Moving Toward Cleaner Textiles

摘要

Retailers and consumers are ramping up demand for sustainably made products, and vendors are obliging by working faster and harder to achieve manufacturing methods that will result in products that leave little or no footprint on the earth. Two organizations helping lead this effort are Hohentstein Institute, which provides Oeko-Tex certification in the U.S., and WestPoint Hospitality. Representatives from both discussed their clean textiles initiatives at HTT's breakfast seminar March 18 to kick off New York Home Fashions Market. "Clean home textiles are textiles that either have a safety attribute, are clean for the environment or have some level of sustainability," explained Elana Taylor, Hohenstein account executive. "At Hohenstein, we have tools and certifications for each of these areas." Oeko-Tex conducted a study in 2017 that surveyed more than 11,000 consumers worldwide about their levels of concerns for safety in the home textiles products they use. "We found that their concerns are growing, and they are aspiring toward a more sustainable lifestyle," Taylor explained, citing parents of small children as the largest demographic of such consumers. "Most of them are not achieving the level of sustainability they want, but they are looking for ways [to get closer]."