The Best Sustainable, Vegan-Friendly & Ethical Duvet From The Fine Bedding Company

This post was sponsored by The Fine Bedding Company, all thoughts my own.

I love sleep. I know it’s not exactly a groundbreaking opinion, but I value rest and take it very seriously. In fact, as a dedicated get-9-hours-whenever-possible kind of person, I would say I may just be an expert in this area.

So, when The Fine Bedding Company reached out to tell me about their eco-friendly, vegan-friendly sustainable duvets, it’s safe to say I was pretty excited. As someone with a staunch commitment to being comfy and cosy but not compromising on ethics, I knew I’d just met the bedding solution of my dreams. Here’s what you need to know.

Sustainable and ethical bedding in the UK

The Fine Bedding Company are a fourth-generation British business, with over 100 years of experience and only one goal: ensuring you have the best night’s sleep possible.

The first iteration of the company was established in 1912 in Liverpool, originally supplying beds and bedding to transatlantic liners sailing between Liverpool and the USA. The Fine Bedding Company brand launched in 1999, with a dedicated ethical and sustainable factory opening in Tallinn, Estonia, the following year.

Since then, they’ve dedicated countless hours of research and development to making restorative, comfortable and superior sleep a nightly reality. Using sustainable processes, luxury materials and technological innovation, they’ve created the ultimate collection of premium, eco-friendly bedding to deliver the dreamiest sleep possible. Plus, of course, their bedding is also designed to be high-quality and made to last, wash after wash.

In 2017 they won the Green Apple award for sustainable manufacturing and in 2018, in a bedding first, The Fine Bedding Company launched their Eco Duvet made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles for the mass market. But when it comes to sustainable production, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Award-winning sustainable production

The global market for bedding has seen many manufacturers focus on a low-cost, high-output strategy. Mass production of low-quality products for the lowest possible price has created global supply chains that put profit before planet and people, harming the environment and exploiting workers in factories across the world.

But The Fine Bedding Company have always sought to do things differently. Today they lead the industry: their luxury bedding is high quality, durable and long-lasting while remaining sustainable and ethical throughout the supply chain.

The Fine Bedding Company’s purpose-built eco-factory enables them to explore new innovations and manufacture to deliver products that prioritise comfort, durability and ease of care, but never at the cost of sustainability.

Their space is designed to the highest standard of factory design to significantly reduce environmental impact compared to typical industry practices. The factory runs on 100% renewable energy and recycles 99% of waste, their cotton is sustainably sourced, and the company became a certified B Corporation in 2022. The factory is regularly audited, ensuring worker welfare is always a top priority, and providing safe and ethical employment to the local community.

They also:

Use resources and energy effectively along with the elimination/reduction of solid waste.
Don’t use any toxic raw materials or produce any toxic emissions.
Use specially adapted machinery that’s unavailable to the mass market, allowing them to process materials at the specific temperature and humidity levels required for extremely fine fibres.
Have moved away from traditional textile methodologies, instead using new technologies that use less energy. For example, they use ultrasonic which removes threads and reduces waste by up to 5% whilst processing.
Have increased the use of recycled raw materials and are moving towards 100% recycled packaging.

Plus, their rigorous recycling standards are approved and certified by the Global Recycle Standard (GRS), an international body responsible for setting requirements for recycled content, social and environmental practices and chemical restrictions. In particular, they use post-consumer plastic waste, that is shredded, sterilised, melted and extruded into a soft and fluffy fibre for vegan-friendly duvets and pillows.

They’re also committed to constant improvement across all operations, whether that’s improving the thermal efficiency of duvets, or reducing energy and waste, sustainability is always the cornerstone of decision-making. Their longer-term ambition is to also find a solution to recycling products at their end of life, helping to conserve the value of these materials for as long as possible.

Eco-friendly innovation

As the brand has grown, so has its capacity for innovation. Some of their most fascinating developments include

SMARTFIL®

Created in 2014, Smartfil® is a unique brand of recycled fillings for duvets and pillows, designed, developed and manufactured exclusively by The Fine Bedding Company. A Smartfil® duvet that is 434g lighter than a standard duvet meaning that, for every hundred-thousand 10.5 tog double duvets, they prevent the production of 43 tonnes polyester fibre, and 460t CO2eq/t.

SONICSEAM®

The groundbreaking Sonicseam® technology was introduced in 2015 after 8 years of development. Created by an experienced team of engineers, this threadless seam is made using pioneering technology, where high-frequency sound changes the molecular structure of fabrics and filling. This reduces waste fabric at the foot of the duvet by 100% compared with industry standards, where 10cm is cut off at the end of each product. This equates to a saving of 37g of polyester fabric (virgin) and 68g fibre (recycled) per duvet, a reduction of 10.5 tonnes fabric and fibre per 100,000 tonnes.

The vegan down duvet: my review

I have the vegan duvet, with a breathable cover made from sustainable cotton and TENCEL, and a filling made with 100% recycled materials. This duvet simulates the comfort of natural down, but with no animal components or derivatives (which also makes it easier to wash!). Their signature fibres are made from plastic bottles, which uniquely trap air and warmth in the same way as a natural down duvet.

And I have to say it – I’m in love!

It’s been a particularly cold winter, and this duvet has kept me incredibly cosy while still remaining breathable and not too heavy. I feel comfortable, easy and warm in my sleep, without feeling pinned down by a huge weight. In fact, if you want to imagine what the experience of being under this duvet is like, I basically look exactly like this clip of Homer Simpson every morning. I’m sleeping great, I’m safe in the knowledge that this duvet will last a lifetime and I know that it was made sustainably by workers who are cared for.

It’s truly everything I could hope for in bedding and I’m so happy to have this company to recommend in future, as I now know The Fine Bedding Company has a customer for life in me!