Cotton seems spotless. It grows as a fluffy white plant and is processed into towels and flannels – clean stuff. Upsettingly, it has a lengthy ecological rap sheet that means it is the filthiest of all fibres. While it covers just 2.5% of the planetΆs total agricultural area, the cotton crop uses 7% of all pesticides and 16% of all insecticides. There are entire chemical companies making neurotoxic formulas just to support this crop. And it takes nearly 4,000 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans.

ItΆs almost enough to make us yearn for the entirely polyester wardrobes of the 1970s or even drive us to hemp – a fibre often touted as the solution, though in reality it is blended with cotton.

Luckily, organic cotton, grown to stringent international standards where few agrichemicals are permitted, is readily available. A recent study on the long-term effects of growing it in India claimed big environmental savings and a boon for the farmers who converted.

But other reports suggest that organic cotton canΆt keep up with demand. Alternative standards promising cleaner cotton have leapt into the gap: Fairtrade, Cleaner Cotton, e3 (GMO seed-free cotton), Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).

With a stated aim of turning a third of all the worldΆs cotton sustainable by 2050, the latter seems the most ambitious. Brokered by WWF among retailers and the many middlemen and agents in the supply chain, BCI cotton is grown in Brazil, Mali, Kenya and Pakistan. There are six basic principles that include minimising chemicals and using water efficiently.

BCI may not have organicΆs rigour, but retailers like it: Ikea is now sourcing all of its cotton through the system.