- Better Cotton Council welcomes new co-chairs from international not-for-profit Solidaridad and US cotton trader Louis Dreyfus Company
- Representatives from Marks & Spencer, J. Crew Group, leading Pakistani spinner Nishat Chunian and Mozambican farmer body FONPA among latest recruits to the Better Cotton Council.
- Council members represent the entire cotton industry and help inform Better Cotton’s strategic direction.
22 July, Geneva – The largest cotton sustainability effort in the world, Better Cotton, has announced the addition of five new members and two new co-chairs to its Council.
“I’m excited to welcome our new co-chairs and members to the Better Cotton Council,” stated Alan McClay, CEO of Better Cotton. As the council continues to develop to best serve Better Cotton, its affiliated farmers, and its wide network of members and partners, their experience, opinions, and insights will be important. I’m excited about our next chats.
Tamar Hoek, Senior Policy Director for Sustainable Fashion at Solidaridad, and Bill Ballenden, a recently elected member and Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Cotton, are the new co-chairs. Together, they will carry out the responsibilities of the chair, representing Better Cotton both internally and externally and making sure that council members are informed of and given due consideration for any policy choices.
“We are delighted to be working together as a team in order to support Better Cotton and work with the Better Cotton Council, as sustainability and traceability in the cotton value chain become increasingly important,” Ballenden and Hoek said in a joint statement. We will be able to effectively serve the membership, the Council, and the whole cotton value chain from farm to fabric because we each play a different function within the chain but have a same enthusiasm for cotton and sustainability.
Additionally, Marks & Spencer, J. Crew Group, prominent Pakistani spinner Nishat Chunian, and Mozambican farmer organization FONPA have welcomed representatives to the Better Cotton council. Their membership will take effect retroactively on June 1, 2024.
In addition to Bill Ballenden, other newly elected members of the Better Cotton Council include:
- Doug Forster, Chief Sourcing Officer at J. Crew Group, has been instrumental in streamlining the company’s supplier guide and has extensive experience driving sustainability initiatives at numerous apparel firms.
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- “At J. Crew Group, our sourcing of Better Cotton is key to our goal to have 100% of our cotton sourced sustainably by 2025. Cotton is our largest volume material, representing nearly 70% of our fiber footprint, and we are committed to sourcing cotton that benefits both people and planet.”
- Elodie Gilart, Senior Sustainability Manager at Marks & Spencer, currently leads the company’s raw materials and circularity strategy for clothing and home products.
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- “Cotton is the main material in our portfolio. Better Cotton has therefore been a key partner for us since we joined as a pioneer member back in 2009. Since then, we have achieved our cotton conversion target for all garments in 2019 and see this partnership as essential to progressing to the next level of our strategy, focusing on traceability and the acceleration of impact at the farm level.”
- Nadia Bilal, Managing Director of Spinning at Nishat Chunian, supports strategic raw material planning, market trend analysis and project management at the company, which is among the top ranked employers in Pakistan’s textile sector for women’s empowerment.
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- “Nishat Chunian Limited has been a trusted partner of Better Cotton from its beginning. In my new role as a council member, I look forward to engaging with all stakeholders for capacity building in upstream supply chains to make them more robust and transparent. I am passionate about regenerative agricultural practices and making technology more accessible for cotton growers and ginners in Asia. Going forward, I will support Better Cotton for all sustainability initiatives, promoting innovation, inclusivity and the circular economy to drive sustainability within the global cotton industry and help make our planet a better place.”
- Vicente Sando, Executive Coordinator at FONPA, Mozambique’s National Forum of Cotton Farmers, has a wealth of experience in agricultural development and advocacy.
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- “FONPA as an organisation representing mainly small farmers. Our contribution as a member of the Better Cotton Council is to work towards an inclusive, transparent, collaborative, and sustainable value chain that supports a decent work for cotton farmers.”
Additionally, Rajan Bhopal, the international project manager (supply chain) of PAN UK, and Shahid Zia, the executive director of the Lok Sanjh Foundation, have been re-elected to the council of Better Cotton.
Three Council members are leaving the group in addition to these recently elected members. Having served their terms to the end, Gerson Fajardo from Walmart, Pierre Chebab from the Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), and Independent Kevin Quinlan have departed the council.
A select group of members make up the Better Cotton Council, which is up for election every two years and is in charge of the organization’s strategic direction. They are seated at the organization’s core. Within the cotton industry, the council members represent retailers, brands, manufacturers, suppliers, producers, and civil society.
Council members collaborate to build the strategy that, in the end, helps Better Cotton achieve its goal of assisting cotton communities in surviving and prospering while preserving and rehabilitating the environment.
