Stella McCartney swaps virgin cashmere for regenerated

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Aug 4, 2016

British fashion designer Stella McCartney, who doesn't use leather, fur or skin in her collections, and says no to angora and animal testing, has made another move to reduce the environmental impact of her brand.

Her company has ceased to use virgin cashmere in its knitwear, as it says cashmere has the highest impact environmentally out of all the raw materials it uses in its production chain – roughly 100 times the environmental impact of wool. Instead, it is now using regenerated cashmere made from post-factory waste in Italy.
 
Cashmere has traditionally been considered a luxury fibre, but today it's widely available as affordable goods. This has led to an increase in the goat population that produce the fibres used for cashmere, which is destroying the grasslands in Mongolia.

"In 2015, cashmere made up only 0.13% of our overall raw material usage, but still accounted for 25% of our total environmental impact as calculated using the EP&L (Environmental Profit & Loss account). By using solely Re.Verso™ regenerated cashmere for our cashmere needs in 2016, we estimate our cashmere impact to be as low as 2%," the brand stated.

Stella McCartney is also working with partners, including the Sustainable Fibre Alliance and the Wildlife Conservation Society, to support work in Mongolia to begin reversing the desertification that has taken place as a result of the overpopulation of goats.