Animal Welfare – How We Ensure Animals Are Treated Well

Many garments contain natural fibers from animals, and it is important to us that these fibers come from farms with good animal welfare practices. Christiane Fagertun, Head of Sustainability at Varner, explains more about how we work with animal welfare.

Cubus has been part of Varner since 1989. How does Varner work with suppliers, producers, and animal welfare?
– Ethical aspects are always considered when choosing suppliers of animal fibers. For Varner, this means focusing on traceability, health, and safety, as well as animal welfare on farms and production units, says Christiane.

In Varner’s Animal Welfare policy, we set requirements for our suppliers on how they must ensure animal welfare when working with us. They must sign these requirements before we enter into a partnership.

– We are not legally required to use these standards, it’s voluntary. Varner does this because we want to ensure animal welfare, and it also provides a form of traceability.

Third-Party Certifications 

– We use third-party certifications to ensure that those involved in wool production treat animals well. A third-party certification is a process in which a trusted third party, usually a certification body, issues certificates to confirm that a product, service, or organization meets the requirements of a reference system. It is important that there is an independent assessment, explains Christiane.

– We work closely with Textile Exchange, which both develops and owns various standards. Regarding animal welfare, we mainly use their standards for wool and down, as those are the animal fibers we use the most, says the Head of Sustainability.

Certification Systems for Down and Wool 

Both wool and down are natural materials that can last long if you take good care of them. This is something to keep in mind when shopping for clothes.

– When you buy certified wool or down, the risk of animal welfare violations is lower. The supply chain for wool and down products can be somewhat opaque, making it challenging to ensure full transparency, says Christiane.

– We conduct inspections ourselves and maintain direct contact mainly with first- and second-tier suppliers. This means factories that handle the final stages of garment production, like cutting and sewing. Further down the production chain, there is fabric production, dyeing, and spinning. At the bottom of the supply chain, you find raw material extraction, which in the case of these products, means animal husbandry.

– For down, it's very simple. If we use down, it must be certified. So, all the down we use at Varner is certified according to the Responsible Down Standard.

By using certified down, we know that the farms undergo regular audits where a third party checks whether they meet the requirements set by the Responsible Wool Standard. This ensures that animal welfare is maintained.

Prohibited Fibers 

Part of our animal welfare work also involves materials we choose not to use because we see that animal welfare is not upheld. Varner has bans on, among others, fur, angora, and leather from endangered species.

An example is the ban on wool from sheep that have undergone mulesing. Mulesing is when farmers remove skin around a sheep's tail to prevent flystrike, primarily occurring in Australia due to their climate.

– We banned mulesing in 2008. We also require that the merino wool we buy from Australia, where mulesing is widespread, must be certified. This ensures that mulesing has not taken place. Australia is one of the largest producers of merino wool, and it is the merino sheep that face this issue, says Christiane.

Ban on Animal-Tested Cosmetics 

Animal testing of cosmetics is another area where Varner and Cubus have a ban, in line with laws in both Norway and the EU.

– Cubus offers external cosmetic brands, and the requirement that the products are produced according to legislation and properly documented is communicated when we onboard products from these suppliers. If they do not have the correct documentation, we do not enter into a partnership.

– External suppliers have also produced Home products on behalf of Cubus, and in this process, we receive documentation confirming that the product complies with applicable regulations, is not tested on animals, and does not contain illegal chemicals, concludes Christiane.