Q&A: Sustainability
There’s no denying that environmental concerns are having a direct impact on purchasing decisions. As awareness of the climate crisis continues to grow, more and more consumers are doing what they can to make smarter, more conscientious choices about what they buy. Today’s eco-friendly customer is looking for more than just organic or natural products—corporate transparency and responsibility are key. For mattress makers today, a commitment to sustainability expands beyond the kinds of materials they use in their products. It means exploring new manufacturing efficiencies and recycling opportunities, along with considering the environmental impact of things like packaging and shipping as well. As more consumers begin to look for examples of these practices as they shop, it’s the manufacturers and retailers who have really invested in sustainability that will stand out.
How do you promote sustainability throughout all aspects of your company?
John Merwin
Owner & CEO, Brooklyn Bedding
Brooklyn Bedding promotes sustainability by striving, first and foremost, for zero waste at our state-of-the-art factory. Ninety-nine percent of the raw materials used, from threads and tapes to foams and coils, are recyclable. Raw materials and foam remnants have a variety of uses, including the construction of common home products like carpet pads. We actually repurpose our own clean, lower-density foam, leftover from mattress construction, to produce one of our most popular sleep accessories: the Premium Shredded Foam Pillow. Brooklyn Bedding also offers a number of sleep solutions featuring sustainable materials. The primary materials in the Bloom Hybrid, for instance, are either natural or recyclable. Among our latest product introductions is the Bloom Essential Hybrid, which uses Talalay Echo foam. The material is processed by repurposing unused fabrication cuts to deliver all the benefits of latex while reducing wastefulness. We also have an extensive portfolio of sustainable sleep accessories that includes Talalay latex pillows, organic cotton sheets, bamboo twill sheets and TENCEL sateen sheets. Given the popularity of our eco-friendly products at BrooklynBedding.com, we launched a niche ecommerce site in August of 2019, entirely devoted to the category at EcoSleep.com.
Visit brooklynbedding.com
Angela Owen
Sleep Diva, Suite Sleep
Sustainability is one of our core values as a company. Suite Sleep looks at all aspects of the product, process, and production as well as our own corporate operations throughout. We design all of our products with sustainable raw materials like organic cotton, natural latex, wool, Tencel and Recycled Polyester. Our goal is to make quality mattresses that have longevity and keep them out of the landfills. A product should either be biodegradable or recyclable once they reach the end of life. A cradle to cradle approach is true sustainability.
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Scott Carr
Brand Manager, Malouf
In September of this year, Malouf became a Certified B Corporation to expand our commitment to sustainable practices. One of our main values as a company is to become better every day, and our recent certification emphasizes that value. We’ve been dedicated to sustainable practices since Malouf started more than 16 years ago. Our headquarters in Logan, Utah is a net-zero facility, our in-house kitchen team supports a zero-waste philosophy and our employees lead strategic initiatives through our newly-formed environmental sustainability council. We also focus on giving back through the Malouf Foundation. In 2017, the Foundation developed a three-fold focus so we could reach more people and maximize our impact. Over the last few years, we have seen the industry come together to support our cause, and thanks to them and everyone else involved, we are making a difference to thousands of children every year. Becoming a Certified B Corporation has amplified our sustainability and charitable efforts—and this is just the beginning. We’re always going to dream bigger and reach higher to become the best company we can be.
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Scott Thompson
Chairman, CEO and President, Tempur Sealy International Inc
Tempur Sealy has made a company-wide decision from the top of our organization to commit to global efforts to improve our environment and communities. To that end, we have enlisted the same innovative spirit that has guided our world-class bedding business to the top of the industry in our drive to achieve world-class sustainability and environmental initiatives.
Our 126,000 square foot corporate headquarters building is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (commonly referred to as LEED) certified. We strive to achieve zero landfill waste at each of our foam manufacturing facilities and are proud to report that we have either achieved this goal or nearly achieved this goal at two such production plants in each of the last few years. We are proud to report that in 2019, we recycled 85% of our waste from all of our North American facilities. Our recycling efforts in 2018 were equivalent to saving 16,000 barrels of oil, 51,000 trees, 16 million KW hours electric, 3,000 tons of CO2 and 21 million gallons of water. All three of Tempur Sealy’s foundation base lumber suppliers are Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Forest Stewardship (FSC), or Canadian Standard Association (CSA) certified. All of these highlights are included in our complete 2019 Corporate Social Values Report, which will be posted on the Tempur Sealy web site going forward.
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Jeff Bader
CEO, Organic Mattresses, Inc.
OMI certified organic mattresses and bedding are made with sustainable, organic materials including cotton, wool and natural rubber latex. Each of these materials is responsibly grown, harvested in accordance with USDA organic standards and naturally biodegradable. The OMI Eco-Factory, located in Northern California, is partially solar powered and waste from manufacturing is minimal. Scrap material created as a bi-product of manufacturing is recaptured and either converted into other usable raw materials or sold to other businesses. The recapturing process is performed by Pride Industries, an organization that keeps disabled veterans and other disadvantaged persons in the workforce. Additionally, OMI’s packaging materials are ink-free, made from recycled content.
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Susan Inglis
Executive Director, Sustainable Furnishings Council
SFC is all about helping companies make eco-improvements within their operations as well as up and down their supply chains. We help companies reduce energy consumption, manage supply chains for a lighter environmental footprint, and also be LOUD about it, because our sharing successes and solutions is key to reaching the scale we need to in order to sustain a healthy future.
