Case Study: Better Cotton Initiative achieves scalable supply chain traceability with Source Intelligence's ChainPoint platform

Better Cotton Initiative The Better Cotton Platform

BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) is the world’s leading sustainability standard for cotton, working to improve farm yields, working conditions, and environmental outcomes. To scale its farmer training and grow Better Cotton supply and demand, BCI needed a way to track volumes through complex supply chains, so it partnered with Source Intelligence and its ChainPoint platform to introduce chain‑of‑custody requirements and build a cotton tracking system.

Source Intelligence implemented its ChainPoint platform to create the Better Cotton Platform (BCP), using a mass‑balance model and Better Cotton Claim Units (BCCUs) to trace cotton from ginners to retailers via an online transaction and verification database. The solution let retailers confidently claim Better Cotton and helped BCI expand: by 2023 BCI reported over 2,500 members, about 2.2 million farmers in 22 countries, more than one‑fifth of global cotton produced under the standard, and nearly 4 million people positively impacted — outcomes enabled by Source Intelligence.

BCI