Kuwait’s popular home furnishing brands’ West Elm, Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen and Williams Sonoma are taking the lead in creating sustainable living spaces and design, proving that every purchase you make is all the more powerful and impactful. With an ethos of sustainability and designing with a vision for the greater good, this is made concrete by ensuring the use of sustainably-sourced products, implementing Fair Trade practices that are making a real difference to communities around the world, and so much more!
In this day and age, it is imperative that we are aware of our consumption practices and the products we use on a daily basis. Your purchase has power and impact, and that’s why West Elm, Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen, and Williams Sonoma are taking on proactive initiatives to achieve new milestones in 2020 and 2021 with sustainability goals in mind, so that with every purchase you make, a collective step is taken towards achieving a better future.
These goals include: Working towards making products more responsibly sourced every day to empower communities around the world by choosing handcrafted offerings, ensuring that production practices are fully Fair Trade Certified (FTC) and compliant, taking on a 100% organic cotton commitment, choosing sustainably sourced woods and raw materials for their furniture lines, creating many local projects by kickstarting and supporting initiatives that nurture local talents, and ensuring that their products are chemical-free for the highest safety standards.
A Handcrafted Approach at West Elm
This isn’t just about creating products by hand, the term ‘Handcrafted’ is actually in reference to the global network that connects designers, artisans and vendors. At West Elm, you’ll find handmade products from different countries around the world. Be it pottery from Peru, ceramics from Thailand, textiles from Guatemala and metal works from Haiti. This move essentially celebrates authenticity and commemorates artisan communities from all over the world. It has, thus far, positively impacted more than 20,000 lives in support to the families of craftspeople.
Committing To The Fair Trade Movement at West Elm
The Fair Trade movement creates long-term economic opportunities for workers and customers collectively whenever a purchase has been made. For example, the Fair Trade Certified products at West Elm promise safe labor practices, and aim to empower workers to invest in their communities. That means strict health standards, the elimination of child or forced labor, as well as offering paid and maternity leaves. In turn, this means that additional money goes back to the workers, and in less developed nations, this means a lot, especially when it comes to factoring in the costs endured by workers like transportation and health fees. Today, the Fair Trade program at West Elm impacts more than 12,000 workers, and by 2020, the program aims to support 20,000+ workers along with their local initiatives.
Committing To Fair Trade Premiums At Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen
At Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen, there is a clear commitment to the Fair Trade movement, with the 2020 pledge that Fair Trade premiums valued at $3 million will be imposed to be paid back to workers. Furthermore, they work with 15 Fair Trade certified factories and counting, enabling workers to invest in health clinics, water filtration and transport initiatives. In total, Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen have empowered 63,000 workers through partnerships with HERproject and VisionSpring. By 2020, the goal is to reach 100,000 workers.
100% Organic
Investing in organic bedding and materials is honestly, a life changer. Organic linens are soft and free of chemicals, leading to the best kind of sleep for yourself and the rest of your family. West Elm is currently ensuring reductions in the use of toxic bleaches, dyes, and other harsh chemicals, starting from the process of sewing the cotton seed itself and until it arrives in your bedroom. The production process is free of synthetic pesticides leading to fabrics that are both healthier for the environment and our bodies. Currently, 78% of the bedding offerings at West Elm is organic, but by 2020, the goal is to make it all 100% organic. This notion also extends to Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen, where the brand is already one of the world’s top ten global purchasers of organic cotton, and they aim to achieve a goal of 100% sustainably sourced cotton by 2021. Up until today, the three brands alone have managed to save 1 billion liters of water by using organic cotton, and more than 400,000 pounds of pesticides and chemicals were saved in 2018 alone.
Your Home, Sustainably Sourced
At West Elm, 42% of the used wood in their products lines is sustainably sourced. Sustainably sourced products are created with sustainable, recycled, or reclaimed materials. Additionally, furniture that is made with wood, regardless of its type, is now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). When you purchase any of these products at West Elm, you are helping prevent deforestation and preserving the environment. Even the fabrics are made from recycled plastic or eucalyptus fibers, and by 2020, West Elm are aiming to have 50% of their used wood sustainably sourced. At Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen, not only do the brands pride themselves on being one of the largest retailers of responsibly sourced wood, their goal is to sustainably source 50% of the wood utilized in their product lines by 2021. Their commitment alone to the Forest Stewardship Council is amazing, where 79% of the wood used in the outdoor furniture lines complies with sustainable forestry practices.
Thinking Locally
While West Elm employs a robust, local community approach in the United States that highlights local and artisanal talents as well as helping small businesses to grow, and we can see the same ethos echoed here in Kuwait, like offering their beautiful store as a display place for the works of local artists. Lucky for us, we have also seen Williams Sonoma already implementing similar initiatives. In an effort to help showcase local talent, the brand worked with local chefs in Kuwait by organizing various kitchen demonstrations and activations at their store at The Avenues. It is just one more way of bringing the community together in the spaces that we live in.
Greenguard Gold Certified at Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen
At Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen, products are created to meet GREENGUARD Gold Certifications, meaning that their product lines are compliant with the chemical standards of UL, a global, independent safety science company. Not only does UL screen for more than 10,000 harmful chemicals that are known to be as indoor pollutants, they also ensure that furniture products at Pottery Barn, Kids and Teen are low-emitting and contribute to cleaner indoor air for you and the entire family. Choose from kids beds and baby cribs made from solid, kiln-dried wood to the famous Anywhere Chairs at Pottery Barn Kids, all created with the assurance of the GREENGUARD Gold Certification for cleaner indoor air, and the safest space for your family to sleep, grow and play.
As all of the five home furniture brands are embracing positive changes towards creating more sustainable homes both for the environment and their customers, they continuously prove the importance of powering your purchase with a sustainable intent in mind. They not only believe, but are also committed, to preserving the environment that we live in, and providing support and benefiting the communities who are working with their hearts and souls to produce the beautiful products we see in all of the stores.
Visit West Elm located in Al Kout Mall and Grand Avenue-The Avenues and Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teen, Pottery Barn Kids, and Williams Sonoma are located at Grand Avenue-The Avenues.
Opening hours are from Sunday to Wednesday, 10am to 11pm, and Thursday to Saturday – 10am to midnight.
Follow the different home furniture brands on Instagram: @williamssonomamena, @williamssonomahomemena, @westelmmena, @pbteenmena, @potterybarnmena, @potterybarnkidsmena.
Facebook: @williamssonomamena, @westelmmena, @pbteenmena, @potterybarnmena, @potterybarnkidsmena.
You can now shop from Pottery Barn online in Kuwait by visiting potterybarn.com.kw.
