Better Cotton Initiative hails H&M as leader in sustainable cotton use

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 25, 2019

There may be a certain amount of scepticism around big company commitment to sustainability, but on Tuesday, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) said its retailer and brand members sourced more than one million metric tonnes of Better Cotton during 2018. 

That was a 45% increase year-on-year and BCI said it “sends a clear signal to the market that Better Cotton is becoming a sustainable mainstream commodity.”

Importantly too, it stressed that while all of its members contributed to sustainable cotton growth, the top users include some of the biggest companies producing fashion product globally.

In terms of volumes used, the top 15 accounted for 88% of the material that was sourced last year. H&M managed number one position, with Ikea in silver medal spot and Gap taking bronze. Adidas and Nike rounded out the top five, ahead of Levi Strauss, C&A, PVH, VF, and Bestseller completing the top 10. The next five were Decathlon, Target, M&S, Tesco and OVS.

BCI said that for some of its members, Better Cotton accounted for more than 90% of total cotton used with Adidas, Hema, Marimekko and Stadium on that list, while for Decathlon, Fatface, H&M, and Ikea, the figure was 75%+. 

And some brands upped their sustainable cotton usage by more than 20 percentage points last year, with Benetton, Burberry, Fatface, Gant, Gap, Hema, La Redoute, Marimekko, Nike, Olymp Bezner, Peak Performance, PVH and Stadium all achieving that goal.