Sustainability as a green thread at Heimtextil

Four years ago Reinhard Backhausen took his children to the cinema to see the ecological documentary film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ with Al Gore. And this is exactly when the ecological penny dropped. The subject of sustainability kept buzzing around in the mind of the managing director of Austria’s Backhausen Interior Textiles. “My daughter wanted to know what our company was doing for the environment”, reports Reinhard Backhausen. “However, it wasn’t immediately clear to me how can we operate in a sustainable way when we primarily use artificial fibres to manufacture flame-retardant textiles for the contract market.”

Reinhard Backhausen found the answer in the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ principle. With no further ado, the long-standing Heimtextil exhibitor and president of the Austrian Association of the Textile, Garment, Shoe and Leather Industry restructured the whole production line. Today, he can take back and recycle all of his company’s fabrics, which are produced in accordance with ecological standards.

What has this got to do with the Heimtextil fair?
A great deal because the leading trade fair in Frankfurt is also oriented towards ‘sustainability’. New this year is the Green Directory, which lists all Heimtextil exhibitors who, in common with Backhausen, operate in accordance with ecological principles. The Green Directory will be available as a printed booklet at the fair. You can see an initial version here:

Visitors will be able to experience sustainability with their senses at the Green Exhibition Welcome to Utopia presentation of environmentally-friendly textiles in Hall 11.1 and the Bark Cloth special show. In the foyer of Halls 5.1 and 6.1, the German-African company, Bark Cloth, will present its unique fabric made of bark, the production of which the UNESCO has declared to be an intangible cultural heritage, and craftspeople demonstrate how the bark cloth is sewn. In Hall 4 you can find the show area of VDMD, Germany’s biggest national network for fashion and textile designers. It will spotlight sustainable design concepts.

Experts will discuss the economic aspects of ‘sustainability’ in the Let’s talk about it! Forum in Hall 8 on the Thursday of the fair. Besides major companies, such as Ikea and KiK, visitors will also have the chance to hear from intelligent start-ups, such as ‘Organic Textile Services’.

Interesting lectures on the subject of ‘green hospitality’ will also be on the programme of the Let’s have a look: Interior competence by AIT Forum in Hall 3.1 on the Thursday morning. Don’t miss these ‘green’ insights!