"It always comes down to price:" Liz Hershfield on the real barriers to US cotton

There are countless sustainability initiatives across the global fashion industry, but who is truly driving that transition? Are their efforts visible to the public or not? In this series, we interview changemakers, consultants, sustainability experts, and activists in fashion to see what we can learn from their work.

In this edition of Changemakers in Fashion, we speak with Liz Hershfield, Executive Director of the US Cotton Trust Protocol, the voluntary sustainability program and traceability platform for U.S. cotton. With more than 30 years of experience in the fashion industry, she has led sustainability and supply chain initiatives at J.Crew Group, Madewell, Bonobos, and Old Navy, and founded the ESG consultancy Green-ish. An expert in sustainable sourcing and supply chain strategy, she has been recognized with the Textile Exchange Ryan Young Climate+ Award and named to The Lead's "Direct 60" and the Rivet 50 Index.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background — and how you ended up making sustainability in the cotton and broader fashion industry your life's work?

Liz: "I spent over 30 years in sourcing, production, and supply chain, taking products from development to the end customer. In 2015, when the Paris Climate Accord was signed, I started getting really interested in sustainability. I was at Bonobos when my boss and the CEO's girlfriend, now his wife, also showed her interest in it. She wasn't in fashion, but she was passionate about the environment and had all the contacts. He told her to come talk to me, and she set me off in the right direction. Bonobos was then acquired by Walmart, where I got to expand and amplify my sustainability work by combining it with production and supply chain, which is a bit unusual in the U.S. But it helped that I already had the business background and understood suppliers and how to make the product, so I could layer sustainability on top.

From there, I started thinking about where I could make the biggest impact. Every brand I'd worked for was cotton-rich, so I got really interested in soil health. I'd heard repairing the earth's soil could reverse climate change. Sounds easy, but it's not. I eventually moved to J.Crew, overseeing sustainability across all the brands and production and product development for Madewell. That's where I got to implement an industry-leading program paying U.S. farmers directly for regenerative agriculture, and we were one of the first brands to pilot the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. I got really emotionally invested in the U.S. cotton industry. About four and a half years later, I left and started my own consulting business focused on supply chains and sustainability, and began speaking at Cotton USA events on why U.S. cotton is the best choice. When the executive director retired, I was asked to consider the position. It pulled all my experience together, and they wanted someone from the brand side. I came on as executive director, and I'm now also Co-Director of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol."

What are some of the projects you're working on that you’re most excited about right now? Why?

Liz: "On the Cotton USA and U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol side, we're under the National Cotton Council, and we are deeply connected, hence why I'm involved in both. One of the things we're doing right now is expanding the services we offer to the brands and suppliers who are Trust Protocol members and buying U.S. cotton. U.S. cotton is the best quality in the world; there are many studies that prove it. It can be seen as more expensive, a few pennies more per pound than some of our competitors, but because the quality is so superior, you actually get a better yield when you process it. The dyes and treatments all of that takes better. We have a whole technical team that works with our suppliers to help them process it and show them where they can gain efficiencies, which generally makes it at least cost-neutral, if not less expensive, with a better end quality.

We started off with spinning yarn, now we're into fabric, and we're offering these services to our brand partners, too. Having come from the brand side, I wish I'd known this existed before because, as a production person, it would've been incredibly helpful to deploy that kind of technical expertise into our suppliers. That way, we can really expand the use of U.S. cotton without constantly being told it's too expensive."

Touching on price, what are the biggest challenges you face when it comes to advocating for the sustainable production of U.S. cotton — and where do you see the clearest/most obvious opportunities?

Liz: "I'm gonna be honest with you, it really comes down to price. It always does. So we have to really show and demonstrate that the quality is superior. We also have the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, which makes us stand out. It's a voluntary sustainability and traceability program for the U.S. cotton industry, so you get best-in-class traceability and verified sustainability data. It's the full package. Now, I think it's about getting the word out, that's what we're trying to do, because when people use U.S. cotton, they love it and they want to use more of it. So, however we can make it easier and more efficient for them, that's what we want to do."

U.S. cotton can sometimes be overshadowed by organic or recycled fibres in sustainability conversations. How do you make the case that it's still one of the best options for a new generation of sustainability-minded brands, retailers, and consumers?

Liz: "When I started my journey in the U.S. cotton industry, through that program where we were incentivizing and paying premiums to producers for their regenerative inputs, it opened my eyes to farming practices in the United States; they're so advanced. Most of these are family farms, handed down over generations, so the farmers care deeply about the land, and they've been doing regenerative practices for decades. I was at an event recently with one of our producers doing a fireside chat, and I said, 'I want to talk about regenerative practices.' He said, 'Can you tell me what those are?' And I said, 'You're probably already doing them, you just don't realize it.' They don't think they're doing something special, it's just how they farm. That's what we really lean on.

