Knitwear fashion brand Tengri provides an alternative to unsustainable cashmere production by sourcing yak fibers from herder families in the Mongolian mountains.
Tengri produces knitwear and yarn from yak fibers, providing a consumer alternative to cashmere clothing. Cashmere goats are domesticated animals bred for their fibers. Only the finest of fibers make it to market, resulting in the majority of fibers usually being treated as waste. Yaks, on the other hand, are an indigenous species living sustainably in the Mongolian mountains, and the fibers they produce are considered a by-product of herders’ breeding.
Fashion shouldn’t cost the Earth – people and animals should not be harmed in the making of it.
Nancy Johnston – CEO & Founder, Tengri.
Tengri creates yak yarn and fabrics from this by-product, producing three times as much yarn from one metric ton of fibers as cashmere. The company sources their fibers directly from co-operatives representing 1,500 nomadic herder families in Mongolia. Tengri enables Mongolia’s nomadic herder community to export goods directly to the international market without intermediary or third-party support.
Why you should care
Intensive grazing of cashmere goats has been suggested to be a contributing factor to declining populations of large, wild mammal species across the Tibetan Plateau of Mongolia and in northern India. Mongolia’s indigenous yaks offer a more sustainable alternative, having co-inhabited the lands with humans for thousands of years.
How the Global Goals are addressed
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Tengri’s Yak farmers will own 45% of the business and shares in its growth. According to the company, Tengri have increased herder household income by 50%.
Reduced Inequalities
Yak farmers in Mongolia typically earn £1,000 per year, but university fees can cost up to ten times as much. By increasing household income, Tengri helps to level the playing field.
Responsible Consumption and Production
Tengri supports the traditional Yak farming practices and view the communities as a sustainable long-term resource and central for running a sustainable production.
Life on Land
By using an indigenous species of mountain yak, and encouraging sustainable grazing, Tengri and the herders are helping to protect and preserve biodiversity in Mongolia.
Tengri
Tengri was founded on the delicate and interwoven relationship between Mongolian people, land and animals. Founder Nancy Johnston build her business plan based on a social network with herders, so that she was able to get the best Mongolian yak fibers for her clothes.
Global Goals addressed
