Since it began trading in 1996, Greenfibres has grown each year, both in terms of sales and product range. We think this is partly due to a growing awareness of the ecological consequences of our collective purchasing decisions, and partly a result of increasing concerns over the effects on our health of everyday household products.
We are trying to push the ecological standards of our products higher all the time and often we are the first to offer them in the UK. We appreciate that we need to be aware of our carbon footprint as well as the way in which a product has been cut, sewn, and trimmed, so with manufacturing facilities in Devon and close co-operation with producers abroad, we are able to influence the production processes to take account of all ethical and ecological issues.
Greenfibres' owners William Lana and his partner Gabriela worked in the financial industry in London, Frankfurt, New York and Brussels. In the early 90's they realised it was vital for ordinary citizens of the planet to change their habits and become more solution focused. Believing it essential to "be the change they wanted to see", they spent 2 years researching the conventional textile industry and the opportunities that existed to encourage its evolution towards sustainability and sound ethics. They launched Greenfibres in 1996, but the mission won't be over until everyone from farmer to designer, and producer to consumer, appreciates and acts upon the fact that we don't really have a choice if we want our grandchildren to have the same opportunities as we’ve had… the textile industry must clean up its act.
William Lana was appointed chair of the Soil Association Textile Standards Committee in 2002. He has helped to develop the UK organic textile industry by his talks at conferences and providing advice and guidance to a range of companies.
About a dozen people work directly for Greenfibres, and we support through sales hundreds of small, ethically-focused companies from Devon to South America. We make about one third of the goods sold at our manufacturing facility just outside Plymouth and we work closely with several small manufacturing operations in different parts of Europe (Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Czech republic and Romania).
We have relationships with many small eco companies, such as the recycled carton company Used-2-Bee (we try to re-use as many of the boxes as we can); GreenClean, (our environmentally responsible housekeeping team); Sacks (who provide us with a weekly organic fruit box) and all kinds of local service providers.
Greenfibres is licensed by the Soil Association, and all products labelled organic by us have been certified by a third party certifier, which has been approved to undertake organic textile certification by IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements). Greenfibres is also a member of the Organic Trade Association, the Organic Fiber Council, the International Association for Natural Textiles, the Ethical & Environmental Marketing Group and the Organic Trade Group.
Everything we do doesn’t amount to much if we don’t have people who support us by buying Greenfibres products. Without our customers, who use their purchasing power to vote for a more responsible future, companies like Greenfibres wouldn't exist - so, thank you! |
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