Annotations - development

A team of experts of their respective fields collaborated and created this handbook based on the results of previous studies run by the STeP EcoLab project and common international best practices.

The handbook is an edited volume with chapters by Mongolian academics, covering chemical use, waste-water treatment, and energy efficiency. Sustainability in this context pertains to industrial processes.

In the scope of STeP EcoLab Mongolia project funded by the European Union, a handbook of environmentally friendly, sustainable production for Mongolian Wool and Cashmere industry is published and ready to be delivered to the hands of managements, engineers and technical workers of the sector.

We start with the Mongolian Nomadic herders where we get our raw fibers, we then manufacturer our sweaters in Mongolia. From there the garments get sold to you! We take 10% of all our profits and invest in the World Banks livestock insurance program that protects those same nomadic herders we sourced our raw fibers from.  Profits get circulated to the base of our supply chain via micro-economic investments in livestock insurance. Every garment purchased will contribute to herd insurance that directly provides economic and cultural stability for the herders.

The claim here is a bit vague, but draws on the authority of the World Bank and its #livestock-insurance and #investments frames. It is presented as a kind of #fair-trade , without all the formal apparatus of standards and audits; Naadam is able to piggy-back on an existing #development program, which can be appealing since it keeps overhead low.

This was a consensual process from both sides, with herders stepping up and willing to have their goods marked in return for training on better practices and the hope of opening markets to paying price premiums for truly sustainable and high-quality cashmere.

(the experts who provide "training on better practices"),

The issues of demand are causing a number of brands to rethink the process and find a more sustainable approach to making cashmere. This includes label Le Kasha, which produces all of its pieces in just one factory, meaning its impact on the planet is minimised. The brand also works with farmers and herders to practise ‘sustainable grazing’ to ensure preservation of the land.

(as centralization of production)

The team's modeling also projects how a change in management practices could improve the health of the land. Onon Bayasgalan, who leads the project for WCS Mongolia, visits the herders frequently to present research findings at meetings of their collective. What the herders do with the data is up to them, but Bayasgalan and the rest of the team hope it will help them find healthier pastures with more food and avoid destructive overgrazing.  NASA data may not always be necessary, Chaplin-Kramer says. "WCS is trying to teach the herders how to tell by visual observation—on the ground, not via satellite—when it's time to move the herd, that is, before they'

Herders themselves are responsible for using the remote sensing data, which are provided to them at a cost to the project -- is this a sustainable arrangement? Note (above) that (1) WCS declines to disclose the project budget, and (2) this model is inherently tied to the Oyu Tolgoi mine, so the funding structure cannot be scaled to other regions. Below, however, we see the claim that the project is in fact scalable as it does not in fact rely on remote sensing

Traceability and corporate social responsibility are also at the core of Cashmere Flakes’ business model. The brand sources its cashmere fibers directly from the Nomad Herders Cooperative, the members of which comply with the code of conduct developed by the Swiss International Cooperation, and every fiber used is currently tracked by block chain

*SDC, Sustainable Fiber Alliance.

We need large-scale breeding initiatives to raise fibre quality across the country, and we need to encourage herders to shift their focus to quality instead of quantity.