Australian Wool Sustainability Scheme (AWSS)
The Australian Wool Sustainability Scheme (AWSS) is a response to the global market's demand for sustainable, traceable, and high-quality wool – and responds in a way that reflects Australia’s unique production systems, stringent regulatory standards, and industry best practices.
The Australian Wool Sustainability Scheme (AWSS) connects Australian wool growers with brokers, buyers, processors and brands from around the world who share a common vision - of a wool industry that can celebrate and specify the highest standards of sustainability, integrity, and clip preparation, using technology to improve efficiency and enable traceability.
Developed for and owned by the Australian wool industry through the Australian Wool Exchange Ltd (AWEX), the AWSS provides credible, digital traceability from farms to first stage processing, and means on-farm practices have been adopted and can be verified.
The scope of AWSS covers on-farm sustainability performance focused on demonstrating:
- the responsible stewardship of natural resources,
- health and wellbeing of sheep,
- care for people, customers and communities,
- vitality and resilience of industry,
- quality clip preparation, data integrity and traceability.
AWSS offers two types of certifications: SustainaWOOL and ResponsiWOOL.
Both meet the same sustainability standards across the board and differ only in one aspect of caring for sheep, which is whether the property practices mulesing (or liquid nitrogen use) with appropriate pain relief for flystrike risk management.
This allows the Australian Wool Sustainability Scheme to be inclusive of different wool production systems in Australia, whilst importantly having clear separation for customers for whom purchasing non-mulesed wool is important.
Click here to go to the Australian Wool Sustainability Scheme website.