#Raw Materials

2024-06-27

Better Cotton announces 2024 Member Award winners

Better Cotton announced the recipients of its 2024 Member Awards. This year’s awards – presented by Alan McClay, CEO of Better Cotton and Eva Benavidez Clayton, Senior Director of Membership and Supply Chain – honoured members who have made an outstanding contribution to the cotton industry.

Abdurrahim Yada from IPUD (left) and Alan McClay from Better Cotton (right) at Better Cotton Member Awards. Location: Istanbul, Türkiye, 2024. Photo credit: Evronas/Better Cotton.

In the 2021/2022 season, Better Cotton Retailer and Brand Members sourced an impressive 2.6 million tonnes of Better Cotton, accounting for more than 10% of the global cotton production.

The ceremony took place during a dinner cruise along the Bosphorus as part of the two-day Better Cotton Conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, which gathered over 200 industry representatives to discuss ‘accelerating impact’ at field level.

"It’s a great privilege to once again host our Member Awards and celebrate the dedication and unrelenting efforts of our partners. Transformative change within the cotton sector is predicated on collaboration at all levels, and as Better Cotton’s network continues to grow it’s important that we take stock of the progress we continue to make as an industry", said Alan McClay, Chief Executive Officer at Better Cotton.

The 2024 Better Cotton Member Award Winners are:

The Top Contributor Award, in recognition of the organisations with the highest uptake of Better Cotton relative to their use of the material, went to:

+ Walmart, for its significant uptake of Better Cotton in the large to very large member category

+ John Lewis Partnership, for its significant uptake of Better Cotton in the very small to medium sized member category

The Sourcing Award, in recognition of cotton traders and intermediaries who processed the highest volume of Better Cotton, went to:

+ Cargill Commodities, for its role in sourcing the highest volumes of Better Cotton in the cotton trader category

+ Vicunha Têxtil, for its role in sourcing the highest volumes of Better Cotton in the intermediary category

The Impact Storyteller Award, in recognition of the organisation whose field-level insights generated the most interest on the Better Cotton website in the past 12 months, went to:

+ Cotton Egypt Association, for featuring a story which shone a light on the people behind Better Cotton’s growing programme in Egypt, exploring the work underway to expand sustainable cotton production in the Nile Delta.

The Innovators Award, in recognition of the organisation for positively impacting farmers, fostering sustainable practices and improving livelihoods, went to:

+ CABI, for its multifaceted work in Pakistan which has included the creation of a national organic agriculture policy for Pakistan that is currently being assessed by the country’s Ministry of Food Security and Research. If approved, the policy is expected to strengthen and build bridges between stakeholders working to promote sustainability.

The Outstanding Contribution Award, in recognition of Member organisations and their commitment to cotton farming communities, went to:

+ Iyi Pamuk Uygulamalari Dernegi (IPUD), for implementing Better Cotton’s activities in Türkiye since 2013.

BCI warns against ‘dangerous dilution’ of EU corporate directives

The approval of the European Commission’s Omnibus I proposal by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs, accepting controversial changes to key sustainability directives is of great concern. These changes, namely to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), threaten to significantly dilute business reporting and due diligence obligations.

World Cotton Trade declined 4.1% in 2024/25, according to ICAC's 2025 World Cotton Trade Report

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ICAC releases 2025 edition of the Specialty Cotton Report

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Fashion For Good launches “Beyond50 Denim” to address hemp integration barriers in global denim production

Fashion for Good, together with leading global brands BESTSELLER, C&A, PDS Limited, Reformation, and Target, launched Beyond50 Denim: Combining Cottonised Hemp and Green Chemistry, a project accelerating the use of hemp as an alternative to conventional cotton in denim. By combining two pioneering innovations (SEFF’s Nano-Pulse™ cottonised hemp fibres and FIBRE52™’s proprietary chemistry formulations with soft handfeel), the project seeks to demonstrate that hemp-based denim can match or even surpass cotton in both performance and appeal.

Spinnova and Rieter to publish a yarn spinning guideline for industrial partners

Spinnova and Rieter have published a comprehensive yarn spinning guideline for industrial partners, detailing how to produce compact yarn from SPINNOVA® fibre using Rieter’s state-of-the-art machinery. The step-by-step guide outlines key considerations at each stage of the spinning process and is available upon request.

T-CAN – Revolutionizing can transport

In virtually all spinning mills, transporting sliver cans is still done manually. Rising labor costs, lack of operators and increasing quality requirements make this a growing challenge. With T-CAN, Trützschler introduces a practical solution: a fully automated can transport system that will be presented live at ITMA ASIA 2025 in Singapore.

Francois Guetat joins Suominen as COO

Francois Guetat brings over two decades of global experience in operations, supply chain, and manufacturing excellence. Most recently, he served as SVP of Integrated Supply Chain at Kalmar, where he led business across sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and strategy. His leadership has been shaped by 22 years at Volvo, where he held key roles in Sweden, USA, and Poland.

DuPont™ Nomex® plant in Asturias receives ISCC PLUS certification

DuPont announced today that its Nomex® production facility in Tamón, Asturias, has received International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS) certification. This achievement underscores DuPont's commitment to advancing its sustainability goals and building capabilities to provide reliable Nomex® solutions from sustainable raw materials worldwide.

From concept to stage: Submit presentations for the Techtextil Forum and Texprocess Forum 2026 now

Anyone who wants to contribute to shaping the future of the textile industry can submit a presentation for the Techtextil and Texprocess Forum by 15 December 2025. Both stages represent innovation and practical solutions and promote exchange between research and industry. An international Programme Committee selects the contributions and curates a programme on key future topics in the textile sector. From 21 to 24 April 2026, the two leading trade fairs will once again be the centre of global business dialogue in Frankfurt.