Taking action on climate change and reducing carbon emissions is core to HEQS. We are proud to have adopted a leading position on this and have been certified as carbon neutral since 2014. Decisions about design, sourcing of materials, business relationships, manufacturing, delivery, use and recovery are all held to this standard. We believe that a high-quality product should be made with local materials and needs to last a lifetime.
We aim to achieve this through the pursuit of the following fundamental principles:
The solar panels at our Sydney manufacturing site generated 42,563 kWh of electricity this financial year. That’s enough to power nearly 7 average homes for a year. We also purchased a further 14,201 kWh of solar power for our Melbourne showroom this year, helping to further reduce our carbon footprint and supporting the need to increase renewable energy capacity in Australia. Together, this amounts to just over 25% of our electricity consumption coming from renewable sources.
Our electricity consumption was reduced by 17%.
Over 25% of our electricity consumption comes from renewable sources.
We have celebrated our Eleventh year as a nationally certified carbon neutral organisation.
We have reduced our waste by more than 65% (per tonne of product sold).
100% of timber, feather & down, foam, cotton and linen in furniture and upholstery certified to a recognised sustainability standard.
Over 75% of our materials are sourced from Australian suppliers however, we do import specific materials. We are continuing to develop our approach to ethical and responsible sourcing. We seek accredited certification standards from suppliers for materials where they exist, including those for timber, down, foam and organic cotton.
These aren’t targets or goals that stand still, HEQS is constantly evolving, and aim to be at forefront of sustainability and accountability. We will continue to report on our efforts in order to shed light on not just our achievements, but through full transparency, highlighting the areas will strive to be better.
100% of the foam used are GECA certified by our supplier.
100% of the feather and down used are sourced from certified sources: Responsible Down Standard and the Global Organic Textile Standard.
100% of the timber from certified sustainable sources and have maintained a chain of custody accreditation under Forestry Certification Standards.
100% of the cotton used is certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard.
100% of the linen in upholstery is certified under OEKO-TEX® Standard 100.
88% of wool and wool blend upholstery are from suppliers compliant with either REACH or Enviromark.
18% of the leather in upholstery is from tanneries certified under the Leather Working Group.
HEQS only uses water-based glues and lacquers in production, which is free from volatile organic compounds and safe for our workers and customers. (However, it is important to note that 2pac finishes are not water-based.)
Some of our rugs are certified under one or more labour-focused programs such as: GoodWeave, Label STEP and Care & Fair.
50% of our bed linen range is certified under the Global Organic Textile Standard.
