Members in the consortium include the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), Cotton Australia, Cotton Incorporated, and the US Cotton Trust Protocol.
The new guidelines on LCA, presented in a report, titled 'From Data to Impact: How to Get Cotton LCAs Right', are designed to assist the fashion and textile industries in employing these assessments with efficacy, reliably, and in conjunction with supplementary approaches.
The report emphasises the need for integrating LCAs with primary data collection to improve field-level insights and enable comprehensive, data-driven sustainability communications.
Better Cotton Initiative impact director Lars van Doremalen said: “With stronger methodological discipline and clearer communication, the cotton sector can ensure that sustainability claims are science-based, data-backed, and farmer-informed.
“The path forward demands coordinated action from companies, initiatives, and policymakers that is grounded in scientific integrity, acknowledgement of limitations, and real-world applicability.”
The document warns that current LCA practices often lead to misinformed sustainability strategies, wasted resources, and diminished stakeholder trust.
It advocates for a reassessment of LCA usage and communication to promote more reliable and context-sensitive sustainability outcomes.
Supported by Cascale, Textile Exchange, and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, the paper critiques the frequent misuse of LCAs in the apparel industry.
Incorrect applications, through unsuitable comparisons, insufficient context, or neglecting methodological constraints, not only erode confidence in sustainability claims but also misdirect investments and interventions, the paper said.
Cotton Incorporated chief sustainability officer Jesse Daystar said: “LCAs are like looking through a keyhole, you certainly see something, but it is never the full picture.”
The report emphasises the utility of LCAs in pinpointing and ranking environmental measures, aiding adherence to regulations, and monitoring enduring patterns.
However, it also notes that LCAs fall short in reflecting social metrics or rapid alterations in agricultural techniques, thus offering a condensed depiction of the actual conditions on farms.
Further, the authors of the report have appealed for an increased consensus within the industry.
They urge standard-setting bodies to come together to establish critical data metrics and call on brands and retailers to apply LCA findings judiciously, with a focus on fostering farm-level investment towards sustainable practices.
Cotton Research & Development Corporation Australia executive director Allan Williams said: “LCA doesn’t add anything for a farmer at the moment… Our focus is to invest in the fundamental research so we can understand which practices have the most impact rather than just collecting data for the sake of an LCA.”
The paper urges prioritisation of new primary data collection efforts and encourages stakeholders utilising LCA data to commit to investments that genuinely support sustainable farming practices.
In October last year, Better Cotton announced its participation in global non-profit alliance Cascale’s three-year initiative to standardise LCA methodologies across the cotton sector.
