We make every effort towards being a 'good business citizen’. Whether it’s initiatives to mitigate our carbon footprint, supporting local charities, or being part of the design community; we are mindful of the impact of our business.
Unique Fabrics offers a broad selection of products that have achieved environmental and health certifications. Many of the mills and production plants we work with are certified carbon neutral and have multiple processes in place to reduce their environmental impact: eg the use of photo voltaic power, systems for the distillation and recovery of organic solvents, and wastewater treatment plants. All our suppliers comply with stringent EU environmental regulations.
In 2021 we released Italian Lakes, our first ‘eco’ collection which has compositions of up to 75% recycled yarn (GRS certified), reconstituted from Italian fashion industry off-cuts.
In 2023 we released Eco Unique, our first drapery collection using 100% recycled yarn (GRS certified).
We love linen and we’re renowned for our extensive range of designs that use this beautiful natural product. One of the reasons we love linen is its low environmental footprint. Flax needs very little water and fertiliser to grow and yields many by-products. Linen yarn production uses low impact methods (natural retting and chemical free scutching) along with 'bio-treatments' such as enzyme polishing rather than solvents.
Where possible our fabrics are printed with plant-based polymers from renewable sources, including our latest collection Artisan Stripes (printed in New Zealand). We also offer a number of Ecofast printed designs.
We endeavour to recycle and re-use where possible. Our branded packaging is 100% polypropylene (PP5) which is recyclable. Discontinued samples, production samples and off-cuts are donated to charitable and educational organisations where they are either ‘upcycled’ into new products or used in art and craft projects.
Our sample headers are made with the highest quality vellum, which has allowed us to reuse them for over 16 years and counting. In the last 5 years our landfill refuse has been reduced by 45%. Cuttings and sample headers are routinely collected from clients by our Account Managers to be reused.
From the very start of our business we used 100% cotton showroom bags which were in use for many years. Returning to our roots, in 2019 we changed our showroom bags from non-woven polypropylene back to 100% cotton canvas.
Five years ago we introduced a new A5 sampling format which has significantly reduced the amount of fabric we use for sampling. This format also meets the changing needs of designers working from home and smaller work studios, particularly during Covid.
Did you know Arte is a Carbon Neutral Company? Through auditing every aspect of their company, production and systems Arte have achieved this important CO2 neutral label (as assessed by southpole.com). So basically their beautiful wallcoverings have become even more special!
