Promoting excellence in sustainability

BC SoftWear supplies high-end, luxury towels and bathrobes to hotels and spas. Increasingly, the team is seeing a shift towards properties seeking more sustainable options. “Behaving in a more environmentally conscious way is no longer just a nice ‘extra’ for hotels. Sustainability needs to be part of their DNA,” explains BC SoftWear founder and CEO, Barbara Cooke. “The International Tourism Partnership states the hospitality sector must reduce its carbon footprint by 90% by 2050, in order to keep global warming below the two-degree threshold agreed upon in the Paris Agreement. “With energy saving so high on the agenda, and laundering creating one of the biggest energy expenses for hotels and spas, we knew we had to create a product that reduced both laundering energy costs and water consumption, to help them decrease their environmental impact.”

BC SoftWear created the SmartSoft range of eco-friendly products, which uses up to 70% less energy during laundering compared with a traditional towel, 10% less water and takes up to 31% less time to dry. It includes SupremeSoft robes, and spa linens and snag-free SmartKnit towels, made using knitted technology, rather than traditional weave. “This means they are snag-free, further aiding longevity. Hotels need to think about the lifecycle of the products they invest in as we all strive to create less waste, which all contributes to the circular economy,” says Cooke. “Crucially, the GSM weight is still high enough to be truly sumptuous and softness is still of a five-star quality.”

In the coming year, BC SoftWear has plans to increase its SmartSoft sustainable offer to include a full selection of towels, robes and linens. The SmartKnit range will also be expanded to include face cloths, mitts and gym towels.