Abstract
Organic and fair trade campaigns bring water sustainability onto public agendas, such as for example in the cotton/textile sector. Armedangels, a German company, advertises its t-shirts by arguing that their production requires only 1/10th of the water required in conventional production. This article studies the ambitions of such corporate agenda-setters. Methodologically, we develop a framework that contains six criteria and nine indicators, which allow us to code and assess the certification standards. In addition, we conducted semi-structured interviews, group discussions, and participatory observations in order to better understand whose agendas certification is promulgating. The criteria encompass the social and environmental dimensions of water sustainability. Our cases include Naturland (a private organic standard), the European Union (EU) Organic Regulation (a public organic standard), the Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO) (a fair trade initiative), and the Fair for Life (FFL) standard (an organic and fair trade standard). Our study also looks at the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), which are two multi-stakeholder initiatives that operate on the conventional market in cooperation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The findings demonstrate that organic and fair trade companies rightly present themselves as water policy entrepreneurs. However, crucial aspects of water sustainability remain hidden. In particular, there is a cleavage between the environmental agendas of organic movements and NGOs that are represented in certification and the urgent social water problems in the Global South.
Highlights
Organic and fair trade campaigns bring water sustainability onto public agendas, for example, in the cotton/textile sector
Cotton Initiative (BCI) and Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), which are two multi-stakeholder initiatives that operate on the conventional market in cooperation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
In the cotton sector, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) are examples of multi-stakeholder certification initiatives, which include NGOs (e.g., Oxfam, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)) in decision making and standard setting
Summary
Organic and fair trade campaigns bring water sustainability onto public agendas, for example, in the cotton/textile sector. In this sector, water is a key sustainability issue. Conventional cotton requires an estimated 3000 to 7000 L of water to produce one kg of cotton lint. While it is technically a drought-resistant crop, a lack of water can affect both yield and fiber quality [1]. The German textile company, which uses organic and fair trade certification, draws attention to cotton being one of the thirstiest agricultural products [2,3]
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