Organic Cotton? Isetan, Uniqlo, You Can Do Better

Wal-Mart is the biggest buyer of organic cotton, and Swedish H&M and Spanish Zara also rank pretty high. Where are the Japanese retailers? Nowhere to be found, at least not on Treehugger's ranking list. C&A is No 2 and Nike is No 3. What is going on?

Nike says its goal is to blend a minimum of 5 percent organic cotton into all of its cotton-containing apparel materials by 2010, while steadily expanding its offering of 100 percent certified-organic cotton products.

In 2008, the big-box retailer purchased 12 million pounds of cotton from farmers who were transitioning from conventional to organic farming to help boost the supply of certified-organic cotton available on the market. No matter what the company's intentions, be they financial, altruistic, or a little of both, any move Wal-Mart makes is significant by virtue of its massive supply chain and sheer ubiquity—factors that would play no small role in pushing us past the tipping point.


Isetan has some organic cotton items for father's day, but they obviously need to do more to promote pesticide-free, non-GMO cotton. Their annual report from 2005 (pdf) made some promises, I'm hoping they are committed. As for Uniqlo, they seem to be trying; a pity they had no vision to make it into the global top 10.

Treehugger: Top 10 Buyers of Organic Cotton (You Won't Believe Who's No. 1!)

Comments

K and S said…
If I am not mistaken Muji has started selling some organic cotton items, but you are right it is pretty sparse.
1:09 pm, June 12, 2009
Pandabonium said…
Sometimes modern (sic) life seems like a bad 1950's sci-fi movie. Most of those had happy endings. I hope we can too.
4:42 pm, June 12, 2009
Martin J Frid said…
Thanks for the comments. Yes, it's correct that Muji also is on track and has a range of organic clothes, towels and beddings. Just a pity that they haven't made a bigger effort, to at least rank among the top 10 retailers.

P, let's think about happy endings when the beginnings look a bit brighter ;)
5:11 pm, June 15, 2009
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