Shear Destruction:
Wool, Fashion and the Biodiversity Crisis
A sustainability report from Collective Fashion Justice’s
CIRCUMFAUNA initiative and the Center for Biological Diversity.
While the environmental impacts of the meat industry have gained significant attention, the role of farmed animals used in the fashion industry is often omitted from the conversation or, worse, green-washed.
From habitat degradation caused by grazing sheep to the chemicals used in scouring, the entire process of rearing sheep and turning shorn wool into usable fiber is riddled with threats to wildlife.
Our follow up report to Shear Destruction explores the relationship between wool and synthetic fibre use in fashion.
Too Hot for Knitwear analyses luxury and high street fashion brands and their winter collections, highlighting how wool and synthetics are blended together in the majority of garments, further harming the planet.
We are urging the fashion industry to:
1. Fashion industry associations, initiatives and certifiers should update their sustainability language to acknowledge the harms to biodiversity caused by wool.
2. Clothing and textile brands should publicly commit to phasing out or reducing wool by at least 50% by 2025.
3. Large clothing and textile brands should invest in the research and development of wool alternative material innovation.
4. Fashion designers should commit to phasing out or reducing wool by at least 50% by 2025 and supporting material innovation by using alternative materials in their clothing lines by 2023.
5. In phasing out wool, the industry should embrace alternatives that do not depend on fossil fuel-derived fibres (such as acrylic, polyester and nylon) because they come associated with their own harmful climate and environmental consequences.
More resources on wool and fashion’s future
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Willow and Claude
Our 20 minute, award-winning short film, about the production of knitwear free from wool, that is kind to the planet, and everyone living on it.
Explore fashion’s issues, and follow a total ethics supply chain creating sustainably grown, fairly made Aussie cotton knits. -
Report summary
Just want the quick facts from our report, Shear Destruction?
Click through for the summary we’re giving top fashion journalists and industry decision-makers, so you can understand the basics quickly. -
Wool, the animal wellbeing perspective
If you’ve learnt about the sustainability issues intertwined with wool production, you might like to learn more about the treatment of sheep in the wool industry, too.
Head to our page which summarises issues in the wool industry facing sheep, humans and the planet.
Contact us to talk about moving away from wool, towards more future-friendly materials.
info@collectivefashionjustice.org