Regenerative is very scalable; it's all about healthy soil, which is the key to everything. Organic cotton is great, but it's hard to scale for a lot of reasons. There are organic cotton farms in the U.S., and we support those too, but if you want to make an impact, you have to be able to scale. Regenerative is where that happens; it's scalable, it makes an impact, and it's positively received by the industry. And a large majority of U.S. cotton is already farmed this way. Last year, we launched a regenerative pilot on the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol side. We had to do a pilot to test the feasibility of verifying every field in order not to just check all the boxes but it's going to scale really fast, because so many growers already farm that way."

What are some of the most significant shifts you've witnessed over the past five years in how the fashion industry produces and uses cotton?

Liz: "I think part of the challenge we're facing is the extreme growth of synthetic fibers in the clothing we wear. Synthetics represent close to 70 percent of the fibers in our clothing, and cotton is 19 percent. There's been this shift, obviously, synthetics are quick, easy, fast, less expensive, but it's really damaging to the environment, and now we're hearing about the impact on people's health with microplastics and other issues coming out. The industry just went for it — they follow trends, they're selling products, and they weren't thinking about it. Sustainability has really grown as an initiative in fashion over the past 10 years, and now, as we talk more about natural fibers and how much better they are for the environment and your health, people are starting to take notice and market more around it. You're seeing smaller brands come up that are just doing natural fibers, and I think we'll see more of that.

I also want to be clear: we will always have synthetics in our lives. They are needed for performance products and swimwear. The problem is they start showing up in the environment and in turn, everything we eat, drink and breathe, and that's where we feel natural fibers, specifically cotton, are really the way to go."

Do you believe that we’re approaching a tipping point when it comes to how the industry thinks about its use of synthetic fibers versus natural fibers like cotton — and making genuinely better choices?

Liz: "I think we're getting there. We're not at the tipping point, but there's more awareness and more interest. Synthetic fibers aren't going away, and we don't want them to; they serve a real purpose, we just need less of them. Some brands are really starting to shift. Is it a seismic shift yet? No, but it's starting to burgeon, and hopefully over the next couple of years, we'll see some of that market share come back into cotton."

What are the most real, actionable steps that fashion and textile businesses can take right now to accelerate meaningful impact in their use of cotton?

Liz: "It starts with quality. You want the best quality product that fits into your price structure. The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol and Cotton USA are a great choice because we offer all of that. We offer services no other country offers, helping process the cotton and show its value, a traceability platform, verified sustainability data, and trust in the industry. We don't have to worry about things like forced labor and deforestation the way you do with other countries.

In the last six or seven years, brands have really started to understand where their cotton is coming from. So once you've done that work and you want a better quality product, U.S. cotton is absolutely the best. It's a really easy choice when you're designing high-quality products that are going to sell."

Do you think, as a whole, the fashion industry is doing enough to drive meaningful change when it comes to adopting more sustainable practices, such as using natural resources and material selection? Or is there still a large gap between ambition and action?

Liz: "There's a lot of positive intent and great work being done. But our biggest issue is overproduction. And overproduction coming from an infinite resource like synthetics, which is derived from petroleum, versus focusing on natural fibers that are finite. To me, that makes it evident there needs to be a mentality shift in the industry, and I don't think we'll see it that quickly. There are many brands doing amazing work and making an impact, but we're not going to see a significant shift unless we start reducing how much we're producing and how much we're consuming."

How do you view the future of circularity and sustainability within the fashion industry as a whole — is your glass half full or half empty?

Liz: "Half full, positive. I know there’s been a lot of negative press around — brands are pulling back and all that. But we see all the work brands are doing, just looking at our members, and they're very passionate about it. They're also running businesses, so they have to make smart choices for their business."

Finally, what is the one thing you'd like to leave our readers thinking about after this conversation?

Liz: "One thing we didn't touch on is how U.S. cotton farmers are some of the best and most advanced in the world. It's the foundation of the history of the United States. The industry employs over 200,000 people across 14,000 farms, and it's in a bit of dire straits right now. Over the last four years, the cost of cotton has been about 30 percent under the cost to produce. So by creating demand for cotton, choosing natural fibers, choosing cotton, choosing U.S. cotton, you're also supporting communities across the United States and really important infrastructure and family farms.

You can't keep running a business if you're losing money year after year, and we want to protect that. Supporting U.S. cotton isn't just about quality, traceability, and confidence in where it's coming from; it's also about supporting communities and family farms across the United States."