O o d h e a d p u b L i s h I n g L i m I t e d

3.6
Future trends
Many of the building blocks for future developments to establish wool as an
ethical, natural and renewable fibre are now in place. Australian Wool
Innovation and other grower country R&D organisations are undertaking
LCAs to provide an objective basis for establishing wool’s environmental
credentials and also to identify pressure points (Lyons, 2008). Already R&D
activities are in progress to address some of the known on-farm issues
(mulesing, pesticide use and land management) and processing issues (such
as chlorine in shrink-resist treatments and chromium in dyeing).
With its recognition of the EU eco-label textile processing standard, the
IWTO has established a baseline set of criteria for good environmental practices,
supply chain management and improved information flow in wool textile
processing. An important development will be for supply chains to make
available standard lines of eco-label tops and yarns for spinners, knitters and
weavers to purchase. This will shorten wool’s current long supply chain that
has been a formidable hurdle for garment manufacturers. The EU eco-label
is also establishing a database for compliant raw materials and intermediate
products (EU, 2007b).
Similarly, initial recognition by IWTO of the GOTS has been an important
step for organic processing. However, there are still important issues of
harmonisation of international on-farm organic standards and of amendments
to the GOTS for wool processing that need to be addressed to remove some
of the uncertainties associated with the organic wool ‘brand’. It is essential
that wool moves rapidly to meet the needs of environmentally aware consumers,
retailers, brands and NGOs who are seeking assurances about on-farm practices,
principally that the land has been managed well and that the sheep have been
managed ethically.
As international concerns with water availability and global warming
accelerate, it is likely that the trend for all things natural and sustainable will
continue. Legislative leadership will continue to come from Europe as it
continues to develop standards such as REACh and IPPC that will impact on
all global textile supply chains. Both pieces of legislation require increased
communication through supply chains. Carbon footprint labelling will become
prominent and textile recycling will become an important issue as land fill
becomes less available in the major textile consuming countries.
Environmental pressures in China will continue to grow as regulators and
consumers become less tolerant of poor environmental practices associated
© 2009 Woodhead Publishing Limited

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Wool as a natural renewable fibre
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with textile processing. This will lead to increased costs which may then
reduce overall consumption of textiles. Already, articles have begun to appear
in newspapers and fashion/trade magazines noting that the age of conspicuous
consumerism in textiles is over and that a new sign of fashion status is to
have a much smaller wardrobe of quality garments from designers with
strong environmental credentials. This can only benefit wool, provided that
it is ready to meet these developing consumer needs.