This booklet tells the story of how IKEA has been tackling this challenge since 2005. Cotton is the second-most important raw material at IKEA, after timber. This commodity has serious sustainability issues, such as the excessive use of water and pesticides, bad labor circumstances, and farmers’ indebtedness and poverty. IKEA, along with like-minded retailers, civil society organizations and financial institutions, decided to create a global platform, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which would make cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in, and better for the sector’s future.