Spoonflower: Leading the Sustainable Textile Revolution

Reducing Waste

Spoonflower’s print-on-demand process is designed to minimize fabric and ink waste. Since you have the ability to print the exact quantities you want, just the way you want them, there are no leftover materials. Marketplace fabric that is returned to the factory is donated (designers still earn their commissions!) to programs like the RARE Bear sew-in, a grassroots outreach initiative for kids with rare diseases. Unprinted fabric remnants are available to local artists and makers in the Spoonflower community. Fabric that doesn’t meet our high standards never makes it to the landfill, as it is shredded for industrial applications like car upholstery and furniture stuffing, bedding and flooring.

Keeping It Clean

Spoonflower’s pigment printing process consumes very little water to begin with, making it an eco-friendly solution in the textile printing industry. Our pigment inks are mixed from 4-8 basic colors as your fabric is printed, so unlike screen printing, there’s no mixing of colors in advance.

To ensure products are safe, we select the best-in-class fabrics, inks and dyes. All of our wallpaper options are printed with water-based latex inks that carry the GREENGUARD Gold certification. We avoid fabrics with any flame-retardant applications, and our fabrics pass tests ruling out harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde and lead.

Sourcing the Best

To meet increasing demands for natural textiles, we developed three organic fabrics: Organic Cotton Sateen, Organic Cotton Knit, and Organic Sweet Pea Gauze™. Along with all of the fabrics we offer, these are sourced from a small group of trusted fabric vendors that observe fair wages and work standards. 

To add to the environmentally-friendly lineup, we offer Recycled Canvas made from 10 recycled bottles per yard or meter. Additionally, our Prepasted Removable Wallpaper is eco-friendly, formaldehyde-, phthalate-, and PVC-free—it’s also not only removable, but recyclable as well. 

Continuing to Grow

Spoonflower invests in sustaining a healthy environment by working to reduce our ecological impact in everything we do, from recycling and composting in our office to printing packing slips on recycled-content paper. Our office break rooms are full of handmade fabric dish towels, tablecloths and napkins, and we stock our shelves with reusable silverware and dishware. We have a small garden outside our North Carolina headquarters that is filled with herbs, lettuces and cherry tomatoes planted (and enjoyed) by our employees. Since 2015, we’ve diverted over 4,124 pounds of waste from the landfill into compost. Additionally, we have avoided 536 pounds of methane which is the equivalent of 10,724 pounds of CO2 or driving the entire circumference of the Earth.

Sustainability is at the heart of all that we do—you could say it’s in our nature to go green.

If you’re looking for a few tips on how to incorporate a greener way of thinking for your next celebration or just on a regular basis, follow these five from the party planning experts at Cherry Blossom Events.