UK – Working across New Zealand, Spain, Italy and the UK, Sheep Inc. is a new premium fashion brand striving to be carbon-negative.
With its first product, a merino wool sweater priced at £190 ($232, €211), the company has worked to ensure total supply chain transparency. Each jumper contains a tag with a unique serial number, allowing the owner to look up its journey, down to the name of the person who hand-finished it.
‘Because of the urgency of the climate crisis, Sheep Inc. has decided not only to offset these emissions but to offset 10 times [the amount of] emissions,’ explains Mark Maslin, professor of climatology at UCL, who advises Sheep Inc. on its biodiversity investment portfolio. To do this, the company is working with schemes that align with the business, including reforestation and proper management of grasslands in New Zealand. It also donates 5% of its revenue to biodiversity projects, enabling it to offset 325kg of carbon per sweater.
As the boundaries between society and nature continue to blur and consumerism is further integrated with our living world, Sheep Inc. shows how tomorrow’s brands will take a Whole-system Thinking approach to their products.