As certified cotton production continues to grow around the world, the industry is increasingly embedding traceability and environmental considerations into everyday production and supply-chain decisions.
In this interview, Liz Hershfield, Executive Director of COTTON USA
and Co-Director of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, and Marjory Walker, Co-Director of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, discuss what the 2026 Textile Exchange Conference theme, The Implementation Era, means in practice —from the growing scale of field-level data collection and the adoption of regenerative practices, to new approaches to physical verification and supply-chain transparency.
Our conference theme this year is The Implementation Era, moving from ambition and commitments toward measurable action. What does that shift look like in practice across the US cotton industry? What steps are working particularly well and what challenges are you facing along the way?
Liz Hershfield: The Implementation Era is about moving from pilots and proof points to programs that can operate at the scale needed by brands and retailers. Over the past several years, the industry has made continued progress in developing the frameworks, data, and verification systems needed to measure and demonstrate sustainability outcomes. Now, the focus is on expanding participation and embedding those efforts more deeply across the supply chain.
What’s working is the growing alignment around data, transparency, and outcome-based approaches. Through the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, we’ve built a model that helps connect on-farm practices with supply chain expectations while remaining practical for growers. The challenge now is ensuring regenerative and sustainability programs can deliver credible outcomes for brands and retailers while remaining achievable and economically viable at the farm level. Implementation means turning shared commitments into measurable, scalable impact across the cotton value chain.
Implementation means turning shared commitments into measurable, scalable impact across the cotton value chain.
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol is now collecting environmental data from around one in four U.S. cotton acres. What does that scale of data collection tell us about progress across the industry, and how is the data being used to drive further improvement?
Marjory Walker: That participation is a signal, not simply a statistic. When approximately one in four U.S. cotton acres is voluntarily enrolling and providing field-level data annually, it demonstrates that growers see value in measuring and documenting progress.
Growers who are members of the program also receive data-driven insights that can help optimize their operations and improve overall efficiency throughout the growing season. The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol has published five years of aggregate field-level data and each year we are able to see measurable improvements. We will be publishing our latest data before the end of the year and will also include further insights into our U.S. Regen program for the first time.
Our conference theme focuses on scaling what works across businesses, supply chains, and landscapes. As the industry seeks to scale sustainable and regenerative production, what enables growers to adopt and maintain sustainable practices, and what approaches are proving most effective in addressing barriers to adoption?
Marjory Walker: Adoption is most likely to endure when practices make sense both agronomically and economically. Growers operate within the realities of weather, input costs, market conditions, and long-term business viability.
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol’s Field Partner Program builds on regenerative practices many growers already use and combines verified grower data with precision technologies to create a scalable pathway for traceable U.S. Regen Cotton. The program helps growers receive recognition for regenerative practices while connecting them to growing market demand for verified regenerative cotton through trusted merchants and cooperatives. By leveraging data growers already report through the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol and using remote sensing for verification, the program creates a straightforward pathway for adopting and maintaining regenerative practices at scale.
Adoption is most likely to endure when practices make sense both agronomically and economically.
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol has recently introduced forensic verification to physically validate the origin of U.S. cotton. What does this new layer of scientific assurance mean for supply-chain transparency and confidence, and how important is this kind of innovation in strengthening the credibility of sustainability and origin claims?
Liz Hershfield: Digital traceability provides visibility into how cotton moves through the supply chain. Forensic verification adds another layer of assurance by scientifically validating origin claims.
Through our partnership with Oritain, the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol’s Physical Assurance Program uses forensic isotopic analysis alongside its digital traceability system. Representative materials can be analyzed to determine whether they are consistent with their stated U.S. origin.
For supply-chain partners, this provides additional confidence in the information supporting sourcing decisions and public claims. It also strengthens the value proposition of U.S. cotton. As expectations around transparency and substantiation grow, combining digital records with physical verification will be increasingly important.
