Conventional cotton is a natural fibre that requires significant amounts of freshwater to grow and is heavily reliant on the use of pesticides and fertilisers. Further up the supply chain, cotton typically undergoes multiple finishing processes which includes dyeing. The volume and quantity of chemicals used to turn chemical grown cotton from raw fibre into finished fabric, and the waste generated through the manufacturing process is often significant. They can pose many risks to health and other living systems through direct and indirect exposure and water pollution. 

It is widely accepted that prevention is better than cure. This is reflected in the hierarchy of controls which favours elimination (removing the hazard) over other increasingly less preferrable measures which are as follows: substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls and PPE. 

OCC take this approach very literally since their solution is simply not to use chemicals in their product. Instead, the company grows naturally colourful forgotten varieties of cotton that produce three tones naturally from the seed: ecru, green and brown. OCC ensure the chain of custody of all their products and control where and how their OCCGuarantee® cotton is transformed from the field to the final garment. Their naturally coloured cotton is made available to designers and brands, who are provided with valuable information so that they, in turn, can move this information to their customers. 

Thanks to the purity of their chemical-free organic cotton, OCC can ensure harmless garments for people's health. This means that consumers can enjoy the warmth, comfort and well-being that 100% organic cotton offers in contact with the skin. 

The OCCGuarantee® is their seal of quality, under which they have been working for 30 years with criteria of respect for the environment, respect for human rights and professional ethics. It involves an ethical economic model where the human rights of the people who are part of the entire fibre transformation chain are respected, with special attention to the farmer as the weakest stakeholder.

The cultivation of naturally coloured cotton is carried out through regenerative agriculture practices using only animal traction and no artificial irrigation methods. Organic production of cotton for an average sized t-shirt has been shown to save 1,982 gallons of water compared with chemically grown cotton. 

In addition, crops of up to five foods coexist with the OCC cotton, which naturally enriches the soil, thus benefitting the environment and people through additional income streams.