The New Zealand Merino Company’s regenerative wool platform, ZQRX, and Savory Institute’s Land to Market programme have launched a strategic partnership to support ZQRX’s network of growers, which represent over 3.7 million acres of land.
The idea: Through supporting these growers in establishing regenerative agriculture and monitoring the resulting ecological outcomes, the two organisations will collaboratively strive for a more sustainable future.
The partnership: This partnership will drive measurable impact in the Land Indicator of the ZQRX platform, incorporating Savory Institute’s Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) protocol as a key quantitative measure. The EOV assessments are designed to support and train growers throughout their regenerative journey, and determine the outcomes of their management in striving towards continuous improvement.
- At the core of ZQRX is the belief that regenerative agriculture is a journey of continuous improvement across the entire ecosystem—inclusive of environmental, social, and animal welfare outcomes.
- ZQRX has supported this journey through a set of 15 Key Performance Indicators, across elements including biodiversity, climate, animal health, and community.
- As a foundational partner of ZQRX, VF Corporation is providing significant investment towards ZQRX’s Land Indicator—supporting the tremendous impact that this partnership will drive as brands such as VF’s very own Smartwool and Icebreaker further their grower relationships.
What they said:
This partnership between Land to Market and The New Zealand Merino Company will accelerate the use of regeneratively grown materials for the fashion industry.
— Megan Meiklejohn
Senior Vice-President (Supply Chain Innovation)
Land to Market
Important collaborations like this one allow us to bring science-backed and outcome-based solutions to more farmers while offering at-scale regenerative material options to brands. Our partnership will grow supply by providing training and resources to wool growers, empowering them with the tools they need to manage their land, becoming more resilient to extreme weather events, increasing biodiversity, and ensuring profitability.
— Chris Kerston
Chief Commercial Officer
Savory Institute
At ZQRX, our regenerative efforts are centered around constant improvement. This belief is at the core of our exciting new partnership with the Savory Institute’s Land to Market Program, as we build upon the practices and measurable results offered to our network of growers and brand partners. In doing so, we’re further accelerating our progress, as we identify tangible actions and areas for betterment - ultimately driving more impactful ecological outcomes.
— John Brakenridge
Chief Executive Officer
New Zealand Merino Company
The ones involved:
- The New Zealand Merino Company’s regenerative fibre platform ZQRX takes a big picture view of the global challenges we all face and contributes to solving them by accelerating collective, regenerative-driven actions that go beyond sustainability. It requires a collaborative approach from our ZQRX Wool Growers, ZQRX Brands, and the forward-thinking consumers who choose ZQRX products. ZQRX Wool Growers not only produce the highest quality, most ethical wool in the world, they also work to give more than they take from the natural world, the animals living in that world, and the human communities interacting with it. ZQ Growers use a new state-of-the-art platform called the Regenerative Index (RX) to help them measure and improve how much they give back as they restore waterways, protect native species, offset carbon, and enhance local communities.
- A leader in the regenerative agriculture movement, Land to Market is the world’s first outcome-based verified regenerative sourcing solution. The program’s Land to Market Verified seal has attracted some of the world’s leading consumer packaged goods companies, apparel brands, and retailers. A programme of the Savory Institute, Land to Market uses a science-based approach working directly with raw material producers to enhance transparency and traceability mechanisms across the entire value chain.
- Founded in 1899, VF Corporation is one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies connecting people to the lifestyles, activities and experiences they cherish most through a family of iconic outdoor, active and workwear brands including Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies.
- Based in Denver, Colorado, Smartwool is a sock and apparel brand whose products are designed to get the most out of the inherent benefits of Merino wool and to bring comfort, confidence, and community to a life lived outside.
- Founded in 1995 in New Zealand, Icebreaker was one of the first companies to discover the benefits of merino wool as a natural alternative to synthetic fibres in performance apparel. Now part of VF Corporation, Icebreaker continues to challenge the status quo with their natural, transparent and responsible ways to do business, now to a wider audience.
