Better Cotton — operated by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) — is the world's largest cotton sustainability programme. It aims to make global cotton production better for the farmers growing it, better for the environment and better for the industry's future. For apparel brands, sourcing Better Cotton — or sourcing from BCI member manufacturers — is increasingly a baseline expectation from UK and European retail buyers.
What is Better Cotton?
Better Cotton is not a certified product standard like GOTS — it is a mass balance programme. Better Cotton farmers are trained in more sustainable farming practices — using less water, fewer chemicals and maintaining healthier soil — and the cotton they grow is sold as "Better Cotton" into the commodity market.
Because Better Cotton enters the commodity supply chain (rather than being physically separated and tracked like GOTS organic cotton), a brand using "Better Cotton" cannot guarantee that the specific cotton fibre in their garment came from a Better Cotton farm. Instead, the brand's purchase of Better Cotton supports the programme and the farmers in it — a "mass balance" approach where purchasing credits are matched to Better Cotton volumes produced.
Who Uses Better Cotton?
Better Cotton has over 2,500 member brands and retailers including H&M Group, Inditex (Zara), Adidas, IKEA, Marks & Spencer, Next, Primark and hundreds of others. Its scale — covering over 2.5 million cotton farmers in 22 countries — makes it the dominant cotton sustainability programme globally.
What BCI Membership Means for a Manufacturer
A manufacturer with active BCI membership participates in the Better Cotton supply chain. They source a portion of their cotton as Better Cotton, contributing to the programme's impact on farmers and farming practices. Their BCI membership allows the brands they supply to include Better Cotton in their own sustainability reporting and product claims.
What You Can Say About Better Cotton
Because Better Cotton is a mass balance programme, the claims you can make are specific: "Sourced through the Better Cotton programme" or "We are a member of the Better Cotton Initiative." You cannot say a specific garment "contains Better Cotton" in the same way you would say it "contains GOTS organic cotton" — because the physical fibre is not separated and tracked to that level.
Better Cotton claims must reflect the mass balance nature of the programme. "Sourced through Better Cotton" is compliant. "Made with Better Cotton" implies a physical traceability that the programme does not provide and is therefore potentially misleading.
BCI vs GOTS vs OCS: Which Do You Need?
- BCI — supports sustainable cotton farming. Mass balance, not product-level traceability. Used for programme-level sustainability reporting.
- OCS — verifies organic content traceability through the supply chain to the product. Used for product-level organic content claims.
- GOTS — full supply chain certification for organic textiles. The gold standard for product-level organic claims.
Many brands use BCI as a baseline for all cotton purchasing and GOTS or OCS for specific premium organic product lines. The two approaches complement each other.