Problem

This project involved us, as a team researching about the past, present and the future of the Wool Industry and we eventually came up with a solution to sustain the Wool Industry in the year 2070. The current industry is going through a major decline. The Future of New Zealand's Wool Industry is dependent on changing two major areas, farming methods and wool products. Under farming methods, the major challenges were environmental issues and the use of land space . The other issues were the lack of demand for Wool products and the use of Synthetic fibres.

Below is a description of our individual issues and innovative solutions, following with our final integrated solution.

Farming

Envrionemetal Issues
Land Spaces

PRODUCTS

Increasing Demand
Unique properties

Envrionmental Issues

Manufacturing wool fertiliser will solve several problems that NZ wool industry is facing at the moment which will help sustain NZ wool industry into 2070.

The huge impact that the wool feriliser would bring to the industry is the reduction of wool waste produced during the wool processing. Wool fertiliser will be made using the waste of wool. Manufacturing wool into a fertilisers do not require any further processing before it can be sold as a product. This solution is time and energy efficient which resolves cost problems which is a problem that industry faces when producing a new product.

The biodegradability of wool allows environmentally friendly property. With the increasing demand of organic products, it has been a problem among the organic farmers with insufficient nutrient level provided by the organic fertilisers in the current markets. Wool having the high nitrogen contents provide sufficient nutrient level for the plant growth. Wool fertilisers will solve the demand problem and environmental issues that have been rising due to the waste of wool from the industry.

Land Spaces

One of the main issues of the future for sheep farming is Land Use. With New Zealand's increasing population and traditional farming areas becoming urban, there is no land space for sheep farming. An average sheep farm takes up 443 Ha2 of land (Average New Zealand Farm Size by Farm Type, 2010) .

My personal challenge was to come up with a soltution for land use isuue in farming methods. The solution that I have developed involves sheep farming on roof tops. This solution will enable New Zealand to maximise Land Space by integrating farms into cities and residential areas, allowing the Wool Industry to continue into 2070. Roof top sheep farming would also cross into other industries like tourism as it is an unusual concept. This will overall increase an awareness of wool, hopefully making it a desirable product again.

Demand

At the moment there is a decrease in demand for wool because farmers are finding meat and dairy operations to be substantially more profitable than the Wool industry. This means that farmers are showing more interest in cultivating meat producing lamb and less on wool producing variety. A main cause in the fall of the industry is “unmotivated supple chains selling consumers with outdated perceptions of products”, (Faulkner, 2012, p.13). This means that industries are selling the same products that lack innovation and therefore customers have lost interest in the material.

By manufacturing Wool Powered cars, The New Zealand Wool Industry can retain itself up to the year 2070. The Wool Powered car will use the waste wool and plastic to generate static electricity which will be stored as charge in a special battery, which will help the car run, till the charge in the battery dissipates. The use of waste wool and plastic will save the millions of tonnes of waste plastic and wool generated each year by New Zealand.

synthetic Fibre

The demand and price of the wool is decreasing since a decade because of introduction of synthetic fibers in to the market. Synthetic fibers these days have most of the properties of the wool fiber. If these continues there is a risk of endangerment to the wool industry. The main reason is that the wool products introduced into the market are not grabbing the people’s attention. To overcome this decrease in demand a new innovative product called edible wool food should be introduced into the market. This product is inexpensive and reduces the wastage of the wool.

Edible wool food is protein rich supplement and doesn’t contain fat and carbohydrates in it. This make it suitable to eat for all the people who have health consciousness. This food is highly beneficial to diabetic and sick people who cannot intake carbohydrates and fats for several reasons. Also, with the increasing population the need for the food is also increasing. This edible wool food can be great alternative as it is cheap, rich in proteins and also decreases the industrial wool wastage which ultimately is beneficial to environment, people and in sustaining wool industry till 2070.