Making sustainable cotton part of our fabric

16 August 2017

Sainsbury’s has joined other leading fashion brands in committing to using 100% sustainable cotton by 2025. We made the pledge at a high-level meeting attended by the Prince of Wales and organised by the Prince’s International Sustainability Unit.

The 12 other major companies signing up to the Sustainable Cotton Communiqué in May 2017 included ASOS, H&M, Levi Strauss & Co, IKEA and Nike. Together, the participating brands use more than 300,000 tonnes of cotton each year. Among other commitments, we have each agreed to report annually on our ratio of sustainable cotton use.

The world’s favourite fibre

Cotton is the world’s most widely produced natural fibre, supporting the livelihoods of more than 350 million people. However, currently less than one fifth of all cotton used is grown sustainably. Non-sustainable cotton production faces various environmental and social challenges. Around 6% of all pesticides used go on cotton production, despite the crop covering just 2.4% of the world's arable land.

"Nearly 100 million rural families directly depend on cotton production."

Peter Melchett, Soil Association

Water scarcity

Cotton also needs enormous quantities of water, with about 2,720 litres used to make just one t-shirt. This is likely to become a huge problem if, as expected, climate change leads to severe water shortages in some areas.

Industrial cotton production methods are also a problem for many cotton farmers and their families. High numbers are affected by the over-use of pesticides and fertilizers, rising production costs, and volatile market prices.

100%

sustainable cotton is our aim for 2020

A perfect fit

James Brown, Commercial Director for Sainsbury's Argos, said: “We are proud to be one of the first signatories of the Sustainable Cotton Communiqué. “The pledge to use only sustainable cotton by 2025 is a perfect fit with our Sustainability Plan, which commits us to source all of our key raw materials – including cotton – sustainably to an independent standard.”

Coincidentally, the communiqué debuted in the same week that Sainsbury’s took a significant step towards that Sustainability Plan goal, with the launch of our new Sustainability Standards. This ground-breaking new management framework will support farmers of our 35 key crops and ingredients in meeting the highest sustainability standards.

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