What Qualifies as Sustainable?

As sustainability enters the mainstream of consumer consciousness, regulators and government officials, companies and non-profits, and even consumers themselves are grappling with the question of what exactly qualifies as sustainable. Is a company that claims net zero emissions sustainable even if it pays its workers below living wage? What about a product that’s fair trade but ravishing the soil in which it’s grown?

These are questions not easily answered, but far too often companies get away with advertising their products as sustainable without being held accountable for proving those claims. Not so with a recent ad campaign by the US cotton industry in England. On Wednesday, the Guardian brought to our attention to the fact that the print ads, which used the line “Soft, sensual and sustainable, it’s Cotton USA!” prompted three calls to Advertising Standards Authority challenging the claim that cotton is sustainable. (We’re pretty impressed that just three calls was all it took to bring down the ad. Maybe the calls came from powerful lobby groups?)

The complaints argued that “cotton is a ‘pesticide- and insecticide-intensive crop’ that could ’seriously deplete’ groundwater supplies where it is grown in the US,” and that heavy government subsidies are buoying the American cotton farming industry while destroying cotton industries in developing countries. The Cotton Council International, for its part, argued that “US cotton production met ‘reasonable and generally accepted’ definitions of sustainability.” To drive the point home, the Guardian reports that:

CCI provided a range of research and information to back up its sustainability claim, maintaining that the cotton was a natural, renewable, biodegradable and sustainable fibre. The ASA noted CCI’s research but also said that there was “reputable scientific opinion” that was concerned about the longer term impact. Advertising regulators added that there was a “division of informed and scientific opinion” as to whether cotton was a water intensive crop.

Perhaps the cotton industry should have stuck with the tagline “The fabric of our lives” — a far less contentious claim.

Guardian: Ad for US cotton industry banned by ASA over green claims