Welcome to the LATEST
from summer 2025
This summer I’ve been swinging to the sounds of David Bowie, seasonal allergies, and the growing complexity of wool traceability. The annual IWTO Congress in Lille, France (May 22-26) was full of discussions about the European PEF model, the new French initiative, Ecobalyse, and the game-changing Wool LCA by Dr. Paul Swan. Through my friend Virginie Varenne at Lyon’s Maison des Canuts, I learned of a new supply chain traceability programme called La Belle Empreinte which really got me thinking…
I spent some time at the French mill I work with in Rhône-Alpes, and enjoyed a meaningful weekend with my longtime collaborators, Laurence and Bertrand De Mailly. Both are fixtures in the French textile industry who generously toured me around local markets, introduced me to wool artisans and we peppered it all with some interesting conversations about knitwear.
Back in Quebec I set to work with Nicolle Palacio, my summer intern from UQAM, designing and building a JU WOOL traceability database that supports our company’s Declaration of Authenticity. Through my many discussions with Nicolle, I learned firsthand how the new generation is looking at traceability and it surprised me.
The fact remains that traceability in manufacturing is no longer niche. It’s a cornerstone of supply chain ethics, sustainability, and brand credibility. Compliance schemes are now part of our landscape. It’s just that beneath their virtuous veneer lies a tangle of costs and compromises that leave me wondering how Canadian wool fits into a global paradigm.
It’s a heavy suitcase to unpack, so I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions. For now, I’m simply sharing some thoughts, concerns, and small delights from inside Canada’s modernizing wool world.
Thanks so much for joining me,
Traceability in Textile
Manufacturing
What Is Textile Traceability?
Textile traceability refers to the ability to track and verify a product’s journey from raw material to finished good. It encompasses origin, processing, transportation, and transformation – usually with documentation at each stage. In principle, it’s a tool for accountability. And this is where the uniformity in traceability systems ends.
When the raw material is a natural fibre like wool, traceability becomes even more granular and splintered. Factors such as region, breed, farm management style, shearing practices, and wool characteristics (micron, colour, staple length) offer meaningful and often critical information. These elements don’t just support accountability; they enrich the narrative and elevate the value of the final product.
Yet, the global industry often prioritizes metrics that are less relevant, and less compelling, for Canadian wool. They overlook the very attributes that make our fibre distinctive and valuable, even if only to us. How do we straddle both worlds? How to we meet international standards while championing the qualities that matter most to us?
Origins and Realities
Textile traceability is a relatively recent innovation. It began gaining momentum in the early 2000s, inspired by traceability models in the food industry and driven by rising consumer demand for transparency. In fashion, it was accelerated by exposés on labor abuses and the environmental toll of fast fashion. Wool, with its natural origin, regional specificity, and connection to animal welfare, appeared especially well-suited to benefit from traceable systems.
However, traceability is not a one-size-fits-all concept. It exists in multiple formats, each designed to address different fibres, supply chain stages, and values. These systems are complex, fragmented, and often shaped by global industrial norms that don’t always reflect the realities of smaller ecosystems like ours.
The Players
One of the earliest and most recognizable certifiers is OEKO-TEX, founded in Europe in 1992 under the International Association for Research and Testing in the Field of Textile and Leather Ecology (est. 1982). With 17 member nations, OEKO-TEX spans a wide range of fibres and applications. Its label is ubiquitous, seen on everything from sportswear to bath towels, creating what seems to be an unquestioned perception of sustainability.
In the wool sector, RWS (Responsible Wool Standard), introduced by Textile Exchange in 2002, has become the dominant global certification. It covers farms in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, and the United States. Yet its relevance to Canadian wool – an industry that is relatively small in scale and distinct in character, is less obvious. RWS requires robust reporting and stakeholder collaboration that exceeds Canada’s capabilities. It also appears extremely expensive to implement and maintain.
BaaCode, launched by Icebreaker Merino in 2008, offered a more localized and brand- driven approach, tracing wool back to specific New Zealand sheep stations. It demonstrated how traceability could be used not just for compliance, but for storytelling and consumer engagement. Today Icebreaker appears to have furloughed BaaCode in favour of multiple third party accreditations like RWS and ZQ Merino, a New Zealand accreditation program that certifies ZQ wool is from ethical sources and that their farmers adhere to the guiding principles of the Five Freedoms.
In addition to these certification bodies, wool merchants across the globe have developed proprietary traceability systems to build consumer trust and differentiate their fibre. These systems vary widely in scope and sophistication. According to the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO), there are currently 30 distinct traceability programs in operation, covering the journey from farm to supply chain.
