Is Low-Waste Manufacturing the Future?
Kristen Dettoni founded Design Pool out of genuine concern for the sheer amount of waste generated in the traditional textile industry. Early in her career, she worked in mills where she witnessed the massive amount of material destined for the landfill. And that was just in the design and development process alone. She often wondered, were low-waste manufacturing options out there?
Today, those same products are manufactured in other countries. In addition to the waste generated in development, the product travels vast distances before it gets to its final destinations. That doesn’t even account for what happens to products at the end of their life cycle. Historically, manufacturers didn’t consider that when designing a product.
It was overwhelming. Back in the mill days, as a designer working for a big company, it felt nearly impossible to change the system. Just a tiny cog in a huge system.
Low-waste manufacturing can change that.
One of the driving inspirations for Kristen launching Design Pool was to use digital, on-demand technological advances to give interior designers options for high-quality materials created in low-waste facilities. And not just low-waste manufacturing but also research, design, and development.
How does Design Pool do that?
Our entire pattern library is digital and licensable. We can continue to add to our library without generating physical products. This allows us to offer more patterns, keep patterns in rotation, and give designers many options.
Digital, on-demand printing is a non-inventory system. Printers print samples and orders upon request in the exact amount. There is no more inventory sitting on a shelf and no more unsold products getting tossed or sold at close-out prices.
We partner with printers printing in the United States. While some printers import the raw materials from overseas, they do the printing domestically. This means one company is buying in bulk, but they can print and ship smaller quantities shorter distances.
Unlike back in Kristen’s mill days, we finally feel like the decisions we make as a company have a tangible impact on our planet. Earth Day, and every day, we’re going to continue doing our best to bring the interior design community more options made with low-waste manufacturing.
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Author
Kristin Crane has designed jacquard designs for the home furnishing and residential jobber market for many years, with mills in the US and in China. She writes about pattern and design trends for Design Pool from her home in Providence, Rhode Island. When not writing about fabric, she can be found weaving on her Macomber loom, standing over a vat of indigo dye or hiking along the Rhode Island coast.
