Victor Group aims to educate furniture industry about green fabrics
Launches first of series of educational brochures
Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, June 22, 2009
SAINT-GEORGES, Quebec — Victor Group says it has long been known in the contract furniture industry as an environmentally forward fabric company and intends to carry those efforts over to its residential side.
 Paul Bennotti |
Victor entered the residential market in 2007 when it acquired assets of the bankrupt Quaker Fabric.
In December at the Showtime fabric show in High Point, it launched a collection of sustainable fabrics developed from post-industrial and post-consumer recycled materials called eHome. At this month's edition of Showtime, it launched the first in a series of educational brochures designed to explore environmental issues.
"I think it is very important that someone like Victor takes a position and starts to lead the way with education," said Paul Bennotti, director of marketing for the Victor Group, which includes its latest acquisition, Craftex. "If I understand it correctly, there's a lot of mis-education in the residential industry about what ‘green' fabric is all about."
The new brochure discusses post-industrial and post-consumer recycled materials and tackles myths about recycled products. It tells about Victor's Eco Intelligence initiatives that since 2001 have reduced the company's greenhouse emissions by 80%, energy use by 24%, water consumption by 74% and chemical use by 50%. The company now recycles 99.9% of its textile, plastic and paper waste.
"We don't want this to be perceived as a selling tool; we want it to be an educational tool distributed to all levels (furniture manufacturers, retailers and sales representatives) of the market because we really wanted to reach down to the salesman on the floor," Bennotti said.
He said the next brochure will discuss the waste factor in residential textiles and what can be done about it, said Bennotti, noting that the company plans two or three brochures a year.
He added that the commitment to being environmentally friendly from Victor's president and CEO, Alain Duval, on down.
"We need to set the tone for who we want to be," said Bennotti. "Everyone has good styling, good color and they all have the price points. But how do you set yourself apart? That's something we hope we can do with our reputation in contract."
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This is a big step for an industry leader like Victor Group to step up and make 'green' a...
David Goldman - 2009-24-6 11:56:29 EDT
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