The challenge for Canadian wool is not simply traceability for traceability’s sake, but developing systems that address the needs, values, scale, and uniqueness of our wool. We are being called upon to navigate global expectations while advocating for the attributes that make our wool “Canadian”. It’s a matter of figuring out how to play ball on our own terms.
Capital T Traceability vs.
small t traceability
I’ve come to describe two distinct approaches to traceability in textile – Capital T Traceability and small t traceability. Capital T Traceability is a global game, built around international compliance standards that reassure distant and faceless consumers. These frameworks are rigorous, expensive, and built for massive amounts of wool in multi- continent supply chains. They serve a purpose, especially in export markets, but they’re not always aligned with realities that Canadian wool can squeeze into.
Then there’s small t traceability; a purpose-driven, locally responsive type of system designed to build trust with specific markets or stakeholders. “Small t” is about transparency that’s meaningful, not performative. “Small t” doesn’t chase global validation; it answers real questions from very specific stakeholders.
Keeping Wool Value in Canada
Let’s switch gears for a moment and talk about wool value. Canadian wool is diverse. There’s no single end use. Some of it is ideal for knitting yarn, some for blankets and carpets, and some for apparel, felting, or agricultural applications. If producers can earn more money by exporting certain grades of wool, then export makes sense. But when domestic supply chains offer higher returns at the farm gate, that wool should stay here.
In my opinion, a thriving and sustainable Canadian wool industry depends not on wool retention but on wool VALUE retention. The goal isn’t to keep all our wool within our national or provincial borders – that would be short-sighted if not impossible. The goal is to keep as much VALUE as possible in Canada. Value retention has a direct, positive impact on wool revenue at the farm gate.
Today, we’re building premium pricing into Canadian wool that foreign markets might find difficult to match. Ideally, only the least desirable wool would be exported, if at all. This marks a shift from pre-pandemic years, when nearly all Canadian wool, top quality and inferior quality alike, was exported. That model has changed and so has the world.
When I wrote The Wool Plan 2021–2026 for the Campaign for Wool Canada, I argued that Canadian wool didn’t belong on the global commodities market. It didn’t fit the mold. I still believe that, although my view has become more nuanced. Exporting lower-grade wool remains a fine and viable option. But wherever we can create greater value and tell a better story, we should. That means reinvigorating our domestic supply chains and choosing traceability systems that reflect the needs of the wool’s destination.
Traceability Should Follow the Wool
Should the world’s lowest-grade wool be held to the same certification standards as our finest wools? Are foreign buyers of industrial-grade wool really the ones asking for traceability standards like RWS? Or is RWS only relevant for top-tier wool destined for combed tops and premium blends? And if certification is preferred across the board, are buyers prepared to pay a premium that actually reaches the farm gate? Or are we investing in compliance that doesn’t reflect the value of the product or reward the producer?
To be clear, I’m not opposed to traceability systems in the least. On the contrary, I think they are a step in the right direction. What I am flagging is a concern for the expense of implementing the and the stakeholder groups that bears the greatest burden of those costs.
For now, I see more value in developing a Canadian crossbreed traceability program that answers the questions that matter most to Canadian stakeholders. I also believe that Canada can safely tolerate multiple traceability systems. If fact, I believe diversity in traceability systems keeps us honest and breaks the cycle of monopolies that have plagued the Canadian sheep industry for decades.
Crossbred meat sheep are the backbone of our industry, and that’s part of what makes our wool exceptional. These animals are healthy, well-cared-for, on family-run farms across this country. Traceability is already embedded in their ear tags through provincial and federal livestock programs. Crossbreeds give us greater varieties of wool. I think there are many solutions to traceability we can develop right here at home.
Small t traceability for JU WOOL
Like many wool merchants, I developed my own traceability system for JU WOOL. Born out of necessity, it started when an international client requested a product made from Canadian wool. The client asked, quite pointedly, “How do I know you’re not charging me Canadian wool prices and selling me New Zealand wool?”
Short of introducing him to the sheep, I realized the best solution was to formalize what I already had: detailed records on every lot of wool I negotiate. So I created an affidavit system that lays out the entire chain of custody – transparent, specific, and verifiable.
It’s called The Declaration of Authenticity. It documents the farm, breed, management system, shearing date, shearer, transporters and bills of lading, scourer, and downstream processors. Every step is accounted for, with reference numbers linking the wool back through its entire journey.
This system, when paired with JU WOOL’s public commitments to animal welfare and anti-exploitation, make it a comprehensive and trustworthy traceability model that meets the needs of my ecosystem. I offer a Declaration of Authenticity free of charge with every wool or product order, and it has become a hallmark of our service.