We’re seeing growth in certified cotton more broadly, with the latest Materials Market Report showing 37% of global cotton production was covered by programs that share data for the report in 2024/25. How are you seeing growers, brands, and supply-chain partners move from simply participating in sustainability programs to actively using data to inform sourcing decisions and strengthen supply-chain engagement?
Liz Hershfield: Participation is increasingly the starting point rather than the finish line. Brands and retailers are incorporating environmental and traceability information into sourcing, supplier engagement, and reporting. Growers can use field-level data to assess performance over time, while mills and manufacturers gain greater visibility as U.S. cotton moves through the supply chain.
COTTON USA and the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol help make that information useful at both ends of the value chain. It must be credible enough to support global buyers while remaining practical for growers. Data can then function as a working tool that informs decisions, supports improvement, and strengthens supply-chain relationships.
Collaboration between growers and researchers, often rooted in local contexts and practical field-level needs, has long been a strength of U.S. cotton. How is this collaboration helping to advance preferred production systems, and what lessons could be shared more widely?
Marjory Walker: U.S. cotton innovation never happens in isolation. Growers, universities, extension services, researchers, and industry organizations bring different perspectives to shared challenges, helping ensure research remains grounded in real production conditions.
This collaboration has supported advances in water management, precision agriculture, soil stewardship, input efficiency, and data collection. The broader lesson is to bring scientific expertise and grower experience together from the beginning. Solutions are more likely to be relevant, practical, and scalable when growers help shape research priorities and researchers can test ideas under actual field conditions.
How can producers, industry programs, and supply-chain stakeholders learn from one another to accelerate progress while acknowledging regional differences in production systems and priorities?
Marjory Walker: Cotton production varies across regions and seasons. Differences in climate, soil, water availability, and farming systems mean no single practice will work for every grower.
The opportunity is to align around shared outcomes while maintaining flexibility in how those outcomes are achieved. Data provides a consistent framework for measuring progress without requiring every region to follow the same path. Stakeholders must also share what is working, what is not, and what they are learning. The goal is not to standardize every production method, but to create a shared understanding of progress that respects local conditions.
The goal is not to standardize every production method, but to create a shared understanding of progress that respects local conditions.
Looking wider, how important is collaboration with brands, retailers, technology providers, and other industry partners in turning ambition into action across the supply chain? Where do you see the greatest opportunities in areas such as certification, supply-chain tracking, technology, and financial investment and what is needed to make that collaboration work?
Liz Hershfield: Collaboration is essential because no organization can transform a supply chain independently. COTTON USA engages global buyers seeking high-quality U.S. cotton supported by credible sustainability information. The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol provides the supporting infrastructure through field-level data, digital traceability, regenerative pathways, and forensic verification.
The strongest outcomes occur when market demand and credible evidence advance together. Opportunities include connecting origin verification and environmental data more directly with sourcing, using technology to improve visibility, and directing investment toward practical implementation. Success requires shared expectations, useful data, accessible tools, and clear value for growers and supply-chain partners.
Collaboration is essential because no organization can transform a supply chain independently.
Looking ahead, what would success look like for U.S. cotton sustainability and what would you hope the data shows five years from now?
Liz Hershfield and Marjory Walker: Success would mean transparent, data-driven sourcing has become ordinary rather than the exception. Field-level data would continue to be widely established while also reviewing and determining continuous improvement metrics that are attainable, while recognizing regional differences. Brands and retailers would routinely use sustainability and traceability information in sourcing decisions.
We envision continued growth in regenerative pathways, with digital traceability and physical verification working together to provide greater confidence. Through COTTON USA and the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, the goal is to ensure growers receive recognition for their progress and buyers have credible evidence to support their commitments, strengthening the connection between field-level action and the global value of U.S. cotton.
The post Scaling Regenerative Cotton from Field to Supply Chain with COTTON USA™ and the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol appeared first on Textile Exchange.
