What does Responsibly Sourced Cotton mean?

At The Warehouse Group (TWG), we recognise our responsibility to source cotton in a more sustainable and ethical way. That means working to reduce environmental impact and support better outcomes for the people and communities who grow it.

When you see our Responsibly Sourced Cotton icon, it means the cotton in that product has been sourced through one or more of the following practices:

• The Better Cotton Initiative: the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world, farming communities are supported while protecting and restoring the environment.
• Recycled Cotton: Cotton made from pre- or post-consumer textile waste, helping reduce landfill and the need for virgin cotton production.
• Organic Cotton: Cotton grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers, supporting healthier soils and reduced environmental impact.

By choosing products with the Responsibly Sourced Cotton icon, you’re supporting more responsible cotton production and helping drive positive change across the cotton industry.

The Warehouse and The Better Cotton Initiative

Cotton is one of the most popular commodities in the world. It is a renewable resource, but its production is vulnerable to poor environmental management and working conditions.

Thanks to the work of the Better Cotton Initiative , the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world, farming communities are supported while protecting and restoring the environment.

The Warehouse is proud to be a member of The Better Cotton Initiative. The fees we pay on the BCI Cotton we source funds capacity strengthening programmes through the Growth & Innovation Fund (GIF), enabling Programme Partners to support BCI farmers in implementing practices that protect the environment and enhance income and resilience.

Supporting the people who create the products we sell, and minimising environmental harm is a priority for The Warehouse.

2025 results

In 2025 The Warehouse purchased about 6500 tonnes of cotton fibre for our private label products. 90% of this was sourced as BCI Cotton * via a mass balance chain of custody.

Mass balance is a volume-tracking system that allows BCI Cotton to be substituted or mixed with conventional cotton along the supply chain while ensuring the amount of BCI Cotton sold never exceeds the amount of BCI Cotton purchased. For more information see this webpage.

Through the fees we pay for sourcing BCI cotton, we contribute to the funding of field-level projects and farmer capacity strengthening through the BCI Growth and Innovation fund (GIF). Our sourcing of BCI Cotton in 2025 supported farmers participating in GIF-funded projects to save an estimated 53 million litres of water over the last growing season. **

Farmers participating in GIF-funded projects increased their net income per cotton hectare by an estimated 14.7% over the last 3 growing seasons. ***

In 2026, The Warehouse initiated a Physical BCI Cotton pilot program for its private label home textile range.

Physical BCI Cotton is produced by BCI Farmers and uses physical segregation to store, transport and process BCI Cotton separately from any conventional cotton. This ensures the BCI Cotton bales produced are 100% BCI Cotton, which can be traced back to their country of origin. For more information on sourcing physical BCI Coton see this webpage.

*Financial year August 1 2024 – July 31 2025
** Calendar year January 1 2025- Dec 31 2025
***Farmers experience net income increases for a variety of reasons, most commonly due to increased yields and/or optimised use of inputs (such as irrigation water, pesticides or synthetic fertiliser). However external variations like prices or weather have a large influence.

Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)

The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is an internationally recognised and trusted certification system for responsible forest management. FSC sets rigorous standards to ensure that forests are managed in a way that benefits nature, supports biodiversity, and protects the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and workers.

The Warehouse is proud to support these principles through our FSC Promotional Licence. Since the early 2000s, we’ve been sourcing FSC-certified wood and paper products, and our licence enables us to promote these products while raising awareness of the positive impact they support, including:

• Zero deforestation: FSC’s rigorous forest management standards exist to protect forests’ vital functions and safeguard them from deforestation. It prevents deforestation and deterioration of forest health and resilience in the long term. Forest managers are subject to strict requirements to maintain forest cover and conserve or enhance forest structure, biodiversity, and productivity.
• Environmental protection: FSC certification requires the maintenance of biodiversity and the protection of high conservation value areas, including old-growth forests.
• Indigenous peoples' rights respected: FSC’s standards require Free, Prior and Informed Consent on forest management decisions. All FSC-certified forest owners and managers are required to identify and uphold Indigenous Peoples’ rights of land ownership, use of land, and access to resources the land may provide.
• Fair Wage and Work Environments: FSC certificate holders are required to uphold the principles and rights of workers at their workplace as defined by the ILO Core Labour Conventions. They are also required to promote gender equality, protect workers from occupational hazards, and meet or exceed minimum forest industry standards or other recognised forest industry wage agreements or living wages.