Since I work B2B, I let my clients decide how much transparency they want to show their customers. In my own way, I’m letting the market dictate where the transparency and traceability story goes. If my clients feel the story is important for their customers, they’ll bring that feedback to me. Then I can more realistically evaluate if we move from little t traceability to Capital T traceability. For now, it has been a warmly received service.
Small T Challenges
The Declaration of Authenticity program is not without it’s challenges. It’s been in place for about 2 years now and it’s a tremendous amount of data to account for. I’ve shopped my model to various suppliers of textile traceability platforms but 100% of the time I’ve been told that my level of traceability can’t be met digitally and that I should continue doing things the analogue way. This is why I feel blessed to have been introduced to my summer intern, Nicolle Palacio.
I challenged Nicolle to propose software and develop a data platform that captures and organizes the information for The Declaration of Authenticity. Nicolle delivered in spades with the added bonus that her platform logs my wool inventory and attributes it, kilo-for- kilo, to the projects the wool is used for. Depending on the time of year, wool inventory systems are critical because we help farmers move wool off-farms in the summer so they can make way for their winter stock of hay.
It means that in very short periods of time, we are inventorying lots of wool from all sorts of directions. Nicolle’s system, although simple, has allowed my partners and I to capture every bale of wool since my company’s inception. And simplicity, we learned, is the name of the game. Simple, human-centric, low-cost systems.
In one of my conversations with Nicolle, she shared that her internship advisor asked her curiously why she didn’t think to layer-in Artificial Intelligence to the platform. Nicolle’s response surprised me. She told her advisor that automation would bring nothing to the project – rather it would betray the integrity of this human-scale work. I was so intrigued to hear Nicolle’s thoughts on digitisation that I asked her to share the experience in her own words. With her permission, this is what she wrote:
“Traceability” is a word that has been mentioned a lot throughout my recent years of study in fashion school. It is thrown around by students during presentations and stamped on Power Point slides under “Sustainability Strategies”. The mere mention of the word “Traceability” is enough to get teachers nodding their heads and for those students to claim their full marks for a single mention of the word Traceability.
As a student who has been making the effort to look at traceability beyond just scoring marks, I have tried to imagine what it really means to have a traceable supply chain, from start to end. We see QR codes appearing on clothing tags, and international labels assuring ethical production, organic fibers or recycled materials. On the surface, it seems like we are making progress. But are we?
It turns out the standards for some labels are considerably low, conditions of production are still a major blur, only a small number of suppliers can truly recall exactly where their products have been, and the origins of recycled materials are even more questionable. After courses, seminars, lectures, conversations and reading papers, I’m still confused and discouraged. Even if we have a QR code to scan, how can we know if the information appearing is true?
When Jane gave me the opportunity to work on a traceability model for Canadian wool production for my internship, I jumped at the occasion. Not only was I thrilled to gain some insights into a local industry that I am passionate about, but I was also getting the chance to do something impactful. Beyond point-form key words on a Power Point presentation and marketing campaigns with lots of greenery, sustainability is, to me, about active change. It was clear that the model we needed to build had to be functional, but most of all, intentional.
My internship supervisor at my university asked me if I had considered using artificial intelligence to enhance this inventory matrix, and I gave an honest answer: I did not want to. After our first conversation, Jane painted me a clear and intimate portrait of what it was like to take the wool from the sheep to the final product. I came to the realization that the wool industry holds some of the most human tasks still performed in the world of fibre production, and it is even more the case here in Canada, where the size of our wool industry relies on the artisans’ labor of love.
On such a human, real and connected scale, how could AI create a system that would serve us? From the start, it sounded obsolete to ask a machine to create something that we had already envisioned, something that we already knew would help us. At a time when our reflections and conclusions can be generated in an instant at a high ecological price, I think it is a strong choice to trust ourselves and lean on the work we know how to do. All the decisions taken to create this traceability model were, as I said, intentional, and leaving it to an algorithm felt too far from the DNA of the wool industry.
Somehow, this decision allowed for a simple, effective and completely truthful system for supply chain traceability to come together, a system that supports human actions and the human tasks already in place instead of replacing or overshadowing them. While the effectiveness of the traceability concept relies heavily on the trust of the customer at the end of the chain, I believe having a person’s initials and contribution to the project showcased next to the final product is much stronger and more authentic than some label or QR code could ever be.
Nicolle graduated in June from L’École des sciences de la gestion à L’Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM) with a Bachelor of Fashion Design and Management, with a focus on communications, culture and creating value. She begins a Master’s degree in Leadership in Sustainability at Sweden’s Malmö University in September. Thanks Nicolle !!
