5000+ suppliers across 45+ countries. By 2023 summer, TextileGenesis will be tracking around 200 million sustainable products from material origin to retail across all five tiers of supply chain.
- Haelixa pioneers the development and commercialisation of physical product traceability solutions to ensure full end-to-end supply-chain consumer good traceability, with a focus on sustainably manufactured products. Based on DNA markers, the Haelixa technology is physically applied to the material and stays linked to it, providing a traceable physical fingerprint from producer to retail.
- Tailorlux was founded in 2009 and implements industrial marking solutions to protect and prove the integrity of materials and products. Tailorlux’ IntegriTEX is an innovative traceability system designed to ensure the authenticity and identity of fibres and textile products. The system is based on tracer fibres that contain inorganic markers and can be read out by Tailorlux’ sensor devices.
WHAT THEY SAID:
After consulting with our members across the supply chain and getting to grips with their needs and pain points, we’ve taken those learnings and tested solutions in India to bring traceable Better Cotton to life. What we’ve found is helping us to prepare to offer a scalable new system to our members as early as this year. Not only will this benefit our members, but it will benefit farmers who implement sustainable agricultural practices by ensuring they can continue to access increasingly regulated markets.
— Alan McClay
Chief Executive Officer
Better Cotton
At M&S, we source 100% of the cotton for our clothing from more responsible sources, however, across the industry the global supply chain remains particularly complex. Since 2021, we have been proud partners working with Better Cotton to improve cotton farming globally. We’re delighted to be building on our partnership and trialling innovative new traceability solutions in India’s cotton supply chains, in order to revolutionise the wider industry.
— Katharine Beacham
Head of Materials and Sustainability
Marks & Spencer
