U.S. Climate Smart Cotton Program
The Climate Smart Cotton Program is a five-year, collaborative initiative led by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol that presents a transformative opportunity for cotton growers to enhance their profitability, operations, and environmental stewardship, all while contributing to the long-term viability of the U.S. cotton industry. For brands and retailers, the program will support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and allow reporting against Scope 3 emissions reductions for cotton used in products.
The initiative will build on the four pillars of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices that support planting cover crops, reduced tillage, and nutrient management. This will allow for improved soil health, increased drought and flood resilience, advanced nutrient use efficiency, decreased soil erosion, and reduced GHG emissions.
The goals of the five-year program are to:
Provide technical and financial assistance to U.S. cotton farmers
Advance adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices on 1.2 million U.S. cotton acres
Produce 4.2 million bales of Climate Smart Cotton™
Enroll 1,650 U.S. cotton farmers, including 330 farmers from historically underserved communities
Reduce CO2e emissions by 1.14M metric tons
The U.S. cotton industry has long focused on continuous improvement, and the launch of the Trust Protocol in 2020 provided the opportunity to prove and measure our sustainability outcomes. The Climate Smart Cotton Program takes the industry to the next step utilizing the Trust Protocol’s foundational reputation and incorporates our program partners’ knowledge and expertise of supply chain outreach, academia, and sustainability.
Program partners include Cotton Council International, Cotton Incorporated, the Soil Health Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Agricenter International, Alabama A&M University and North Carolina A&T State University.
In collaboration with the program’s partners, the Climate Smart Cotton Program allows growers to learn, grow and explore new opportunities for reducing climate impacts, as well as resources to aid with implementation. For U.S. cotton growers, additional benefits include a reduction in input costs, potential yield improvements, and the potential for added revenue from carbon insets.
Producers who have completed enrollment in the Trust Protocol, including data entry and bale uploads, are eligible to apply for the Climate Smart Cotton Program.
