ISPA’s Sustainability Committee helps advance environmental responsibility.
With sustainability a growing concern for the bedding industry, the International Sleep Products Association created a committee in 2022 to address many facets of the issue.
The Sustainability Committee is charged with making recommendations to the ISPA Board of Trustees regarding ISPA’s role in:
- Educating the industry about sustainability concepts, terminology and trends
- Promoting environmentally responsible operations and practices in the sleep products industry
- Dedicating resources to gather industry input when shaping industry policy
- Implementing industry sustainability goals
- Monitoring and advocating for relevant government policies.
Reflecting a cross section of suppliers and manufacturers, the 20-member committee meets quarterly with two in-person meetings and two virtual meetings.
“There’s a lot of differing ideas out there about what ‘sustainability’ means,” said committee member Joe Lowery, circularity director for Carpenter Co. and chair of the committee. “Each company has their own special needs when it comes to integrating sustainability into their business model, but there are some areas that overlap, like end-of-life material collection at recyclers or emissions inventories. And it takes the entire value chain thinking about the other pieces of the value chain to enact a circular economy.
“The value of ISPA’s Sustainability Committee is identifying those overlaps and interconnects so that both consumers and the industry win together through more sustainable products. Knowing more about how the circular economy functions also allows the committee to monitor upcoming legislation, promoting bills that will benefit the environment and redirecting proposed measures that could wind up being environmentally counterproductive.”
For more information, contact Kate Caddy, ISPA Director of Sustainability.
