Sustainability or Greenwashing?

The term "sustainability" is currently a marketing tool that many outdoor manufacturers and sports brands claim for themselves, without actually 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, forgetting to mention what is obvious:

A piece of clothing is by no means sustainable if, with every wash cycle, it introduces millions of microplastic particles irrevocably into the ocean, whether recycled or not.

You can find more on the topic of microplastics in our lexicon article Merino and Sustainability…

In order not to further fuel this irreversible environmental catastrophe, the consequences of which are not yet fully foreseeable, 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 crude oil is finite, and so is nature's patience.

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

The idea behind the founding of our company was from the beginning the vision to offer a truly sustainable alternative with a specialized product range of predominantly biodegradable functional clothing. This also includes that we exclusively sell products with animal welfare certified wool origin without mulesing.

How sustainable is merino wool?

Wool is particularly sustainable for various reasons:

Wool is 100% biodegradable
Sheep do not require feed cultivated with high energy, fertilizer, and pesticide input
Sheep are commonly recognized as landscape managers, as they promote and preserve species-rich meadows and cultural landscapes by keeping dominant plants in check and spreading seeds of endangered plant species through their feces. Sheep do not compact the soil like machines, thus promoting a living soil environment and the buildup of humus
Wool needs to be washed less and at lower temperatures than other textiles, saving energy and water throughout the entire product cycle
As a renewable raw material, wool binds CO² and thus offsets a portion of the CO² footprint for the transport and processing of the wool

How sustainable is Merino Store itself?

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

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

No returns end up in the trash with us; instead, they are elaborately reprocessed for sale (of course, only flawless new goods are resold in the online shop / B-stock goes into the annual warehouse sale)
We generate almost all the electricity for our company and our electric vehicles ourselves through our own photovoltaic system