How Sömn Home Online Bedding Store Measures Up: Our First Environmental Report
To measure our impact and show the difference shopping Sömn Home makes to the environment, we recently partnered with third-party platform Green Story for a Life Cycle Impact Assessment. As an online bedding store selling eco-friendly luxury linen bedding sets and bath towels, sustainability is our business. We believe that everyone can positively impact the world, and it starts with the conscious choices we make every day. With growing concern around the environmental crisis, sustainability has become a priority for many businesses. As consumers, we’ve seen it ourselves--words like natural, eco-friendly, and organic from brands trying to promote their efforts. However, with so many approaches and outcomes, we felt it was important to back up our claims with meaningful numbers and turned to Green Story for help. Green Story provided a cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis that compared 1 kg of our dyed and undyed products with a global conventional cotton supply chain. Impacts focussed on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primary energy consumption (PED), and blue water consumption (BWC). Both primary and secondary sources were considered. These included factors like location of processes, mode of transportation, fabric type, dyeing status, type of products, etc. We wanted to understand just what choosing Sömn linens meant compared to other sheet producers/counterparts—and that’s just what Green Story delivered. Oh, Sömn Promising Results The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) concluded that compared to conventional cotton production, our 100% pure flax sheets yielded some very tangible environmental benefits, including: 22% less GHG emissions (about 14.2 km of driving emissions) 15% less energy (approximately 1004 light bulbs powered for 1 hour) 92% less blue water consumption (nearly 1359 days of drinking water) For our un-dyed linens, the results were even better—24% less GHG emissions, 21% less energy, and 97% less blue water consumption. Our carefully chosen partners and manufacturers were key to achieving these results. For example, buying from flax growers who opted for natural treatments without using toxic, synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides significantly lowered Co2 emissions. These growers also choose regenerative practices that include using rainwater and increasing water retention in the soil. By carefully managing and auditing every aspect of our process and supply chain, we are proud to offer sustainable linen beddings that significantly reduce GHG emissions, energy demands, and water consumption. All this means discerning earth-friendly consumers can rest easier when buying our products. Big Picture Impacts Buying a set of sheets doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the truth is sustainable efforts add up. Sömn’s online bedding store launched in Vancouver in the summer of 2017, and with every purchase, there’s been a cumulative impact, which we’re proud to share on the home page of our website. In fact, by choosing Somn’s sustainable linen beddings, we’ve made a real difference together: 20,716 km of driving emissions avoided 2,037,409 days of drinking water saved 1,943,910 hours of bulb energy saved As an added feature, the impact of individual purchases can also be viewed on our check-out page. This means shoppers can see the difference their purchase makes. Looking Ahead Green Story also defined areas of significant impact and identified opportunities for improvement. As part of our mission to enable earth-friendly consumers to become a regenerative force for the planet, we will continue to refine all aspects of our sourcing and supply chain, making our processes more transparent, efficient, and environmentally friendly. Collaborating with Green Story was eye-opening. It confirmed that we are moving in the right direction and that our day-to-day choices do matter, even for something as simple as buying sheets. While the results made us incredibly happy, we recognize even more can be done--and now we have a roadmap to get there. On behalf of everyone at Sömn Home, thank you for choosing our online bedding store and helping us to make a difference.