Responsible Wool Standard

The Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) is a voluntary standard which aims to improve the welfare of sheep and the land they graze on. A professional, third-party certification body audits each stage in the supply chain starting at the farm and certification helps to maintain the identity of wool from certified farms through to final products. RWS farmers are evaluated against the animal welfare, land management, and social requirements. Some, but not all, critical requirements include: 1) No mulesing (cutting chunks of flesh from lambs’ hindquarters to address problems caused by breeding them to produce excessive amounts of wool); 2) Shearing shall be performed by - or under the direct supervision of - a competent shearer; 3) No rough physical contact such as kicking, striking, throwing, or dropping animals, dragging, or pulling by the fleece, tail, ears, head, horns, or neck, or dragging by the back legs. RWS is owned and managed by Textile Exchange. Learn more here: https://textileexchange.org/about.