When commercial furnishing manufacturers Living Fabrics decided to “green” their business, the transformation of their processes, suppliers and products was so profound they renamed the company. So the business, which was founded in 1969, was reborn as Sustainable Living Fabrics in 2005.

Owners Bill and Kay Jones, who bought the company in 1998, first started on their sustainability journey in 2003.“We had always been fairly green ourselves,” says Kay Jones. “But until that stage we hadn’t really thought of applying green principles to our products. Then we saw a program on global dimming – and it became compulsory viewing for all our staff.”

Global dimming refers to the phenomenon of the reduction in the level of sunlight reaching Earth. Some scientists say this is cushioning us from the full effects of global warming. “We also became very concerned that many people were saying they couldn’t make a difference to the environment. Everyone can make a difference. So we thought, let’s start doing it.”

Product life cycle review

By 2004, Jones says they researched numerous options to find a transparent and independently-verified standard on which to rate their products. Ultimately, they decided on Good Environmental Choice Australia’s Ecolabel program.

“Our products could be assessed against these standards, which are publicly available. And our performance against the standards is also publicly available. Importantly, the standard is based on the whole product life cycle – it goes right down the supply chain.”

Undertaking this journey meant more than a few tweaks to their production, it has resulted in major changes in some suppliers, elimination of environmentally unfriendly inputs and, in some cases, entirely new approaches to their sourcing of raw materials.

“We changed our polyester supplier because their CO2 emissions were too high,” says Jones. “We changed the detergent that was used on the wool, changed our oils and dyes – and eliminated some inputs altogether.

“We also had to change our scourer – they wash the wool – because they weren’t prepared to give us third party evidence that their effluent met the standards.We now use a scourer who recycles water and composts their solids.”

Rigorous assessment process

The company first took the standards to their suppliers in July 2004. After working with suppliers on their requirements and then sourcing new suppliers to replace those who didn’t fit the bill, it was November 2004 before they were ready to ask Good Environmental Choice Australia to assess their products and processes.

“They told us the wool didn’t meet the standards,” she says. “So it was back to the drawing board. Ecowool is difficult to find but we now have a contract in place to buy certified low-pesticides wool.We test every batch and if it doesn’t meet the standards we don’t buy it.”

While the company usually commission manufactures their fabrics, Jones says, in some instances, they do purchase finished fabrics themselves. “In those cases, we buy the yarn and sell it to the supplier to use in their manufacture. That’s the only way to guarantee the wool being used will meet the standards we need.”

Ensuring the integrity of the product in this way has also meant creating efficient systems. “At first, it was difficult for our suppliers to change. They were used to buying yarn from their own suppliers. But we’ve ensured that we plan ahead so our orders are not held up and there is no temptation to substitute.”

Sustainable Living Fabric’s supply chain is not the only part of the business to undergo a greening process. With the aim of manufacturing fabrics that are carbon neutral, they offset all carbon emissions with Greenfleet.

“We measure the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing process, from the raw materials to finished fabric.We even include the methane from the sheep that produce the wool. We also offset all emissions from our company cars and employees’ cars and all our energy and freight.”

Jones says undertaking the Ecolabel program has made the business more sustainable. But she admits that it has added to their cost and their prices have risen as a result. “However, our prices were fairly low before so we are still in the market average,” she says. “Sales are very strong and it’s certainly been a positive outcome for our business.”

www.livingfabrics.com.au