Closing the loop

As designers and manufacturers, we firmly believe in our responsibility to ensure that our products uphold the highest standards of sustainability—from the sourcing of raw materials to their eventual recycling and reusability. In line with this principle, we have established protocols and guidelines that inform our decision-making processes and actions.

Circularity represents a departure from the conventional design paradigm of make, use, dispose, shifting towards a model that integrates disposal into the creation of new products. Our strategies revolve around the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle, focusing on minimizing waste production and repurposing materials whenever possible.

One of the key ways we design for circularity is through the use of recycled material. All of our products contain a percentage of recycled polyester fibre, dictated by the level of acoustic absorption required. We aim to include as much recycled content as possible without compromising the acoustic performance of the product. This is why you’ll see some products with a minimum of 80% recycled content, and others with 60%. In compliance with ISO 14021:2016, our sustainability team calculates the amount of recycled polyester used in our products twice a year, ensuring our claims are accurate and up-to-date.

We recognize the value of the materials at our disposal, which is why our team is constantly striving to maximize the potential of the materials we utilize. We refuse to settle for anything less than excellence and are committed to innovating our sustainable manufacturing and design processes. This effort drives us to create solutions that embody true circularity, addressing the imperative in the construction sector to effectively manage waste. Achieving this goal requires collaboration across our industry, as no single organization can do it alone. By working together with our peers, we can revolutionize how we approach design, the materials we incorporate, and our approach to waste management.

We aim to minimise waste trimmings as much as possible by optimising material use in our designs, however, with current technology some waste is inevitable.

Recognising that we could influence the amount of waste our products created during production, we conducted rigorous testing and research to create a bespoke solution. The result was an industry-first technology that transforms acoustic panel trimmings into PET pellets that can then be moulded into new accessory products.

By introducing this chipper into our process, we can now operate a zero-waste manufacturing line. Since the installation of our machine in May 2022, 250,000 kgs of material have been repurposed into new products. Through regular upgrades and R&D, we expect to increase our recycling capacity significantly each year.