Celebrating Cotton LEADS℠ Partners and Their Sustainable Impact
April 22, 2022

If you’ve read any materials on science based targets for sustainability, you know that it takes the entire supply chain to make progress. The Cotton LEADS℠ program has long emphasized accountability down the chain to create large-scale opportunities for sustainable cotton production. That’s why this Earth Day, we’re celebrating our Cotton LEADS℠ partners that are incorporating sustainable cotton production into their sustainability efforts. Read on for four stories of companies extending the impact of sustainable cotton down the supply chain and into consumers’ lives.

Pareto

Founded by Jess Landzberg and Olivia Bordson, Pareto is a clothing brand designed around the simple but significant principle that the constant drive for “more” in fashion isn’t sustainable for anyone — consumers, brands, supply chains or the planet. What’s more, in their research before founding the company, Landzberg and Bordson discovered that most women wear 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time. Pareto targets making that 20% — the timeless capsule pieces that women constantly turn to — as sustainable as possible.

Limiting the quantity of their offerings makes a huge impact on Pareto’s sustainability from the start in a way that most other fashion brands aren’t considering. As Landzberg says, “No matter how sustainably made it is, every garment or product has a footprint.” Pareto’s smaller product line also allows them to work directly with each member of their supply chain, all the way back to the cotton grower, to ensure quality and sustainability practices at every product stage.

Read more about how Pareto built their uniquely sustainable supply chain in our Partner Q&A.  

Walmart México

As Walmart’s largest company outside the U.S., Walmart de México y Centroamérica fully appreciates the responsibility and potential for impact associated with its size. They’ve set landmark sustainability goals, one of which is to become a regenerative company by 2040. Sustainable cotton plays a central role in their efforts since it is used in practically every clothing category and more than 90% of the cotton used to make the garments by our major brands sold at Bodega Aurrera and Walmart Supercenter comes from the U.S.

Walmart de México y Centroamérica proudly displays both the Seal of Cotton® trademark and the Cotton LEADS℠ logo on garments throughout its stores — and in its social and general media. It also uses the scale of its media reach to create awareness about climate change, the circular economy and natural capital.

Perú Textiles

For Perú Textiles, sustainability starts with people. Each garment they make contains generations of heritage woven into it, and each thread that comes together in cotton garments’ production affects all those around it. Perú Textiles partners with the Cotton LEADS℠ program because they choose to make the fabrics that connect their people from sustainable cotton fibers. They see preservation of the future as a way to respect the more than 5,000 years of ancestral knowledge in their garments and a way to foster human success stories.

Watch their partner video to learn more about the people and mills that contribute to Perú Textiles’ sustainability story.

SHASA

Like so many companies, SHASA began their sustainability journey by improving energy efficiency and recycling in their operations, but they quickly realized they needed to expand efforts externally. That’s when they launched their “The Future Is In Your Hands” campaign. As part of this initiative, SHASA prints Cotton Inc’s Seal of Cotton^® trademark on an entire line of products and has created a search tool on their website for customers seeking cotton products. At the end of 2021, SHASA had more than 500,000 products under “The Future Is In Your Hands” concept.

Learn more about how their Cotton LEADS℠ partnership helped SHASA make their sustainability campaign possible in their partner profile.

Cotton LEADS℠ is proud to work with partners who take the excellent stewardship of the land and sustainability efforts that begin with U.S. cotton farmers and extend it throughout the lifecycle of the product. It’s important to note though that a garment’s impact extends even beyond production and purchase to what happens once it’s served its purpose for consumers. As part of our ongoing Earth Day celebration, we’re exploring the next step: end of life solutions for textiles. Though recycling seems a logical, sustainable solution, technical and economic obstacles mean textile recycling hasn’t reached its full potential…but it could soon.

Learn more about the potential of cotton recycling by watching a recording of our webinar, Recycling Textiles: Exploring the Possibilities of Recycled Cotton.