H&M maintains lead in organic cotton use for 2011

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Nov 11, 2012

The Textile Exchange has been advocating the use of greener raw materials for ten years. The non-governmental organization monitors the evolution of the annual use of organic cotton in the world and promotes those textile companies that use this resource. The Textile Exchange just published its ranking for 2011 with H&M taking first place for the second year in a row.

The Swedish group has been using organic cotton since 2004 and says its goal is 100% production with environmental cotton by 2020. "Cotton is the raw material we use the most. We plan to further increase our use of organic cotton in the future, beside making strong investments in ‘Better Cotton’ and gradually increasing our use of recycled cotton," said Henrik Lampa, product sustainability manager at H&M.

Behind the Swedes, the top positions went to the same three companies — C&A, Nike and Inditex. On the other hand, Adidas completely disappeared from the rankings, after having placed number five for the first time in 2010. Puma made its debut on the list, garnering seventh place after American brands Anvil and PrAna. Also among the top ten were American retail chains Williams-Sonoma and Target and the German group Otto.