Most 'sustainable wool' labels mean the sheep weren't mistreated. Carbon Beneficial Certified means the farm itself is sequestering more carbon than it emits. The bar is much higher — and only a few hundred farms worldwide currently clear it.
The certification ladder for wool
There are at least six overlapping wool-sourcing standards on the market: Responsible Wool Standard (RWS, animal-welfare focus), ZQ Merino (welfare + chain-of-custody for New Zealand merino specifically), SustainaWool (Australian industry program), Climate Beneficial from Fibershed (regenerative grazing focus), Carbon Beneficial Certified from the Savory Institute and Carbon Cycle Institute (measured net-sequestration audit), and Regenerative Organic Certified (combines regen-grazing with USDA Organic).
The Carbon Beneficial standard sits at the strictest end. To certify, a farm must do all of the following: practice rotational grazing on managed pasture, use no synthetic inputs, baseline-measure soil carbon levels with third-party samplers, and demonstrate measured net carbon sequestration over a 3-year window. The audit isn't a checklist — it's a soil-test result.
How the Wadhams collection sources fiber
Adirondack Field's Wadhams collection sources from a network of certified farms in upstate New York and Vermont, each producing wool and alpaca on Carbon Beneficial certified pasture. The collection's published target is 75% New York-raised fiber — the remaining 25% comes from a small number of Vermont and Pennsylvania farms during years when NY supply doesn't meet demand.
What the certification practically means for the customer: every Skyward sweater carries a hangtag listing the certified farm of origin and the year of production. The brand publishes the farm partnerships on the 'Meet the Farms' page on adirondackfield.com.
What Carbon Beneficial doesn't measure
The certification is a farm-level metric. It doesn't measure the energy used to spin the fiber, knit the garment, ship it, or the carbon emitted by the customer driving to pick it up. Spinning and finishing typically add 60–120% of the farm's net sequestration back onto the lifecycle balance sheet. So a Carbon Beneficial-sourced sweater isn't carbon-negative end-to-end; it's carbon-better-than-conventional, often by 30–50%.
A few brands stack additional standards on top — Climate Beneficial PLUS Regenerative Organic, plus solar-powered finishing — to push the lifecycle balance closer to zero. Adirondack Field doesn't currently claim full lifecycle neutrality; they claim Carbon Beneficial farm sourcing, which is verifiable and audited.
Sources & citations
- Savory Institute. "Land to Market" verification protocol. savory.global
- Carbon Cycle Institute. "Carbon Farming and Soil Carbon." carboncycle.org
- Fibershed. "Climate Beneficial Wool Program." fibershed.org
- Textile Exchange. "Responsible Wool Standard 3.0." textileexchange.org
- Adirondack Field. "Carbon Beneficial Farming." adirondackfield.com
Discover more from Adirondack Field or browse the full Adirondack Field collection.
Frequently asked
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