Better Cotton joins Clinton Global Initiative to support sustainable farming

Non-profit group Better Cotton has joined the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in its efforts to support more sustainable agricultural practices.

As part of the initiative, Better Cotton will work with smallholder farmers “to pioneer an insetting mechanism to promote and incentivize sustainable agricultural practices”.

The organisation said it is committed to developing a cotton-specific carbon insetting accounting framework to be integrated into the Better Cotton traceability platform.

Better Cotton’s traceability system is set to be launched in 2023, “and will provide the backbone for the insetting mechanism”, enabling retail companies “to know who grew their more sustainable cotton, and allow them to incentivize farmers directly with credits”.

“We are pleased to be a part of the CGI community,” said Better Cotton CEO Alan McClay in a release. “This will amplify our work with smallholder farmers, and ultimately help us achieve our goals of enabling farmers to profit from implementing more sustainable practices in cotton growing.”

McClay said the move will also “further build the business case for traceability up and down the supply chain and enable brands to have more insight into who grows the cotton in their products”.

Better Cotton is a non-profit organisation that promotes and teaches better standards in cotton farming across 21 countries.

CGI, which was set up by former US president Bill Clinton in 2005, convenes global and emerging leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.