CottonConscience

WATER WISE COTTON TRACING FROM FIELD TO MILL

Cotton is a vital crop, but today’s global cotton supply chains are complex and opaque. Fashion brands struggle to verify where their cotton comes from, whether it was grown sustainably, and if water resources were used responsibly. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to back up sustainability claims and to reward farmers using better practices.

CottonConscience addresses this challenge by combining satellite Earth Observation data, DNA tagging, and local water systems information to trace cotton from the field through to the gin. This approach allows brands to verify the true origin of cotton, monitor water use, and understand the environmental impact of sourcing decisions.

Working closely with some of the UK’s biggest fashion retailers, as well as cotton producers in Egypt, India, Turkey, Pakistan and China, the project is co-designing solutions that are practical for farmers and meaningful for brands.

The study aims to deliver a proof of concept that demonstrates how technology can provide actionable, verifiable insights, support water stewardship, encourage regenerative farming practices, and enable brands to make credible sustainability claims.

CottonConscience seeks to build trust across the cotton supply chain – from growers and suppliers to buyers and consumers – and to pave the way for a truly transparent future.

Supported by ESA BASS

This project is made possible with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) Business Application Space Solution (BASS) Programme.

CottonConscience uses Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, combined with tooling from OpenEO. The approach prioritises open standards, data and software to ensure the system is robust and scalable, while retaining flexibility to include commercial data or proprietary tools if needed. Additional inputs under consideration include thermal sensors and meteorological datasets.

Earth observation data provides both broad contextual overviews of a given area and targeted insights into defined processes. CottonConscience will explore both, with a focus on modelling methods and environmental processes around water demand and usage.

Unlike traditional audits or paper-based tracking, satellite data covers wide areas consistently and cannot easily be altered. This enhances confidence in the traceability system and allows retailers to respond quickly to risks such as drought, water overuse, or illegal farmland expansion.

By combining satellite observations with farmer surveys, DNA tagging, and supply chain records, CottonConscience delivers a more reliable and scalable solution than competitors who mainly rely on manual checks. The result is a system that can grow with the industry and support brands in meeting the highest sustainability standards.