“Inside the Mind of Today’s Mattress Shopper” – Sustainability at BekaertDeslee

BekaertDeslee Senior Vice President of Sales Rhiannon Burch Hallam weighs in on the latest sustainability survey by the Better Sleep Council. She describes her company’s current sustainability efforts and shares what survey results surprised her — and what she would say to those who don’t believe in sustainability.

Transcript

Waynette Goodson
It’s Waynette Goodson. I’m your managing editor of BedTimes and Sleep Savvy magazines. Welcome to this edition of “Inside the Mind of Today’s Mattress Shopper.” Our theme today is sustainability. So we have Rhiannon Hallam. She is with BekaertDeslee. BekaertDeslee, a core value for this company is sustainability. So, Rhiannon, please tell our audience what some of your current initiatives are.

Rhiannon Hallam
I love that you described it as a core value of our company because sustainability is really about a journey in understanding the total global economy, the circular economy that we live in, that we do business in, and how we interact with each other. So our products really take that focus of generations to come.

Waynette Goodson
We always tie these shows to the Better Sleep Council research, and recently, we came out with a sustainability study that really looks at consumer attitudes. Did you have an aha moment? Was there a particular finding or statistic that made you pause?

Rhiannon Hallam
Well, one of the things that I loved about this research is it was done from two perspectives. So you had the consumer, the shopper’s perspective, as well as the retailer. Now, one of the things that stuck out to me is that one-third of retailers, or one-third of shoppers in the retail space, say that they’re interested in buying products that are sustainable or products that have been made in sustainable ways.

From a retail perspective, they say two out of ten shoppers come in looking for those products. So that’s a big gap. That’s a big opportunity for us. So, education to the consumer as well as education to the retailer is critical in filling that gap.

Waynette Goodson
There are still people out there who feel that sustainability is a fad, a fleeting trend. What would you say to those folks?

Rhiannon Hallam
Well, I would say the first thing is that we should look to our partners in Europe to know that sustainability is not going away. Sustainability, although it’s still in its infancy, continues to grow and evolve each day. But I think sustainability also has to take on more of a personal meaning. I recently had the opportunity to visit our North America operational headquarters, located just outside of the beautiful Pueblo, Mexico. As we discussed the zero waste to landfill initiatives, this facility had already reached 100%.

Now, to me, that that’s amazing. And I asked our head of operations what enabled this facility to reach 100%, and it became so crystal clear to me. She said in this culture, everything has value. Nothing would ever go to a landfill because everything has value. And I think that has to be a part of a sustainable journey for people to truly embrace and understand that everything has value; every item, every process, everything we do should have purpose.

Once you can start to embrace that value and purpose in the products you create, the processes you use, and your social responsibility, Investing in your community and sustainability becomes just a natural part of what you value.

Waynette Goodson
I love that ending rant, and thank you so much. Bravo. Thank you so much for all your insights, your sage insights on sustainability. And thank all of you for tuning in to this edition of “Inside the Mind of Today’s Mattress Shopper.” And, as always, get a great night’s sleep.