THE environmental best practice by one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of filled bedding products Trendsetter International has been recognised with a Gold award for Engineering and Manufacturing at the prestigious Green Apple Awards.
The Green Apple Environment Awards is a scheme run by The Green Organisation. They recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.
Trendsetter fought off strong competition from more than 500 other nominations in the Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice to take the Gold award, presented at a ceremony held in the Houses of Parliament.
Organisers said that Trendsetter stood out from the other entries with the transformation of its Estonia-based production factory, Trendsetter Europe, and its re-invention from a manufacturing-focused organisation to one that is operating to the highest environmental standards.
Trendsetter’s project has achieved stringent targets in the recycling of waste product, energy consumption and type of energy consumed. During the course of the project Trendsetter has achieved the following accreditations and standards:
- ISO 14001 Accreditation
- Green Energy: 100% renewable energy supply
- Sustained and continuing overall reduction in energy used per 1000 pcs produced
- Huge shift from almost all waste going to landfill to 94% factory waste recycled.
- Achieved M&S Eco Factory Status for manufacturing subsidiary Trendsetter Europe
- Oeko-Tex Standard 100
- Sedex (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) Accreditation: We are audited to the highest 4 Pillar standard which includes the optional modules for environmental and business practices.
- Using recycled fibre equivalent to approximately 17 million plastic bottles.
- Implementation of an integrated innovative new processing technique: SonicSeam reduces production line waste by approximately 7% compared with traditional overlocking (based on average weight of 10.5tog duvet (the new stitchless method reduces the amount of material that needs to be trimmed off). Accordingly our average monthly waste has dropped from 22 tonnes to 16 tonnes. This remaining waste is collected and recycled.
- Estonian Environmentally Friendly Enterprise of the Year (2015)
- The overriding achievement is the impact that this project has had across the business in the way we think and work across all areas of the business.
Trendsetter’s Managing Director Claire Watkin said: “It is fantastic that Trendsetter’s efforts to manufacture to the highest achievable environmental standards have been recognised with this award. Our sustainability commitment has created an industry leading production centre that we’re all really proud of.
“We’re not stopping here though. Our ongoing improvements and commitment to educating, inspiring and engaging the workforce in environmental best practice is integral to the business ethos. Raising awareness of developing more sustainable thinking across the business and the surrounding community as a whole is a continuous initiative.
“We have set further targets to further reduce usage of energy intensive production techniques and the business is already engaging in research and developments towards more Circular Economy production.”
Trendsetter’s winning paper will be published in The Green Book, a leading international work of reference on environmental best practice, so that others around the world can follow their example and learn from their achievement.