Namoi Cotton's Sustainability Report | ESG Strategy

The development of an inaugural sustainability report and ESG strategy to progress Namoi and the cotton industry towards a more sustainable future

Namoi Cotton (Namoi) was established in 1962 and is now one of Australia’s leading cotton processing and marketing organisations with 11 cotton gins across QLD and NSW capable of processing 84,000 cotton bales per week.

Australia’s cotton industry is complex and offers important organic, tracible, and sustainable solutions. Yet, it also faces challenges, namely water and chemical usage, soil degradation, climate change, community engagement, and human rights in labour practices.

Namoi’s specific position in the cotton supply chain (ginning) means most of these challenges are indirectly linked via upstream and downstream supply chains. Nevertheless, they recognised that all entities play a part and hold responsibility for building a more sustainable cotton industry in Australia and globally.

Thus, Namoi Cotton committed to developing an environmental, social, governance (ESG) strategy and publishing annual sustainability reports, engaging technical experts at Ndevr Environmental to guide them along the entirety of this sustainability journey.

This support began with a detailed GRI-aligned materiality assessment to identify and prioritise Namoi’s most material sustainability impacts. From there, a suite of best-practice indicators was built with targets to workshop with the board, executive, and operational experts. This work culminated in a comprehensive ESG Strategy that Namoi is now using to measure its ESG baseline, set targets, and implement actions going forward.

Building from the ESG strategy, Anthesis began the collaborative work of structuring, writing, and iterating Namoi’s inaugural sustainability report, for publication in May 2023. This publication is likely to be the first of its kind in the Australian cotton ginning industry.

Throughout this process Anthesis worked directly and collaboratively with Namoi’s executive team, serving as both technical sustainability specialists, as well as strategic change management advisors.

Anthesis is proud of Namoi’s inaugural sustainability report and the ESG strategy they are now using to progress themselves—and, more indirectly, the Australian cotton industry—towards a more sustainable future.