Snow of Tomorrow | Ortovox Wool Promise

I don't need to tell anyone here that merino wool is cool. It is comfortable to wear, transports moisture to the outside, warms and cools at the same time and the best argument for why so many outdoor sports enthusiasts love products made from merino is that it doesn't stink. Really not at all. A T-shirt for several days on the bike or on a ski tour - perfectly adequate if it is made of merino. Even for going up and downhill!

In the past, I never wanted to believe it: wearing a wool shirt for sport? No way! Why else would they have invented quick-drying polyester? Until I went on my very first press trip ever about merino wool in the Stubai Alps in 2013. I was equipped with an Ortovox longsleeve. This was to accompany us on the hut tour. As a student at the time, it was my first merino shirt. In terms of price, I simply couldn't afford it in my student life. But once I put it on, I was pretty hooked for the reasons mentioned above.

Wool yes - but from happy sheep

In the run-up to the trip, I did a lot of research into the fine fiber and noticed that the image I associate with merino wool of happy sheep on green pastures is not always true. More often, the wool comes from large farms, for example in Australia, where the animals live in far too confined spaces and the controversial practice of mulesing is still practiced today. Mulesing is the removal of skin around the tail and anus of sheep without anesthesia. It is often used in Australia and New Zealand to prevent the infestation of fly maggots in these folds of the sheep's skin.

This shocked me and somehow didn't fit in with my idea of an environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyle. However, there are also companies that are not completely indifferent to animal welfare. Similar to down, there are various cross-company standards, such as the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) or ZQ Merino. But there are also company-specific standards. For example from Ortovox.

Merino wool from under down under

The Taufkirchen-based company has been using wool since 1988. It started with merino wool in 1995 and added Swisswool in 2011. Since 2012, Ortovox has exclusively used merino wool from Tasmania. According to the company, the wool from there is particularly fine because the island south of Australia is so green, no dust gets caught in the wool, the sheep have enough to eat and the wool fibers grow evenly. Ortovox also chose Tasmania because the farmers share the same values and independently spoke out against mulesing years ago and looked for alternatives. This is why, for example, sheep are now bred to have fewer folds of skin around the tail and anus, or a second shearing of the wool around the tail is carried out - this prevents the flies from nesting so quickly.

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The Ortovox Promise

After two years of discussions with wool farmers, suppliers and producers, Ortovox has launched its own comprehensive wool standard based on the Responsible Wool Standard: the Ortovox Wool Promise, or OWP for short. The wool standard ensures that wool production on the farms meets Ortovox's high quality standards. From farm and land management, animal welfare and transportation to slaughtering, the OWP covers various sustainability aspects of wool production.

To this end, Ortovox regularly travels to the island south of Australia, visits the farms and concludes multi-year contracts with the wool farmers. At an annual round table, Ortovox brings together the various interest groups in the wool supply chain and offers a platform for critical discussions, transparency and new solutions. The aim is also to create complete traceability of the wool used in the supply chain on the basis of the OWP audits and thus make all processes transparent. Ortovox also has a certified traceability system that ensures that only wool from its own farms ends up in its own products.

The OWP focuses on four promises to protect animals, nature and people. Ortovox guarantees the absolute renunciation of mulesing and focuses on sustainable agriculture, transparency and friendly relationships with the farmers:

No mulesing: The company has defined over 64 indicators for the OWP that guarantee that the sheep are doing well. These include, above all, the renunciation of practices such as mulesing.
Preserving nature: The farmers with whom Ortovox works practice sustainable agriculture in order to create an optimal basis - for animals and people, today and in the future.
Personal relationships: It was important for Ortovox to enter into personal and friendly relationships with the farmers and to work closely with them.
Transparency to the source: Ortovox can trace the origin of its products back to their origins, the sheep farms in Tasmania.

4 questions about the Ortovox Wool Promise

We asked Ortovox CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) managers Stefanie Rieder-Haas and Katrin Bauer how the OWP came about in the first place and what Ortovox has planned for the future:

What was Ortovox's idea behind the OWP?

We worked with wool for the first time in 1988, started with merino wool in 1995 and added Swisswool in 2011. This means that Ortovox has developed a high level of expertise in working with wool over the years. Friendship is also one of our core brand values. We have been working with many partners, including our wool farmers, for many years and maintain a close exchange. An exchange that has given rise to a sense of community. As a result, we have always been close to the supply chain and - as we have grown in size - have been able to exert influence. Ortovox has had a CSR department since 2015 and when we saw that it was becoming increasingly important for the end consumer to know exactly where our products come from, we decided to make what we have built up over the years visible and transparent to outsiders. That's how the OWP came about.

Were the other merino wool standards not enough for you?

The wool supply chain is extremely difficult to monitor and track. That's why we developed our own standards. When the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) was established, we realized that our standard - which includes audits based on 60 indicators including animal welfare and personal visits on site - was already more advanced. We had already selected our farmers based on our criteria and are still in close contact with them today. In line with the FWF principle (Editor's note: FWF stands for Fair Wear Foundation), we organize roundtables to strengthen the exchange between farmers and promote innovation. This way, all sides learn from each other. We ultimately decided against the RWS because it also works without the certificate and because we didn't want to burden our farmers with the additional costs. We can answer all questions reliably - even without an internationally valid certificate.

Why does Ortovox rely on wool from Tasmania?

Ortovox relies on wool from Tasmania because we always have. The partnerships, the trust, the network and the transparency that we have built up over many years of working together mean a lot to us and are also the basis for what we can achieve together.

Where else do you want to go with the OWP? Do you have any other plans for the future?

What we are very pleased about is the positive feedback we have received from the industry and across all sectors about the OWP. The animal welfare organization Vier Pfoten also cites us as an example of best practice in the wool sector. Last autumn, we organized a roundtable with farmers, animal welfare organizations and other wool experts for the second time in order to learn together and develop new ideas - our goal is to think holistically and to be a role model for other companies as well.

In addition to the OWP, we have several other major goals: By 2024, we want to get to the point where 100 percent of our wool has been audited against the OWP and the supply chain is transparent, we also want to maintain the FWF's Leader status - we achieved it for the first time in 2018. Currently, almost 60 percent of our products are manufactured in Europe, and as we continue to grow, we aim to keep this figure at least at 60 percent - an ambitious goal. We are also aiming for climate neutrality by 2024 and PFC-free products in all categories. As a sixth point, we have agreed the goal of focusing even more strongly on the reparability of our products.