Brentwood to update pillow blowing machinery, expanding sustainability efforts

-- Home Textiles Today, 4/20/2010 12:34:00 PM

Carson, Calif. – Brentwood Originals is investing more than $1 million in new decorative pillow production machinery and is also taking several steps to run operations more efficiently and sustainably.

The decorative pillow supplier’s new machinery consists of new filling equipment for blowing polyester fill into pillows. The new machines will be installed at the company’s facilities here and in Ohio and Mississippi over the course of next year.

 “This will result in improved efficiencies and enhanced appearance of our product as well as reducing energy usage in the process of filling the shells with polyester fill,” explained Loren Sweet, president and ceo. “This machinery has the latest in low-energy-use motors and variable speed operations to maximize efficiency.”

In another sustainability effort, the company is also in the process of joining the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders Small Business Network, “which commits us to a reduction of our carbon footprint as measured by standardized guidelines,” Sweet said. “This will allow us to establish a baseline of our current carbon footprint and use it to measure our progress.”

Additionally, Brentwood is also renovating its restrooms in all company locations to equip them with low-flow plumbing. This comes of the heels of recently updated lighting to high-efficiency, third-generation fluorescent reflector bulbs for all one million square feet of total plant space.

In related efforts, the company also in recent years installed reflective roofing at all plant sites to reduce its energy usage.