SSA hosts green meeting
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 18, 2009
Bonita Springs, Fla. — A green initiative launched by the Specialty Sleep Assn. attracted several of bedding's largest producers here, but failed to reach any agreements on how to define green products.
Representatives of Sealy, Simmons, Serta and Tempur-Pedic, bedding's four largest producers, attended the session, as did other mattress producers, suppliers and association executives. About 30 people went to the session at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point resort here, held the day after Furniture/Today's fourth annual Bedding Conference completed its three-day run at the same location.
The SSA group heard presentations from companies offering a variety of green products, and engaged in wide-ranging discussions about how to advance their agenda. A committee of attendees was named to further pursue the issues raised.
SSA President Dale Read described the session as the first step in a voluntary process to define key terms surrounding green products. "We are being proactive," he said. "We want to demonstrate leadership in this area."
Read said that a number of green standards are already in place in various industries around the world.
In her keynote address, Susan Inglis, executive director of the Sustainable Furnishings Council, said consumer research shows that a number of terms are used by shoppers to describe green products. Among the most popular are "environmentally safe," preferred by 27% of consumers; "eco-friendly," preferred by 24%; "green," preferred by 17%, and "sustainable," preferred by 15%.
The group also heard from executives with three companies that produce green bedding products: Anne Kozel, specialty sleep brand director at Simmons; Ralph Rossdeutscher, president and CEO of Natura; and Walt Bader, president of OMI. The panel was moderated by Jeff Scorziell, president of Anatomic Global, which also makes eco-friendly bedding.
Also presenting at the conference was Vicki Worden of Worden Associates, a consultant who has worked on various products and services with green labels, and Stijn Devaere, an adviser with Centexbel, the scientific and research center of the Belgian textile industry.
Allen Podratsky, founder of Global Supply Chain Partners, was one of the discussion leaders at the conference.
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