Polish fashion retailer LPP has partnered with Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), making a commitment to sustainable cotton cultivation and people in cotton-growing countries.
The first CmiA-labelled products for LPP will come to market before this summer. With this new partnership, LPP, with a chain of more than 2,000 stores, contractually agreed to purchase up to 60 million items per year in support of its strategic sustainability goals that include significantly increasing the percentage of more environmentally friendly products and implementing good production standards for a sustainable textile industry.
“We are thrilled to have won our first Polish partner in LPP and to be working with them to create a sustainable basis for their product portfolio through CmiA,” said Tina Stridde, managing director of the Aid by Trade Foundation, CmiA’s parent organization.
“Cotton is one of the key raw materials for our textiles,” Dorota Jankowska-Tomków, environmental social and governance (ESG) director at LPP, said. “The chance to go through Cotton made in Africa to procure a valuable raw material that has significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, conserves natural resources and observes social criteria is a key step towards implementing our sustainability strategy of ‘For People For Our Planet.’”
For each CmiA-labelled textile item, LPP, with brands including Reserved, Cropp. House, Mohito and Sinsay, pays a licensing fee to the Aid by Trade Foundation. Licensing revenue is then reinvested in CmiA’s activities in Africa that focus on providing small-scale farmers with training in sustainable cultivation methods and in business fundamentals, ultimately enabling them to maintain soil fertility and to protect their plants with natural materials. In addition, the CmiA standard prohibits the use of genetically modified seeds and logging of primary forests, and only rainwater is used for irrigation.
Around 1 million small-scale farmers grow CmiA-verified cotton in 10 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, making up around 30 percent of African cotton production. A Cotton made in Africa label helps consumers identify these products.