Primark has announced the expansion of its Sustainable Cotton Programme to 160,000 farmers across India, Pakistan and China who will be trained in more ecologically friendly practices by the end of 2022.
Consumers will likely be pleased to be seeing more “Primark cares” labels on their clothing but its promise of “sustainable cotton” is vague.
In March, the brand announced the scheme, launched in 2013, had resulted in a sustainable cotton jeans line for customers. The news was largely applauded but some skeptical consumers accused the Irish budget fashion brand of greenwashing.
One Twitter user @monstersn16 wrote: “Primark has just launched sustainable cotton jeans, this gesture feels very token in the wake of its fast fashion business model.”
Another, @notjustanyjay, said, “How can £13 ($16) jeans be sustainable?”
So what does the scheme really mean for cotton farmers and the environment?
The Sustainable Cotton Programme is a three-year training scheme for farmers, funded by Primark, devised by responsible cotton growing experts Cotton Connect and delivered through community centers run by trade union SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Network).
During the three years, farmers learn techniques that will lower the environmental impact and improve yields. These include companion planting to use other flora nearby that drive pests away from cotton and using cow dung as a natural fertilizer and pesticide.
While many of these are techniques used by organic cotton farmers, Primark’s sustainable cotton is not organic. After the first three trial years of the scheme in India, they reduced chemical fertilizer by an average of 24.7% and chemical pesticides by 50.3% as opposed to organic cotton which replaces all chemicals with natural or synthetic alternatives.
Cotton’s use of these toxic substances is not insignificant. The Pesticide Action Network found that globally it accounts for 16% of chemical insecticide use and 6% of chemical fertilizer use. Without proper management, they can cause numerous health issues for farmers, including cancer, and pollution to surrounding waterways.
“What we’ve done is drive as much of an organic process and applications as far as we can but there are a couple of pests that really don’t respond without a chemical pesticide and we have to recognize that,” explains Katharine Stewart, ethical trade and environmental sustainability director at Primark. She adds: “Organic cotton would have lower yields. What we realized is that we want to look at this holistically to reduce the environmental impact but absolutely drive improvements in the livelihoods of farmers.”
This is where the more significant impact of the program comes in.
Through the training programme, cotton farmers are not only learning how to farm in a kinder way to the environment, but in a way that protects them too through health and safety procedures. It has also increased yields and reduced costs meaning a rise in earnings for the farmers. In India, profits increased on average 200% after the three years, while in Pakistan they rose 26.8% after the first year of training.
Stewart explains that this results in many positives, particularly as the scheme is aimed at women. “There are lots of studies that show that if you invest in women, that tends to flow into education for children. We’ve absolutely seen that. I think for me that’s one of the most moving things. We’ve seen some of those farmers from the original programme now have children at university,” she says.
Primark did not disclose how much money it has invested in the scheme or the percentage of cotton used by Primark that comes from the Sustainable Cotton Programme.
“We’re taking all of the cotton from this programme ourselves,” says Stewart.
“[the amount of Primark products using the cotton from the programme] is constantly changing, we’ve got an ambition to get to 100%. We’re not there yet but with the expansion we’re heading in the right direction.” There is no target date for Primark to reach this goal.
It’s staggering to think that this huge number of farmers is still unable to meet the cotton needs of one brand. While the programme is doing good, the continued focus on mass quantities at cheap prices is still cause for concern.
Cotton is one of the most water thirsty crops, taking around 2,700 liters of water to grow enough cotton for one t-shirt according to WWF, and has led to depleted water supplies in some areas of the world. It is also, by far, Primark’s most used textile across clothing and homeware such as bedding and towels.
The Sustainable Cotton Programme has managed to decrease water usage by 4%, but is that enough to make a difference? Alternative fibers such as linen, bamboo and lyocell (known by its brand name Tencel) all use less water than cotton but these options doesn’t seem to be under consideration at Primark.
“In the future there may well be new materials but at this stage we’re focused on how we ensure that the fabrics we are currently using are better and have less environmental impact,” Stewart says.
“The key thing for us is that we’re still delivering product at the same price and that’s value for our customers.”