The Fashion Pact’s Unlock program incentivizes regenerative cotton farming, helping brands decarbonize their supply chains while supporting farmers with financial rewards and sustainable practices.
The fashion industry is under increasing pressure to decarbonize its supply chain, with raw materials alone accounting for as much as two-thirds of a brand’s climate impact. Yet, despite this urgency, low-impact raw materials remain in short supply, and farmers often lack the incentives and infrastructure to adopt sustainable practices. This gap has made it difficult for brands to meet their climate targets, creating a bottleneck at the earliest stages of production.
To address these challenges, The Fashion Pact, a global coalition of fashion companies committed to climate action, has introduced the Unlock program. Partnering with sustainability consultancy 2050 and the climate innovation organization Future Earth Lab, Unlock provides financial incentives to farmers for adopting regenerative agricultural practices, with an initial focus on cotton, one of fashion’s most resource-intensive materials.
Incentives for regenerative agriculture
Eva von Alvensleben, executive director of The Fashion Pact, underscores the systemic issues preventing farmers from transitioning to low-impact production methods. “The way the system works today, there’s a lack of incentive for farmers to switch from conventional production to more low-impact production, and there’s also a burden for brands to directly connect with farmers in order to claim greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals directly,” she told Vogue Business.
The Unlock program offers a solution by bridging this gap. Initially launched as a pilot in 2023, the initiative is now scaling up with the goal of engaging more than 10,000 cotton farmers in India and the United States by 2024. These farmers will receive financial support for adopting regenerative practices, which not only help reduce GHG emissions but also improve biodiversity, water retention, and soil health.
The impact of regenerative cotton farming
Cotton remains the focal point of Unlock’s efforts due to its significant role in the fashion industry and the environmental challenges associated with its cultivation. Traditional cotton farming is water-intensive and relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, leading to soil degradation and pollution.
Through the Unlock program, farmers receive training on regenerative farming practices that improve the health of the soil and reduce their reliance on chemical inputs. These methods contribute to carbon sequestration, helping to lower overall GHG emissions. In the pilot phase, results showed promising reductions, with between 200 and 600 kilograms of carbon reductions per hectare in India and up to 2,000 kilograms of reductions per hectare in the U.S.
Laila Petrie, managing director of Future Earth Lab, notes that localizing the approach was critical to the success of the pilot. “One of the major elements we tried and didn’t always land was around how you use Western-developed solutions and adapt them to a Global South context,” she says, pointing to the different levels of infrastructure available in India and the U.S. “For this program to scale, we have to understand that a lot of cotton farmers and agriculture are in contexts where you can’t make assumptions about what’s available.”
One of the key innovations of the Unlock program is the introduction of “Unlock Units,” which serve as financial incentives for farmers who improve their GHG emissions. Brands can purchase these units for $135.50 each, with the money going directly to farmers to support the adoption of new technologies or to cover investments in sustainable practices. The units are based on the GHG reductions achieved by the farmer and can be applied toward the brand’s Scope 3 inventory, a critical factor in meeting corporate sustainability goals.
By purchasing Unlock Units, brands not only support regenerative farming but also gain measurable outcomes that can be incorporated into their sustainability reporting. This provides a return on investment that goes beyond mere marketing, offering concrete contributions toward reducing the fashion industry’s overall carbon footprint.
Scaling for global impact
As demand for sustainable raw materials grows, the Unlock program is expanding its reach. With more than 10,000 farmers set to participate in 2024, the program aims to achieve at least 10,000 tonnes of GHG reductions and removals, while distributing up to €1.2 million in payments to farmers. Brands that enroll in the program are encouraged to share information about their cotton sourcing and GHG accounting systems, enabling Unlock to better meet their needs and expand its impact.
Von Alvensleben emphasizes the collaborative nature of the effort, noting that the fashion industry’s traditionally competitive environment is beginning to shift in favor of collective action. “The fashion industry is not naturally known for collaboration. It’s very competitive. But what we’re seeing currently is that in this pre-competitive space in sustainability, there’s a huge amount of collaboration and a willingness to share,” she says. “There’s an understanding that we need a collective approach to these issues because they’re too systematic for any company to solve on their own.”
Beyond cotton
Though Unlock currently focuses on cotton, the program has the potential to expand into other raw materials such as wool and eventually into the food industry. Regenerative farming, which requires crop rotation for soil health, naturally aligns with food crops like wheat and soy. Petrie points out that the food industry is a logical next step, given its overlap with fashion’s agricultural supply chain.
“The food industry is the obvious next place to engage in terms of Unlock,” says Petrie. “The fashion industry has a very overlapping supply chain, and it lends really well to collective efforts in pre-competitive platforms. It’s a really good way of incubating these aligned systems that are probably useful in all industries.”
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