Farm Certification

Our animal fiber and material standards require farms to be certified.

An aerial view of a tractor in a field.

Certification offers a way to verify environmental, social, and animal welfare practices at the beginning of the supply chain and keep track of that material as it makes its way to the final product. That’s why our Responsible Wool Standard (RWS), Responsible Mohair Standard (RMS), Responsible Alpaca Standard (RAS), and Responsible Down Standard (RDS) require farms to be certified to meet our requirements. As different countries have their own farm-level organic standards, our Organic Content Standard accepts inputs from farms certified under one of IFOAM’s Family of Standards instead.


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Ready to get certified?

  1. Contact an approved Certification Body (CB). The CB will be your point of contact throughout the entire process of certification, from the beginning to the final labeling and communications.
  2. Fill out the application form from the CB and submit. Applying with more than one CB allows you to compare estimates.
  3. After receiving your completed application, the CB will prepare an offer including price and timing estimates.
  4. After the offer is accepted, you’ll be asked to sign a contract with the CB. Typically, a contract is valid for three years, and will need to be renewed afterwards.
  5. The CB will send an auditor to your farm to observe operations on the farm, interview you and your workers, and examine records related to the requirements of the standard. The first audit will be an announced audit that will be scheduled in advance.
  6. The results of the audit will be sent to the CB’s office in an audit report. Another person will review them and make a final certification decision. If non-conformities (NC) are noted, you’ll be given a corrective action plan. All NCs have to be closed for a scope certificate (SC) to be issued.
  7. After successfully meeting all requirements of the standard, an SC will be issued. This certificate is valid for three years with an audit taking place each calendar year. Audits may be scheduled to take place during times of higher risk, such as during marking and shearing.
  8. CBs may conduct unannounced inspections to check that you’re still complying with the standards.
  9. Following the shipment of certified goods to the given standard, contact your CB to apply for a transaction certificate (TC). Only products with an accompanying TC are considered certified.
An aerial view of fields at a farm.
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Can’t find what you’re looking for? You can access all documents and webinars relevant to our standards through our Knowledge Center.