Closing the loop

As designers and manufacturers, we hold a firm belief in our duty to ensure that our products are environmentally responsible, from sourcing sustainable materials to implementing efficient recycling and reusing practices. To uphold this principle, we have established protocols and guidelines that shape our decision-making and conduct.

Our approach to sustainability embraces circularity, which shifts away from the traditional linear model of make, use, and dispose. Instead, we adopt a circular design framework that integrates the disposal phase into the creation of new products. Our strategies revolve around the core principles of the three R’s—reduce, reuse, and recycle—examining how we can minimise waste generation and creatively repurpose materials to extend their lifecycle.

We prioritise circular design by incorporating recycled materials into our products. Each item contains a specific amount of recycled polyester fibre, determined by the required level of acoustic absorption. Our goal is to maximise recycled content without compromising acoustic performance, resulting in products with varying percentages of recycled material, ranging from a minimum of 45% to as high as 80%. To ensure transparency and accuracy, our sustainability team annually calculates the volume of recycled polyester used, a process independently verified according to ISO 14021 standards.

We recognise the importance of the materials at our disposal, which is why our team is continuously striving to expand the potential of these materials. We refuse to accept ‘good enough’ and remain committed to revolutionising sustainable manufacturing and design practices. Our efforts are focused on creating solutions that embrace genuine circularity, meeting the urgent need in the construction sector to address waste management. Achieving this goal requires collaboration across our industry rather than the efforts of a single organisation. By partnering with our peers, we can transform our approach to design, rethink our material choices, and optimise waste utilisation

Annually, our manufacturing processes generate less than 3% waste in the form of trims and off-cuts. While we strive to minimise waste through efficient material utilisation in our designs, some waste remains inevitable given current technological constraints.

Acknowledging our ability to influence waste generation during production, we embarked on extensive testing and research to develop a tailored solution. The outcome was pioneering technology that converts acoustic panel trimmings into PET pellets, which are then molded into new accessory products. Integrating this chipper technology into our processes has significantly reduced the waste generated by our manufacturing line. With continuous upgrades, we are actively working to enhance our operational capacity.