The Australian cotton industry is committed to on-farm sustainability. However, as the raw material goes through value-adding stages in global textile and apparel industries, it is uncertain how ‘sustainable value’ is transferred to the final product. This investment supports the first sustainable value chain analysis of Australian cotton, identifies sustainable value, how it is created, the principal stakeholders, and their value-chain relationships. Its framework shows how the industry can create sustainable value to compete globally and add social and natural capital