Better Cotton
Better Cotton Chain of Custody Standard
The auditable requirements for organisations buying and selling Better Cotton through the supply chain, allowing one or a combination of four chain of custody models.
- Number
- Better Cotton Chain of Custody Standard
- Edition
- BCI Chain of Custody Standard v1.2 (effective 6 January 2026)
- Status
- active
What this standard is for
Why it matters
One of the permitted models is mass balance, under which the cotton physically present in a product need not be the cotton grown to the standard - only matched by volume through the chain. A buyer who reads a Better Cotton claim as a statement about the fibres in their garment has misread it, and this is the document that says so.
What to watch for
The standard is effective from 6 January 2026 while its accompanying monitoring and certification requirements took effect on 1 November 2025 - the two dates genuinely differ and a compliance question in that window depends on which document is being asked about.
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Metadata only — purchase the standard from the issuing body.
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