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That wool jumper could be more than just a cosy knit for the winter months. According to a slew of brands that are now using regenerative wool, these fibres can help sequester carbon, increase soil organic matter and generally benefit the environment. That’s why brands such as Icebreaker, Smartwool, Janessa Leone, Eileen Fisher and more have been turning to regenerative wool in their supply chains.
While regenerative wool production is expanding overseas, a combination of costs and sourcing complexities are putting off some brands from making heavy commitments in the US. Jeanne Carver of Shaniko Wool, one of regenerative agriculture’s leading pioneers in the US, says that despite years of expanding her regenerative wool production, she’s had no mainstream brands in the country make a long-term commitment — even though she has wool to sell. “I’m still waiting for that larger brand that’ll want to work with us season after season,” says Carver. “We’re here, waiting for somebody to come down the road. We’d love to see that level of commitment to regenerative.”
What does the evidence say about regenerative agriculture? Is it actually making a difference? Truthfully, robust data is still limited. However, the lack of data doesn’t make it less vital, and a number of efforts are underway in an attempt to produce it.
Wool trade certification Woolmark commissioned a study in 2020 looking at the impact of regenerative wool growers in Australia. It reported that 11 small and medium-sized regenerative farms sequestered an overall 1,539 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year after other emissions were taken into account, maintaining 80 per cent ground cover over 13 years. Other research will produce varying results, however, depending on variables such as different soil conditions across different farms and also because while regenerative agriculture is supposed to refer to a certain set of farming practices, in reality their implementation looks very different from farm to farm.
Regenerative farming in practice
The basic tenets of regenerative farming include minimising tilling (agricultural soil preparation), keeping the soils covered, rotating crops, maximising grazing animals that help feed the soils with their droppings and eat away at new growth, intercropping where applicable and reducing or eliminating the use of chemical inputs such as pesticides, insecticides and petroleum-based fertilisers.
Standards on wool are helping ranchers and brands move the supply chain towards regeneration. The Responsible Wool Standard (RWS), which Carver helped pioneer along with the Textile Exchange, is one of the most widely used, advocating for animal welfare, land conservation and management, as well as the rights of workers on these farms. Her ranch was the first RWS-certified supply chain in 2016.
Janessa Leone collaborates with Carver and Shaniko Wool on its regenerative collection of sweaters. The company aspires to use 80 per cent regenerative materials by 2030, incorporating it into all its products, including hats, belts and bags. “Jeanne was one of the people I met who inspired me, and showed me that we can heal the land through these practices, and build fully traceable supply chains,” says Janessa Leone, founder and CEO of her namesake brand. “I really wanted fashion to be a part of the solution to the climate changes we’re facing and she helped me see that.”
But Leone didn’t want to make broad statements that weren’t backed by data. Working with Oregon State University (OSU), which carries out soil testing, she established that the wool used in her jumpers came from ranches that draw down more than 218,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. That, she says, is the equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 43,000 cars. This data collection was independently funded by OSU; agriculture and policy specialist, Dr John Talbott developed a research model and began sampling the soils. “We’ve provided a ‘laboratory’ for measurement and trials,” says Carver, who has now started to donate to the project in small increments.
This kind of data may encourage brands to commit more heavily. “We didn’t used to do soil testing in the ’80s and ’90s,” says Carver. “Who would we give the data to?... We saw the improvements before our eyes: the soils retained more water, the wildlife on the land was thriving, our creek was bursting with salmon.”
Scrutiny of animal farming has grown, however, but Carver says that the animals themselves are not the problem. “It’s how they’re looked after, where they’re grazing [on], what they’re eating,” she says. It’s also the quantities they are raised in, with industrial operations causing the biggest problems associated with animal agriculture. “[Sheep] are definitely part of the solution, and belong in that ecosystem.”
Scaling up
So, can regenerative wool be developed on a larger scale? Much of the world’s supply of wool comes from Australia and New Zealand. ZQRX, a regenerative agriculture platform, works with New Zealand merino wool growers, spanning five million acres of land, to produce regenerative wool. Smartwool, Icebreaker, Allbirds and Reda were founding brands when ZQRX launched in 2021. Now, the platform has grown to span more than 20 brands, including Everlane, Marimekko and Fjallraven, and its Regenerative Index helps measure and improve the impacts of specific farming practices.
And they’re seeing results. “Based on new measurements we have done around land cover, we estimate that with the inclusion of on-farm removals, the net emissions of ZQRX wool will be 30 per cent lower than ZQRX’s gross emissions,” says Donna Chan, head of regenerative impact at The New Zealand Merino Company.
“Evolving brand and consumer expectations around reporting means greater monitoring and measurement. Verification is required on the farm, which can be extremely cost prohibitive to scale,” says Chan.
Growing pains
Cost pressures worry many brands that would like to participate. New York-based Maria McManus, who runs her eponymous brand, uses Cradle-to-Cradle certified wool from Australia and would like to use regenerative materials, but says the higher cost combined with the complexity of sourcing placed it out of reach. “As a tiny brand, we could not survive if we made the supply chain too complicated,” McManus says. “In an ideal world, fashion supply chains would be cleaner — and simpler to follow.”
Interest is certainly growing, says Inka Apter, sustainability director of Eileen Fisher. But the regenerative route is not the answer to everything, she points out. “Regenerative agriculture (and wool) is not a singular solution to the climate crisis or a strategy for carbon removal. It must go hand in hand with other greenhouse gas reduction efforts throughout the supply chain.”
It’s one piece of a larger, more complicated puzzle, which some brands are still struggling to put together.
Leone hopes that more small-to-medium brands will follow her example and go directly to the source, connecting with ranchers such as Carver and Shaniko Wool. “The supply is there,” she insists. “But you have to take interest.”
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