AMSTERDAM – Organic cotton and the Better Cotton Initiative will collaborate more closely moving forwards. In an exclusive interview with Apparel Insider, Crispin Argento, executive director of the Organic Cotton Accelerator, said the organisations have much to gain by working more closely, and also suggested the imment launch of OCA 2.0 “will serve as organic cotton’s answer to BCI.”
The language of collaboration here is a notable change of tack on years gone by. Argento said one of the first things he did when taking up his role with the OCA is fly to London to meet the BCI. “My message was ‘the nonsense is over, we are together on this,’” Argento told us, in an interview which will appear in the next printed edition of Apparel Insider.
This insight of a willingness to collaborate between BCI and organic is, for us, a hugely symbolic moment for the sustainable cotton sector as a whole. Moreover, if recent noises from BCI are anything to go by, there is a mutual keenness to work more closely moving forwards. It can only bode well.
Asked further about this, Argento told us: “We have learned a lot from BCI and BCI continues to learn a lot from OCA and the organic cotton sector, including the organic cotton farmers. As early champions developing a global sustainable cotton platform that is viable, scalable and designed for continuous improvement in the supply chain and at the farm, we have learned a lot and much of that has informed the model we have created around OCA 2.0.
“This is why OCA and BCI are committed to working closer together in a way that is mutually-beneficial for brands, farmers and making impact at scale. We both recognise we are truly better together. Having 100 million farmer households in mind, we are working closely with BCI to find alignment and co-leverage the resources and investments being made by brands, suppliers, and so on to create greater impact, together.”
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