Better Cotton commits to regenerative agriculture standard with new CEO leadership

The 2025 annual conference of Better Cotton, the world's largest cotton sustainability initiative, marked a significant transition for the organisation, signalling a new chapter defined by fresh leadership and a stronger environmental commitment. Held in İzmir, Türkiye, the event gathered over 370 participants from more than 20 countries, including cotton farmers, field-level partners, industry leaders, and policymakers, creating a vibrant forum for critical discussions on gender equality, climate finance, traceability, and collaborative sustainability efforts across commodities.

This year’s conference was notable for the leadership handover from Alan McClay, who concluded a decade-long tenure as CEO, to Nick Weatherill, formerly Executive Director of the International Cocoa Initiative. McClay reflected on Better Cotton’s journey, emphasising the need for the organisation to become a more vocal and influential force within the wider sustainability and agricultural policy landscape. He noted, “For too many years we’ve been doing our own thing almost under the radar to the extent that some legislation now gets passed without even knowing the constraints and the opportunities, the conditions and the impact that this can have on several hundred of million of farmers around the world.” Weatherill pledged to safeguard the legacy and momentum his predecessor leaves behind, signalling continuity and renewed vigour for Better Cotton’s mission.

A pivotal announcement at the conference was Better Cotton’s commitment to transform into a regenerative agriculture standard within the next year. This shift reflects a strategic move beyond harm reduction towards actively restoring the ecosystems that cotton farming impacts. As Better Cotton's Senior Director of Demand and Engagement, Eva Benavidez Clayton, explained, “It is increasingly clear that we need approaches that don’t simply mitigate or reduce harm, but that actively restore the environment.” The transition involves revising the organisation’s Principles & Criteria, intensifying training for certification bodies, and enhancing the capacities of Better Cotton Programme Partners worldwide. An outcome-based reporting framework will underpin these efforts, ensuring transparency and accountability in the adoption of regenerative practices such as soil enrichment, biodiversity enhancement, water conservation, and reduced reliance on chemical inputs.

Better Cotton’s transition to a regenerative standard is both timely and necessary. Regenerative agriculture stands as a vital approach to tackling the environmental challenges inherent in large-scale cotton production, addressing issues such as soil degradation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss while supporting the livelihoods of farming communities. The move builds on Better Cotton’s existing standard, which already incorporates numerous core regenerative tenets, but formalises these and expands commitments to better support farmers globally.

Central to the conference’s theme, ‘It Starts with Farmers’, was a clear focus on elevating the voices and experiences of cotton farmers and field-level organisations from diverse cotton-growing regions, including Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, India, Pakistan, the US, and Uzbekistan. Discussions acknowledged that sustainable change must begin on the ground with farmers themselves, an ethos reinforced by McClay who stated, “While it takes all of us to create lasting change, real progress must start with farmers.” A provocative panel debate on the benefits of traceability for farmers captured the complexities and opportunities of digital tools in agriculture, concluding with a majority verdict supporting traceability as a potentially beneficial system for farmers.

Further spotlighting Better Cotton’s local impact, the organisation unveiled its first United States Impact Report, covering a decade of activity from 2014 to 2024. The report presents comprehensive data on cotton acreage, production, practice adoption, water usage, and inputs, enriched by farmer profiles and project case studies. This reflects Better Cotton’s commitment to adapting its global framework to local contexts, translating broad sustainability goals into meaningful, practical outcomes for cotton farmers.

The 2025 Better Cotton Conference thus marked a definitive evolution for the initiative, characterised by leadership renewal, an ambitious pivot towards regenerative agriculture, and a reinforced focus on farmer-centric solutions. These developments underscore Better Cotton’s intent to not only sustain but also regenerate the landscapes and communities integral to cotton production while positioning itself more prominently in global sustainability dialogues and policymaking.