FibreGuard upholstery: a love story between sustainability and luxury

Finding ways to embrace more sustainable products has become increasingly important in today's climate-challenged world. But can 'responsible, sustainable design' equal 'luxurious'?

At FibreGuard, we believe that true luxury isn't fleeting, and should never be. But how can you combine these two aspects into one upholstery product? Today we're looking at upholstery made from recycled yarns – can it still be as soft or durable as ‘virgin’ yarns? Let’s find out.

What is responsible design?

You might think that sustainability in textiles is more focused on doing less things, and cutting out more things. This isn’t the whole picture though: product designers have a lot more work to do, not less. How? We're constantly learning and researching to make the same FibreGuard fabrics, but with an ever bigger emphasis on responsible design.

But what is that, exactly?

Responsible design means creating products that consider the well-being of people, the environment, and the economy. It's focused on making ethical choices and ensuring that the finished products are inclusive and sustainable.

Choosing the right upholstery fabrics for durability and luxury

Our product design team must consider multiple impact points in their work – and traceability and sustainable certifications are part of that. So is durability: there’s no point in buying the best-in-class responsibly designed upholstery if it’s just going to fall apart after a few months. This is why our collections undergo a battery of textiles tests to ensure that they meet the exacting requirements of all of these touch-points.

The future can be warm, inviting, comfortable. The future can be child-friendly, klutz-friendly, pet-friendly. We’re looking forward to a future that can sustain life.

What other eco-labels should you look out for? Let’s look at a great one: the GRS.

What is the Global Recycled Standard?

When it comes to selecting more sustainable upholstery fabrics, the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) is a crucial certification to look for.

The GRS defines requirements for recycled materials and ensures that products are responsibly sourced and manufactured. All products that achieve this standard have to be made from at least 50% recycled content. It helps to reduce the demand for 'virgin' resources like petroleum, water, and energy, all of which are traditionally used in the production of textiles.

On top of this, GRS certification ensures that the textile manufacturing processes involved adhere to strict environmental and social criteria. It’s audited on an annual basis by a third party, through a strict set of criteria.

The end-to-end traceability offered by certifications like these is an important step in taking responsible design further. We use this label to prove that our fabrics are made from recycled materials and can be easily checked by customers.

We stress for our customers to check the labeling of each collection – while many of our new collections are GRS certified, not all of them are (yet!).

Get all details on FibreGuard fabrics and the Global Recycled Standard here. Our unique GRS number is 1036513.

FibreGuard upholstery fabrics: you’ll feel the difference

We believe that sustainable living is about creating comfortable spaces that bring joy, rather than ones that just look good on Instagram.

It's about building relationships with people who love what they do and want to share their passion with others. It's about making conscious choices about how you live and what you buy. And it's about finding ways to enjoy life that don't involve spending a lot of money or sacrificing comfort.

This is why we focus on luxurious softness when we’re designing our high-performance upholstery collections. Yes, even our our eco-friendly collections. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible when you’re relaxing on any of our upholstery pieces, so we use only the finest materials and techniques to create a product that will last for years.

Sustainable comfort is a way of life

Creating luxury living spaces can sometimes seem like a daunting task. We argue that a way into designing them is through embracing quality, durability, and eco-friendly practices.

Join us on this journey towards sustainable comfort, and experience the joy of beautifully functional, environmentally friendly spaces, both indoors and out.