SUSTAINABILITY
HBF Textiles and Sustainability
Corporate Social Responsibility
We believe the connections between our business, our environment, and our people, including our customers, members, supplier, and communities where we do business, are key to our long-term success as we make better choices today for a better tomorrow. As part of HNI Corporation, our corporate social responsibility mission drives us to respect people, reduce our impacts, and redefine tomorrow, by fostering transparency and empowering our members to do and be better.
We address our sustainable objectives through careful fiber selection, buying local, third party certifications, fewer chemicals in finishes, and continually improving our manufacturing processes in our Hickory facilities.
Fiber selection
Rapidly Renewable — Wool, linen, organic cotton, and cotton are various rapidly renewable fibers found in HBF Textiles. With any natural-fiber directed design, our goal is to utilize 50% or more rapidly renewable content within a given pattern.
Recycled Content — Our goal is to incorporate higher post-consumer recycled polyester content (the source of which is primarily plastic water bottles or PET bottles) vs. pre-consumer recycled polyester content found as excess or off spec polyester in a post-industrial use.
Buying local
A key ingredient in the development of our designs is the close relationships we have with our weaving mills. Through their weaving capabilities, yarn selections and depth of color options, we have found many domestic weavers who are extremely adept at developing our most signature designs. These mills are within a 500 mile radius of HBF Textiles with locations in North and South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. In addition many of the yarns utilized within our fabric designs are produced in North and South Carolina.
Third party certification
SCS Indoor Advantage™ Gold — The SCS Indoor Advantage program certifies products for low emissions and good indoor air quality. To become certified, products undergo emissions testing at an independent, accredited laboratory. Textile products are tested for 35 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, in accordance with ANSI/BIFMA M7.1/X7.1 and CDPH Standard Method v1.1. A majority of our textiles are Indoor Advantage Gold certified.
SCS Indoor Air Quality Certification Certificate
Facts-NSF 336 — Association of Contract Textiles (ACT) has developed Facts to recognize contract textiles that conform to the rigors of the multi-attribute textiles standard NSF/ANSI 336 and are third party certified. This standard examines eight sustainability attributes. Two of those eight apply to the fiber composition: Fiber sourcing and safety of materials. The other six elements comprise aspects of the manufacturing process: Water conservation, water quality, energy, air quality, recycling practices and social accountability. Once Facts reaches a compliant threshold it can be designated as a Facts Silver, Gold or Platinum rating by earning points for additional sustainability criteria.
www.contracttextiles.org (ACT)
ISO 14001 — ISO 14001 - environmental ISO-This environmental stand would apply to the sustainable practices within specific mills or tanneries that we work with in the US and abroad.
www.iso.org
OEKO-TEX® — OEKO-TEX® simply means that each ingredient in a particular fabric is evaluated and certified to be safe for human health. Many of our new products from Europe meet this standard for using non-toxic chemicals.
www.oeko-tex.com
Finishes
Fewer Chemicals — Our goal at HBF Textiles is to reduce the amount of finishing and backing on a fabric through the engineering of weaves structures and the use of solution dyed yarns which can lessen the need for additional chemical treatments. When a finish is required for a specific performance application, we can accommodate the customer’s needs by only finishing to that specification in the yardage amount requested. No additional chemicals sitting on the material in the warehouse or emissions in the processing of every yard vs. just what is needed. In the long run it’s less impact on the environment and less impact on our members.
PFOA-Free Finishes and Low Fluro-Carbon Finishes — When we introduce a performance textile that requires a more stringent stain resistant characteristic we utilize Alta™, GreenShield or Nano-Tex®; branded finishes which offer resistance to liquids as they roll off of a treated surface. These options are based on nano-particle chemistry which disperses the least amount of chemical over the greatest expanse of material. For more information:
www.alta.com
www.greenshieldfinish.com
www.protectbeauty.com (Nano-Tex®)
Hickory, North Carolina
Fabric Waste — HBF Textiles’ development samples are donated to local universities/schools for student projects and elderly care facilities for their sewing programs. Leather scrap is sold to another company that uses it in their production.
Our Manufacturing Facility — In Hickory NC at our production and warehouse facility, we currently recycle all plastic, cardboard, paper, cans, glass, metal, wood pallets, scrap leathers, upholstery filling materials and fabric tubes.
Shipping and Marketing Materials — We have recently shifted all of our packaging materials to bio-degradable, formaldehyde free paper and cardboard or post-consumer recyclable plastic bags. Our marketing support materials are printed on post-consumer paper.
Download Sustainability Certification Content Summary
Download Sustainability Statement
Download Sustainable Contents
