The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol has released its first results for U.S. Regen cotton, reporting lower greenhouse gas emissions intensity and soil loss across a pilot involving 33 growers.
Announced the Textile Exchange Conference in Vancouver on Thursday, the findings cover 59,094 harvested acres across 469 fields in seven U.S. cotton-growing states. They arrive alongside new rules allowing brands to identify U.S. Regen cotton content on products.
U.S. Regen is the Trust Protocol’s regenerative agriculture program for cotton grown in the United States. It began as the Field Partner Program pilot for the 2025 crop year, connecting participating growers with mills, apparel brands and retailers through bale-level verification and supply-chain traceability. In March, the Trust Protocol opened the program to broader commercial participation for the 2026 crop year.
“Growers are making long-term investments in the health and productivity of their farms, while also adapting regenerative practices to their unique growing region,” Marjory Walker, co-director of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, said in the announcement. “U.S. Regen supports those efforts through a consistent framework that measures outcomes, verifies practices and provides traceability to the bale.”
The 2025/26 outcomes report puts greenhouse gas emissions at 1.73 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per pound of cotton, compared with a baseline of 2.17 pounds—a 20 percent difference.
It also reports 30 percent more modeled soil carbon storage per pound of cotton and 75 percent lower annual soil loss per acre. Soil loss averaged 2.2 tons per acre, compared with 8.9 tons in the baseline.
The report found irrigation water-use efficiency was 49 percent higher. That measure tracks cotton produced per cubic foot of irrigation water; it does not mean the farms used 49 percent less water overall.
The comparisons draw on different baselines. For reductions, the program used Trust Protocol data that included fields without soil health practices. For carbon removals, it used a national measurement, reporting and verification dataset containing both regenerative and nonregenerative practices.
The results combine validated field-level data, scientific models and satellite monitoring. They describe the pilot’s performance against those reference datasets, rather than establishing that the same farms improved by those percentages over a previous season.
Staplcotn and Plains Cotton Cooperative Association collected the data. Every participating field was digitally mapped, with data linked to a Farm Service Agency farm number.
Growers qualified under requirements covering soil health, water use, synthetic inputs, water quality and biodiversity. All participating growers had nutrient management plans, used integrated pest management and incorporated beneficial insects into their pest management programs.
Reduced tillage or no-till was used by 91 percent of participating growers; 56 percent planted cover crops. The program allows growers to choose practices suited to their region and farm. The biodiversity findings likewise concern habitat potential. Ninety-one percent of participating acreage scored above 0.7 on the Habitat Potential Index, which the report associates with conditions supporting wildlife habitat and native plant diversity.
A September update now allows brands to identify U.S. Regen cotton on product labels. Approval depends on sourcing records, including which verified farms supplied the cotton, how bales were segregated and tracked as well as whether purchase and sales volumes align.
“Regenerative status reflects verified practice adoption at farm and field level,” the framework states.
Members cannot describe U.S. Regen cotton as “certified regenerative,” imply that a finished garment is regenerative certified or attach quantified environmental benefits to an individual product. Claims that cotton in a particular product came from a specific farm or grower are also prohibited.
A brand cannot use the pilot’s 20 percent emissions figure to claim that a shirt has a 20 percent smaller carbon footprint. The Trust Protocol requires longer-term evidence and additional verification before allowing claims of progress toward regenerative outcomes. To note: its rules exclude the 2025 pilot from that category.
Under the controlled-blending option, products must contain at least 50 percent tracked U.S. Regen cotton, rounded to the nearest whole number. Brands must communicate the percentage and explain what the program’s regenerative designation means, either on the product or via a QR code or digital product page.
Liz Hershfield, the organization’s co-director, said U.S. Regen was developed in response to brands seeking a practical, scalable source of regenerative cotton. Participating merchants, marketing cooperatives and self-marketing growers supply the fiber through Field Partner Programs.
“The U.S. Regen offering is a direct outcome of hearing from brands that they are looking for regenerative cotton that is credible, practical and scalable,” Hershfield said. “U.S. Regen connects the work growers are doing on the ground with verified traceability to support brands’ sourcing goals.”