I knew that the production of cotton took vast amounts of water, but only a vague sense of how much. The article in the url below quantifies this amount in a very relatable way:
"For all the water you'll ever use to wash your cotton T-shirt over its entire lifetime, it will have taken 50 times as much water to grow the cotton that went into it."
In addition to the water used to grow cotton, large amounts of insecticides and pesticides are used; there are also challenges related to the harvesting and processing of this crop:
"Cotton uses about 2.3% of global arable land and accounts for 16% for all insecticide sales. And the fashion industry has been forced to reckon with allegations of forced labor and poor working conditions in certain cotton-harvesting regions."
The article proceeds to detail a "Boston-based startup Galy" that is developing a more sustainable alternative, which (if it can be commercialized and scaled – always huge barriers) addresses many of these challenging issues, for which the fashion/apparel industry is only now beginning to be held accountable (see Strategic CSR – Fast fashion), or perhaps not (see Strategic CSR – Shein + Boohoo):
"Galy takes cells from a cotton plant, adds them to a large vat and feeds them sugar. After they have sufficiently multiplied, Galy technicians use their genetic understanding of the plant — which has been developed over decades of research — to activate certain genes and deactivate others. The result is the cell transforms and elongates into a cotton fiber. So far, Galy has only been able to make a few kilograms of vat-grown cotton. If it can make more at scale, the company has big dreams to also make lab-grown cocoa and coffee powders."
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2023
Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
Fast Fashion Bets on Greener Lab-Grown Cotton
By Akshat Rathi
September 3, 2024
Bloomberg
