CmiA onboards first Polish retailer
Gdansk-headquartered retail group LPP, home to the Reserved, Mohito, House, Cropp and Sinsay fashion brands, recently partnered cotton standards body Cotton made in Africa (CmiA).
Administered by the Hamburg-based Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF), CmiA's system works by reinvesting the licensing fee paid to AbTF by brands and retailers wishing to sell items with the CmiA seal back into its projects across ten African countries.
The focus is on providing small-scale farmers with training in sustainable cultivation methods and business fundamentals, with the maintenance of soil fertility and the protection of plants with natural materials both singled out as particular priorities.
As part of the new deal, LPP has committed to purchasing up to 60 million CmiA-labelled articles per year. By doing so, the retailer, CmiA’s first Polish partner, will reportedly be better aligned with its own strategic sustainability goals, which include both significantly increasing its output of eco-friendly products and implementing ‘good’ production standards.
The retailer's environmental, social and governance director, Dorota Jankowska-Tomków, commented: “Cotton is one of the key raw materials for our textiles and the chance to go through CmiA enables us to procure a valuable raw material that has significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, conserves natural resources and observes social criteria.”
If all goes to plan, the first LPP products labelled with CmiA’s seal will launch before the end of this year.
