Methodology


Company selection

The ranking assessment focuses on consumer-facing companies with significant cotton use (over 10,000 metric tonnes of cotton lint per year). Consumer-facing companies using cotton include apparel brands, supermarket chains, and furniture and department stores. Due to their prominence in their respective markets, their role in encouraging cotton farmers to grow more sustainable cotton, and requiring supply chain actors to source and use it in their products, is central. The assessment focuses on companies rather than the individual brands they own.

While sustainability practices can vary significantly between different brands, entire companies need to change sourcing practices across all their brands to transform cotton cultivation. We selected companies according to sector indices and benchmarks, as well as lists of top companies in the fashion and garment sector and their respective markets. Special attention was given to the inclusion of companies from key emerging markets in India, Brazil, South Africa and China because mainstreaming more sustainable cotton will require most of the largest companies in every major consumer market to commit to its sourcing.

77 COMPANIES ARE ASSESSED:

EUROPE
31
north america
27
asia
14
brazil
3
south africa
2

Assessment questionnaire

A questionnaire covering three areas – policy, actual uptake and traceability – formed the backbone of the company assessment.

policy

Sustainability policies provide a company with a vital foundation and direction for business operations. Publishing a policy is often the first step on the journey to more sustainable cotton sourcing.

uptake

Irrespective of the quality of a sustainability policy, only its implementation can deliver change. To reflect this, the assessment allocated 55% of total available points to scoring uptake of more sustainable cotton, both as a percentage of total volume of cotton used and, to recognise the particular effort of companies using very large volumes of more sustainable cotton, as an absolute figure.

Traceability

Companies must pay attention to the origin of their cotton, who their suppliers are, and how much cotton passes through their supply chain. Such information helps a company and its suppliers build long-lasting relationships that can accelerate transformation of the cotton market towards sustainability. Traceability is also an essential internal decision-making tool for setting and achieving a more sustainable cotton strategy.

TRANSPARENCY

Underpinning this assessment is the expectation that companies report publicly on policy, uptake and traceability. Transparency through public reporting is vital for demonstrating sustainability leadership and enabling accountability to stakeholders. Therefore we assessed companies only on the basis of publicly available information. The one exception was question 9 on volumes of more sustainable cotton used by companies for which we accepted data shared in confidence as this information is often considered to be commercially sensitive.

It is therefore worth noting that in some cases, low scores may reflect a true lack of action on the part of companies while, in other cases, the lack of transparency/public disclosure on efforts taken by a company may also result in a low score.

Question
Maximum number of points
policy
20
1. Does your company have a policy to reduce the impacts of its cotton raw material supply?
2.5
2. Does your company have a policy to address the elimination of highly hazardous pesticide (HHP) use in cotton cultivation?
2.5
3. Does your company have a policy to address the reduction of water use in cotton cultivation?
2.5
4. Does your company have a policy to address biodiversity issues in cotton cultivation?
2.5
5. Does your company have a policy to contribute to recycling of cotton-made products and use recycled cotton?
2.5
6. Does your company have a policy to address labour / human rights violations in relation to cotton cultivation?
2.5
7. Does your company have a time-bound target to achieve 100% sustainable cotton sourcing?
5
UPTAKE
55
8. What percentage of the total volume of cotton used by your company is sourced as sustainable?
50
9. What absolute volume of sustainable cotton does your company source?
5
TRACEABILITY
25
10. Does your company report the absolute volume of all cotton (lint) used?
5
11. Does your company publish a list of finished products (garment & home textiles) manufacturers?
5
12. Does your company publish a list of fabric manufacturers?
5
13. Does your company publish a list of yarn manufacturers?
5
14. Does your company publish a list of the country of origin of the cotton used?
5
total
100

Companies consultation and assessment process

Between July and October 2019, consultancy Aidenvironment carried out the company consultation and assessment process by:

Sending their individual pre-filled questionnaire to companies to gather their feedback;
Sharing initial scores with companies, reviewing and validating additional responses and adjusting points allocation where appropriate;
Validating companies’ responses and determining initial scores;
Determining final scores and analysing results.

Due to the timing of the research, the ranking is based mostly on information published by companies about their performance in 2018, unless otherwise mentioned in the individual company page.

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