The world is changing. The cotton industry is making sure its image is changing in pace with it.
Vision 21 is a new initiative to analyze the cotton industry from the ground up, to make certain the industry has a credible foundation for sustainability. The new analysis, organized by The Cotton Foundation, the National Cotton Council (NCC), Cotton Council International (CCI) and Cotton Incorporated, is expected to take about a year to complete. The industry groups have tapped PE Americas, international experts in sustainability, to conduct the analysis.
"The goal of the collection of this current, third-party and peer-reviewed data is that it will become a gold standard for manufacturers, brands and retailers interested in bettering their environmental bottom line," says J. Berrye Worsham, president and CEO of Cotton Incorporated. Worsham adds it will also serve to further demonstrate the environmental gains the US cotton industry continues to make along every link of the supply chain.
NCC president and chief executive officer Mark Lange notes the US cotton industry is confident that a transparent and well-documented cotton lifecycle inventory - one that easily can be integrated into both proprietary and open source LCA software - will benefit the industry. And, along with data set collection and tool creation, the ultimate goal is to make the information globally available.
Learn more about the new project at Cotton Today.