The second and final day of the Better Cotton Conference was filled with insights and debate on a variety of different topics: from the importance of data and the benefits/drawbacks of traceability, to the real incentives of comprehensive due diligence and reporting.
Many of the day’s participants spoke about the importance of high quality, sustainable cotton in today’s global economy, a sentiment echoed by Michael Kobori, a global sustainability advisor and former Better Cotton Council member, who declared: “The uncertainty in the world… is going to make [Better Cotton] stronger, it’s going to make us more resilient, and it’s going to make us more effective.”
Better Cotton Becomes a Regenerative Standard
Furthering our commitment to protect and restore the environment, Better Cotton will complete the remaining steps to become a regenerative standard within the next 12 months.
Making the announcement at this year’s conference, Eva Benavidez Clayton, Senior Director of Demand and Engagement at Better Cotton, said: “It is increasingly clear that we need approaches that don’t simply mitigate or reduce harm, but that actively restore the environment.”
“While Better Cotton’s field level standard is already recognised to cover many of the core tenets of regenerative agriculture, this move will further ensure that farmers who meet our standard are adopting the most commonly agreed regenerative practices.”
The Morning Plenary: Deepening Impact with Data – Unlocking Insights for a Stronger Cotton Industry
Our third keynote speaker, Christian Hudson from GIZ, opened this morning’s theme with an insightful discussion on maximizing the impact and the value of data collected by farmers, field facilitators and other supply chain actors. He highlighted that “farmers collecting data don’t often see the benefits” – a harsh reminder that data collection and processing systems must benefit everyone involved.
This was followed by a thought-provoking panel which looked at the trade-off between data collection and impact maximisation. Better Cotton’s Vidyun Rathore led the insightful discussion and left the audience with an important question as she closed the session: “Are we collecting data to improve impact or is the demand for data itself becoming a barrier to delivering impact?”
Finally, the morning concluded with an intense debate over whether traceability is a tool which empowers farmers to announce themselves to retailers and brands internationally, or it still only serves as a risk assessment for companies that gives them unchecked control over farmers.
The Afternoon Plenary: Shaping our Future – Policy, Collaboration and Industry Evolution
In the final afternoon of the conference, participants delved into how policy is shaping the cotton industry and how we can navigate this effectively without losing sight of our legal and moral objectives. Our final keynote speaker, Michael Kobori, started the sessions off by speaking about how drastically the role of companies has shifted in the spearheading of environmental and social progress. “We’re not being as aggressive as we once were,” he announced when speaking about the struggles of fighting for a better future during uncertain times.
In a very interactive session about where ethics begin after obligations end in the corporate world, discussions turned to how much we can rely on business ethics to pick up the slack. Here, Pallavi Sharma of Beyond Human Rights Compliance suggested that other national and international legislation “will allow people to hold companies accountable”.
In the final session of the day, panellists spoke in detail about how collaboration, not only within cotton but between different commodities, can help everyone create more aligned sustainability strategies and drive greater collective impact.
