Sustainability or Greenwashing?

The term “sustainability” is currently a marketing tool that many outdoor manufacturers and sports brands claim for themselves, without being truly sustainable upon closer inspection.

Recycled synthetic fibers are the means of choice to convince customers that they have made a greener purchasing decision and done something good for the environment. An entire industry is jumping on this marketing bandwagon and forgetting to mention what is obvious:

A piece of clothing that irreversibly releases millions of microplastic particles into the ocean every time it is washed , whether recycled or not, is by no means sustainable.

You can find out more about microplastics in our lexicon article Merino and Sustainability…

In order not to further fuel this irreversible environmental catastrophe, the consequences of which cannot yet be fully estimated, there are truly sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based synthetic fibers.

The textiles of the future can only be natural fibers and plant-based cellulose fibers, because oil is finite and so is nature's patience.

Textiles made from natural raw materials are biodegradable and can theoretically be composted after the product life cycle and thus returned to a natural cycle.

From the very beginning, the idea behind founding our company was the vision of offering a truly sustainable alternative with a specialized product range of predominantly biodegradable functional clothing. This also means that we only sell products with animal welfare-certified wool origins without mulesing .

How sustainable is merino wool?

Wool is particularly sustainable for a variety of reasons:

Wool is 100% biodegradable
Sheep do not require feed that is grown with high energy, fertilizer and pesticide inputs
Sheep are generally recognized as landscape conservationists because they promote and maintain species-rich meadows and cultural landscapes by keeping dominant plants in check and spreading seeds of endangered plant species through their droppings. Sheep do not compact the soil like machines and thus promote a lively soil environment and the formation of humus.
Wool needs to be washed less and at a lower temperature than other textiles, which saves energy and water over the entire product cycle
As a renewable raw material, wool binds CO² and thus offsets part of the CO² footprint for the transport and processing of the wool

How sustainable is the Merino Store itself?

Of course, we also asked ourselves how our sales channel can be adapted to this philosophy and how our processes and actions can be optimized accordingly:

Climate-neutral shipping with DHL Go Green
100% plastic-free shipping packaging (recycled cardboard, plastic-free adhesive tape with natural rubber, only reused paper filling material from goods deliveries)
Unlike many other online retailers, we take the time and pack by hand according to the product size in the smallest possible boxes (less filling material, less unnecessary air volume that has to be transported)

We do not throw any returns into the trash, but instead reprocess them for sale (of course, only flawless new goods are resold in the online shop / B-goods are included in the annual warehouse sale)
We produce the electricity for our company and our electric vehicles almost exclusively ourselves via our own photovoltaic system