Shear Destruction: Wool, Fashion and the Biodiversity Crisis
Clothing/Cosmetics Abuses Articles from All-Creatures.org

FROM Center for Biological Diversity and Collective Fashion Justice
November 2021

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.

shearing environmental damage

Read the full report by the Center for Biological Diversity and Collective Fashion Justice's CIRCUMFAUNA Initiative (PDF).

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, greenwashed.

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.

The fashion industry can no longer sit on the sidelines of the climate and extinction crises. It must accept responsibility for its environmental impacts and take action to create a world where people, wildlife and beauty can all thrive.

The Fashion Industry Should Do the Following:

  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 fibers (such as acrylic, polyester and nylon) because they come associated with their own harmful climate and environmental consequences.

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE (PDF) 

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