Creswick Woollen Mills is working towards a world without waste. This statement lays out our actions – past, present and ongoing – for achieving a truly sustainable future.
Recycling underpins our business – and our history
Here at Creswick, we’ve been creating new products from pre-loved fabrics since 1947.
Creswick Founder Paul Ryzowy (our director’s grandfather) took the initiative to source end-of-life textiles from the community and remanufacture them as reusable yarn, blankets, knitwear and socks.
With the help of our global partners in fabric recycling, we
’ve carried on Paul’s legacy – creating brand-new products with pre-loved natural fibres.
Our recycled wool blankets, picnic rugs, high-quality homewares and all-season apparel aren’t just loved by the world. They’re good for it, too.
To us, sustainability isn’t some corporate buzzword. It’s woven into the very fabric of our business and family. And we’re proud to say that our efforts have diverted over 1.5 million kilograms – and counting – of textile waste from landfill.
The benefits of our recycled wool products
Did you know that new wool produces 13 times more carbon dioxide than recycled wool?
A brand-new wool blanket, at an average weight of one kilogram, produces 45.5 kilograms of CO2 emissions. Conversely, a recycled wool blanket of the same weight produces just 3.4 kilograms.
These numbers speak for themselves.
At Creswick, we craft many of our products from recycled wool and it’s helped keep our company’s carbon footprint modest.
But recycled wool has yet another advantage.
Because it goes through a more rigorous lifecycle than new wool, its fibres become more durable – though no less soft – with time. That makes it an excellent material for outdoor activities in particular. (Which is why we use it to make so many of our picnic blankets.)
Life Cycle Assessment:
| Per Ton Of Dyed Wool | Virgin Wool | Up-Cycled Wool |
| Energy Utilised | 110,000kWh | 52,000kWh |
| Water Utilised | 500,000LTS | 10,000LTS |
| Waste Generated | 500Kgs | 200Kgs |
| GHG (CO2) | 10,500Kg | None |
Keeping our community warm – the natural way
As a family-owned business, we always have the welfare of our community in mind – especially that of its most disadvantaged members.
That’s why, in partnership with leading not-for-profit organisations, we’ve distributed more than $1 million worth of blankets to people experiencing hardship and homelessness.
These are just some of the organisations we’ve worked with:
- 300 Blankets
- UnitingCare Prahran Mission
- Kids Under Cover
- Hepburn Health Service
We see this as an opportunity to give back to our community. And, at the same time, reduce demand for low-cost synthetic blankets which are derived from petroleum and gas. We hope to see a widespread move away from these synthetic materials.
We want to keep our community members warm using fibres that come from the earth. So we’re leading the charge: donating our quality natural-fibre blankets in favour of synthetic alternatives.
Creswick’s commitment to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact
The UN Global Compact is a worldwide initiative pushing corporate sustainability. This year, Creswick – as an established Australian business – added its weight to this global effort.
Underpinning the UN Global Compact are 10 principles spanning human rights, labour, environmental and anti-corruption challenges.
At Creswick, we’ve committed to these three environmental principles:
- Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
We stay abreast of our activities’ environmental implications. To do this, we employ a detailed level of assessment and management across all operations – and keep our key stakeholders informed.
- Principle 8: Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
We recognise that we – like every company – have a duty of care to the planet. That’s why we strive to ensure our activities don’t bring harm to our environment.
We also recognise that we, as a business, are in service to our customers. And that they – and society at large – are demanding more sustainable business practices.
- Principle 9: Businesses should encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
Our commitment to recycling keeps our textiles in circulation for as long as possible. This keeps Creswick’s material demands to a minimum. We hope the precedent we set as relentless recyclers encourages other companies to follow suit.
A carbon-neutral Creswick by 2025
To us, this isn’t just a dream. It’s an achievable reality – and we’re already taking actionable steps towards it.
- With our installation of 138 solar panels, our blanket room is already carbon neutral.
- After our solar panels’ energy generation jumped from 64.28kWh in winter to a staggering 3177.6kWh in summer, during December 2021 we powered the entire Creswick site using solar energy alone.
- We’ve cut our company flights by 95%, diminishing our carbon footprint dramatically.
- We’ve replaced a substantial portion of our plastic packaging with recyclable paper. And this will only continue in the coming years.
All these actions – and everything else laid out in this statement – form part of our plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.
| Creswick Woollen Mills acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live and work, the Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung People, and recognises their continuing connection to the land and waterways.We pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging, and extend them to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. |