Stefan with his grandfather in 1975

Our roots

Speaking of beginnings: we take you on a short journey into the past to the point where the basic idea for our holistically sustainable path was laid, namely to the childhood of our boss Stefan. Stefan is passionate about sustainability. This becomes clear in every conversation and discussion with him. He is one of those people who can captivate you with his enthusiasm, sweep you away and definitely knock you off your feet at times - because he knows exactly what he wants and where his sustainable path should take him. This passion and awareness for environmental protection was passed on to him by his grandfather as a child. In addition, his hometown of Dornbirn was still a textile stronghold at the time and he witnessed first-hand how wastewater and other waste was disposed of untreated from production into the Dornbirner Arch. Although this was normal at the time, he found it somehow strange and questionable.

Our boss Stefan is passionate about sustainability I Photo: Angela Lamprecht

We are not keeping anything from you:

At the beginning of his career, Stefan was also one of those people who went ahead with production without much consideration for the environment. Over the years, however, he realized more and more that something was very wrong here and that he simply could no longer reconcile the "normal way" with his conscience. It was clear to him: we would do things differently. But that wasn't so easy at the time and took a lot of persuasion, perseverance and support.

Because... you can't do it alone

With globalization, jobs shifted abroad and it became increasingly difficult to monitor working conditions and sustainable cultivation, especially as the legal regulations in the textile strongholds allowed, and unfortunately still allow, far too much scope for environmental pollution, exploitation and miserable working conditions. As a comparatively small company, we quickly realized that we alone had no chance of breaking up the entrenched structures of the countries and monitoring compliance with our requirements. The solution: we looked for partners in the form of independent certifiers and auditors. This costs a lot of money, but it was clear to us that this was the only way we could offer ourselves and our customers the transparency that we want and that you deserve. And this is the only way we can be sure that we are really acting sustainably and not perhaps unintentionally green washing. After extensive research, we have chosen what we believe to be the most rigorous independent organizations in the industry with their respective areas of expertise:

Cradle to Cradle bed linen | Photos: Lisa Mathis

Back to the future

And where has this led us? Not only do we have an incredibly large organic range and have all of our products produced under socially fair working conditions, but in 2019 we were also able to launch our first Cradle to Cradle Certified© GOLD line (bed linen and terry cloth). Our C2C bed linen even made it to the final of the German Sustainability Award. What's so special about it? Our C2C products are not only produced without any negative impact on our environment, they are also safe for the biological cycle and are composted at the end of the cycle to become valuable nutrients for the next generation of plants.

This is what uncompromising sustainability and a sustainable home textiles industry look like for us - and our journey is far from over.