(Photo Credit: @dietitian.mama on Unsplash)Adidas scored the highest in the 2020 Sustainable Cotton Ranking assessing consumer-facing companies that have significant cotton use. Ikea and H&M Group also ranked near the top.
Pesticide Action Network UK, the international development organization Solidaridad, and the World Wildlife Foundation head up the ranking. The 2020 ranking assessed 77 companies that each use more than 10,000 metric tons of cotton lint annually.
Each company received a questionnaire covering sustainable cotton policy, actual uptake, and traceability. A consultancy carried out the company consultation and assessment process between July and October 2019. The 2020 ranking is mainly based on information that companies published about their performances in 2018.
Overall, Adidas scored 79.2 out of 100 points, up from a score of 47.5 in 2017. The German sportswear company was the best performing and led the way toward cotton sustainability, the ranking said.
The sportswear company sourced 99% of its cotton from Better Cotton and 1% as organic cotton in 2018. “The company is one of the founding members of the Better Cotton Initiative — through which it addresses the elimination of highly hazardous pesticides, reduction of water use, biodiversity restoration, and labor rights violations,” the ranking description said.
In addition, Adidas committed to not sourcing cotton from Uzbekistan and participated in a project to address human rights issues in the Turkish cotton sector. The company has initiatives that contribute to the recycling of cotton-made products. For traceability, the ranking pointed out that Adidas fully disclosed its finished product manufacturers and some of their fabric manufacturers.
Besides Adidas, Ikea, and H&M Group, the other companies “leading the way” according to the ranking are C&A, Otto Group, Marks and Spencer Group, Levi Strauss & Company, Tchibo, Nike, Decathlon Group, and Bestseller.
Companies with scores that landed them in the “well on the way” category included Gap, Inc., Tesco, Benetton Group, Esprit, PVH, Columbia Sportswear Company, Hugo Boss, and Target.
VF Corporation scored 23.4, which put the company at the top of the “starting the journey” group. Although they publish the absolute volume of sustainable cotton sourced, the company doesn’t publish the percentage, the ranking said. The company also didn’t provide information about suppliers, according to the ranking. VF Corporation was joined in the category by Zara owner Inditex, American Eagle Outfitters, Walmart, Carrefour, and Ralph Lauren.
Quite a few companies scored zero, for the most part because they did not respond to the questionnaire. Among them were Amazon.com, Express, Foot Locker Retail, Forever21, Giorgio Armani, Hanesbrands, Max Mara Fashion Group, New Yorker Group, Nordstrom, and Samsung C&T Fashion Group.
“Conventional cotton presents many environmental and socio-economic challenges, which sustainable cotton helps to address,” PAN UK, Solidaridad, and WWF said. “While the production of more sustainable cotton has never been higher, still only 25% of what’s available is actively sourced by companies.”
