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  • Sustainability at Core Merino

    Find out how we care for people, animals and planet.

Sustainability at Core Merino

Learn about how and where we create our merino wool garments

Animal Welfare

Materials

Traceability

Longevity

Animal Welfare

Our Wool Growers take good care of their sheep

South African wool growers have committed themselves to adhering to the Sustainable Cape Wool Standards. This means all growers have committed themselves to high animal welfare practices and environmental custodianship. For example, our wool growers manage their sheep in line with the Five Freedoms. In addition, the entire South African sheep population is mulesing-free, another big commitment and dedication wool growers made to ensure a happy and healthy life for their sheep. You can read more about the Cape Wool Standard by clicking on the button below.

Sustainable Cape Wool Standard

The Five Freedoms

Keeping our sheep healthy and well

Materials

Wool – a sustainable fibre

One of our core beliefs is that wool is a sustainable fibre. 

Wool and products made from wool, in general, are already a sustainable choice. We have already written several blog posts explaining how and why wool is a sustainable fibre, and you can read more about it below. 

What is the environmental impact of wool

What is the environmental impact of wool?

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Our garments are made with Nuyarn

You may have noticed that all of our new collection is made with Nuyarn. Nuyarn is a newly developed technique to spin yarn with the goal to be able to create fabrics that are lighter, stronger, higher-performing, and more sustainable. Nuyarn is made up of two components: The inside is made up of a non-wool fibre such as Tencel, polyester, or nylon. Around this base comes a layer of merino wool. This brings together the benefits of two fibres that together make up a better end product. 

  • 47% Stronger
  • 35% Loftier
  • Dries 5x faster
  • 35% warmer
  • 120% tougher seams

Going forward, we are looking to use a newly developed yarn consisting of wool combined with another biodegradable fibre.

 

Our Certifications

Our wool and garments are certified for the following standards

Traceability

As a small brand, we have the luxury of knowing all of our supply chain partners personally. We visit our suppliers regularly and are constantly in touch to ensure everything is done in the best possible way. We always know where and how our wool is currently being processed. Below we invite you to have a look at all of our partners, from the sheep farms to the finished garments.

Our Supply Chain

Longevity

Making our garments live and last longer

As described above, we continuously strive to reduce our environmental footprint within our own supply chain. However, together with our customers, we can do even more for our planet if we manage to prolong the use phase of each garment. Each garment that is worn for a longer time, means no new garment needs to be produced, saving resources. To extend the life of each of our Core Merino garments, we focus on four activities as described below.

  • High quality

    When it comes to quality, we do not cut any corners. We work only with a few supply chain partners that we know well so that we can always ensure the high quality of our wool garments that are made to last as long as possible.

  • Repurpose

    Even though we try to plan our designs and our order numbers as carefully as possible, we still end up with unsold items. In 2020, we, therefore, started repurposing these unwanted garments into neck warmers. We continue to explore in what other ways we can repurpose or remanufacture our garments to give it a new and long life.

  • COREpair and REstore program

    It happens, from time to time, that merino wool garments get a little tear or hole in them. Our customers may find themselves in a position where they still love their Core gear, but it does need a repair to last longer. This is where our REpair and REstore program comes in. We will repair and restore any Core Merino garment free of charge. Customers can just book a repair appointment online, send it to us, and we will repair and return the item within 3 to 6 weeks.

  • Take back program

    Another important question, we ask ourselves at Core Merino is what happens when our lovely customers no longer have a use for their Core garments? We would love to take these garments back, sort and clean them to then make something new out of them as part of our repurpose program. This is an activity we are currently working on figuring out the details of, but we have set ourselves the goal of taking back garments latest by 2023.

Our Sustainability Timeline

  • 2020

    Repurpose

    In 2020, we started repurposing outdated and damaged stock into neck warmers.

  • 2021

    COREpair and Take-Back program

    We repair and restore used garments and return them back to our customers. If one of our garments is no longer loved, we will take it back and save it for repurposing.

  • 2024

    100% sustainable packaging

    While we already started implementing our sustainable packaging strategy, we are not at the finish line. By 2024 we want all of our packaging to be sustainable and plastic-free.

  • 2025

    Remanufacturing

    We recycle damaged and unwanted stock into something new such as accessories, blankets, etc.

  • 2027

    Natural dyes

    By 2027 we want to have made all of our garments with natural dyes.