Today, we continue our deep dive into cotton — after sharing its definition, origin and impact, we're now highlighting a few different approaches and promising alternatives to traditional cotton that are emerging. The most well-known alternative to conventional cotton is organic cotton. The term ‘organic cotton’ refers to cotton grown without the use of synthetic chemicals or GMO’s and a production system that supports, enhances and sustains its surrounding ecosystem including soil health and biodiversity as well as farmer communities. Organic cotton always needs to meet organic agriculture certification standards to ensure the aforementioned aspects are respected. Despite these clear advantages, organic cotton does not come without any issues in terms of impact on the environment and people — both conventional and organic cotton cultivation face challenges in terms of water use and a lack of traceability which can conceal issues around unfair labour conditions. The transition period of switching from conventional to organic cotton cultivation initially comes with the need for investments as well as lower output and income for farmers — that's why initiatives supporting farmer communities such as @ocaccelerator are essential to enable the transition to organic cotton! Although organic cotton still faces some challenges, it is a positive step in the right direction towards a more sustainable industry. While the demand for organic cotton still outstrips supply, it is equally important to diversify the use of raw materials that can supplement the use of conventional cotton. There are many incredible innovators and amazing new technologies emerging that offer textiles with similar properties to cotton focusing on textile-to-textile fibre regeneration — such as @infinitedfiber and @circ_earth — or using alternative raw materials — like @spinnova_fibre and @agraloop. Swipe to read more about these innovations 🙌 As always, when in doubt: check the label, choose organic, look for certifications, research alternatives and try shopping your own closet! Over the next weeks, we'll dive into further into certifications related to cotton — stay tuned 👀