
Australian Wool Growers' Association has partnered with Australian Wool Innovation and its subsidiary, The Woolmark Company, to boost wool's sustainablilty message by rejoining The Wool Carbon Alliance.
AWI had launched The Wool Carbon Alliance in 2011, but in recent years the project took a back seat to other important projects.
However, AWGA is eager to discuss starting the alliance again, it says, with the marketing of wool's green credentials now back on the priority list, said AWGA director Chick Olsson.
AWGA's contribution is a 12-month project, which is entirely funded by the association, through which the organisation aims to educate the general public about wool's ability to sequester the equivalent of 50 per cent of its own weight in carbon from the atmosphere.
The main platform for the campaign is social media, with AWGA sharing its digital flyer via its personal connections, as well as via European fashion houses and New York interior designers, including The Schneider Group, Zenga Group and Hugo Boss, along with the International Wool Textile Organisation and New York-based home interior and blanket designer, Super String Theory Design .
Mr Olsson said the decision was made by AWGA's board to narrow the message to how a consumer can help the planet through using wool.
The process was assisted by Mr Olsson's daughter, Hayley Olsson, who works at Sydney advertising agency, Sparrow Jack Nimble.
"That's the thing about the United Nations, they've told everyone that if you're going to sequester carbon, it's got to be a long term sequestration, you can't renew it every year, it's got to stay there in soil, or stay there in trees," Mr Olsson said.
"Wool fits that perfectly, so I'm thinking that if we're going to go on single messaging in the future, there's nothing that's wrong about this, its all actually perfect.
"It does sequester carbon, it does biodegrade back into the soil and it really has this lovely story behind it."
AWI and Woolmark have already done the intensive research into wool's carbon attributes, including how it draws down atmospheric carbon and stores it for prolonged periods, Mr Olsson said.
"Our viewpoint is, this is something that young consumers can do every week or every day if they're going to choose something to wear," he said.
"Rather than wear plastic or artifical fibres, or what have you, they can wear a wool coat. We thought that this would be a simple call of action to young people to make a decent choice."
Fellow AWGA director Tom Moxham said this not only contained a public awareness message, but was a positive for the natural fibre which had otherwise struggled to make headway in a tough market environment.
"So when we come out of this it would be nice to say, 'well here's a campaign that really going to get our price points up'," he said.
"It is an expensive fibre, but the nice thing about it is it will last you a lifetime."