Most textile-apparel brands are failing on sustainable cotton benchmarks, a recent survey of 37 international brands has found.

A recent survey of 37 well-known international brands indicates that big brands are not faring too well on the sustainability front. In fact, the majority of international companies using most cotton globally are failing to quite an extent in delivering on cotton sustainability, the study 'Sustainable Cotton Ranking: Assessing company performance' has revealed.

Only eight companies out of the 37 surveyed made it out of the red zone in the ranking research conducted by Rank a Brand, one of Europe’s largest brand-comparison sites on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK), Solidaridad, and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) had commissioned Rank a Brand to research major cotton-using companies in primarily three areas: policies, actual uptake, and traceability. Of the 37 companies evaluated, only eight companies scored at least 3.0 out of the maximum 19.5 points.

Richard Holland, Director (Global Markets), WWF, responded to questions on behalf of all four organisations that were involved in the study. Holland said, "Sustainability is here to stay. Indeed, when 193 governments of the world came together in September 2015 to adopt 17 Sustainable Development Goals, this signalled a new phase in action to make this the leading paradigm for the coming 15 years for rich and poor countries alike."