Leading global innovation company with textile, specialty chemical and floor covering manufacturing expertise, Milliken & Company’s Specialty Interiors business, hosted a presentation by Sustainable Furnishings Council Executive (SFC) Director Susan Inglis at its newly-opened High Point showroom at Showtime. The presentation provided an overview of the material choices in home furnishings that are most critical for sustaining a healthy future.
Supported by extensive consumer research conducted by SFC, Inglis offered insight into consumer preference for sustainable options and how these preferences have changed in the last five years. Focusing heavily on materiality – what products are made of, how they are sourced and chemicals of concern, the presentation also offered guidance on how to choose and develop more environmentally-friendly materials and products.
“Milliken has always known that materials matter,” said Milliken Specialty Interiors Marketing Manager, LeAnne Flack. “People don’t just want to feel good in their spaces, but also about their spaces, and, thanks to recent industry efforts, there is no need to compromise. Fabric collections like our eco-elegant Breathe by Milliken™ provide the protection and durability consumers demand in a beautiful and much more sustainable way.”
With a global corporate environmental policy dating back to 1990, Milliken has won numerous awards for its sustainable and ethical business practices. Milliken has a long-held, holistic approach to sustainability including the strategic sourcing of raw materials and Milliken-led advances in human-centered chemistry to meet and exceed the needs of consumers. The company joined the Sustainable Furnishings Council earlier this year. For more information about Milliken’s sustainability efforts, please visit http://www.milliken.com/en-us/Sustainability/Pages/sustainability.aspx
“Because educated consumers care deeply about what goes into their homes and how their choices impact the world around them, there is an unprecedented focus on materiality in today’s furnishings business,” said Inglis. “Milliken has been a pioneer in sustainable manufacturing and product development, and all of us at the Sustainable Furnishings Council are proud to partner with this esteemed company to advance this important cause.”
About the Sustainable Furnishings Council
The Sustainable Furnishings Council is a coalition of manufacturers, retailers and designers dedicated to raising awareness and expanding the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices across the home furnishings industry. Its mission is to help companies reduce their environmental footprint as they grow, and to help consumers find healthy furnishings. Recognizing the overwhelming scientific consensus that our world is experiencing dangerous global climate change, and the equally overwhelming evidence that environmental pollutants are harming our health, SFC supports the industry in acknowledging the tremendous urgency and in taking immediate steps to minimize carbon emissions, reduce other pollutants, and remove unsustainable materials and harmful chemical inputs from all furnishings product platforms. For more information, please visit https://sustainablefurnishings.org/.
About Milliken’s Specialty Interiors Business
Milliken Specialty Interiors, a business in the Performance & Protective Textiles division, boasts a rich history of developing, designing and manufacturing fabrics for home and office furniture, vertical panels, privacy curtains, window treatments, theatrical curtains, top-of-bed applications and more. Through our unrivaled knowledge and unmatched service, we provide our customers with forward-thinking solutions that enhance their products in a variety of markets, including commercial, residential and healthcare, hospitality. For more information, visit www.millikenspecialtyinteriors.com and join us on Twitter (@MillikenSpecInt), Facebook and Instagram (@millikenspecialtyinteriors).
About Milliken
For over 150 years, Milliken has been innovating with the purpose to explore, discover and create ways to enhance people’s lives. Our community of innovators has developed one of the larger collections of United States patents held by a private U.S. company. With expertise across a breadth of disciplines, including specialty chemical, floor covering and performance materials, we work around the world every day to add true value to people’s lives, improve health and safety, and help make the world more sustainable. For more information, visit http://www.milliken.com and join us on Twitter and Facebook.