Learn more about Forest Stewardship Council Australia and New Zealand at: https://anz.fsc.org/

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The Warehouse is working to add more recycled materials to our products and packaging.

Using recycled materials instead of raw materials is a way to reduce waste, conserve energy, reduce air and water pollution, and conserve natural resources. Products made with recycled materials have a smaller carbon footprint than those made with raw materials.

You can find recycled polyester in some of our active wear and winter outerwear. The recycled content comes from plastic bottles or waste polyester textiles.

In 2021 we introduced recycled cotton t shirt ranges. The recycled cotton was gathered from waste cotton fabric offcuts and then made into new yarn without using any new dyes, water or chemicals.

Whenever we make a recycled claim on our products, we always support it with a recognised certification like Global Recycle Standard or our teams gather evidence from suppliers to ensure we can stand behind our claims.

In some of The Warehouse clothing ranges you'll find the label LENZING™ ECOVERO™ Viscose. This is a man-made fiber derived from wood pulp. It's also a great fabric choice for everyday use that drapes well and feels soft to touch.

Compared with generic viscose, the production of LENZING™ ECOVERO™ has a smaller environmental footprint*:

• Wood* - our natural and renewable raw material, wood and pulp, comes from certified and controlled sources from sustainably managed forests.
• Water* - up to 50% lower water impact and we clean up the water we use before returning it to nature.
• Air* - up to 50% lower CO2 emissions to air.

*These results were compared to generic viscose and calculated using the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI) tools provided by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. The Higg MSI tools assess impacts of materials to the point the materials are ready to be assembled into a product.

We know Kiwis want to see less packaging on the products they buy, and to be able to recycle packaging easily in their kerbside bins. Reducing our packaging is a big goal for us at The Warehouse.

In FY24 55% of the product packaging associated with our private-label sales met our packaging sustainability requirements. These requirements focus on re-designing and removing unnecessary packaging, eliminating packaging materials that are not kerbside recyclable and where packaging is needed, making sure it’s easy to be recycled at home or in one of our stores.

In 2024 we signed up to the Australasian Recycling Label to help Kiwi’s make the right disposal or recycling decisions

The Warehouse believes that beauty products should be cruelty-free. We are proud to be Leaping Bunny approved. A global programme, Leaping Bunny requires cruelty-free standards over and above legal requirements.

All of our own brand cosmetic and personal care products Good One are approved under the Cruelty Free International Leaping Bunny programme, the internationally recognisable gold standard for cruelty-free products. We adhere to a fixed cut-off date policy and proactively monitor our suppliers to ensure that our products continue to adhere to the Leaping Bunny criteria. Our supplier monitoring system is also independently audited.

For more information about Cruelty Free International, Leaping Bunny and Leaping Bunny criteria, please visit www.crueltyfreeinternational.org .

In FY24 we became Rainforest Alliance certified for our private-label coffee and cocoa products.

The Rainforest Alliance is working towards a world where people and nature thrive together. They are building a powerful alliance with farmers, businesses, consumers and others. The Rainforest Alliance seal means that farmers follow more sustainable farming practices that protect forests, improve their livelihood, promote human rights of farm workers, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

To learn more about the Rainforest Alliance, visit www.rainforest-alliance.org..

Next time you are shopping for coffee and cocoa products in one of our stores, keep an eye out for our private-label products with the Rainforest Alliance seal.