by Phil Storey

The Industrial Revolution was born in the textile mills of 18th-century England, quickly spreading to other industries and transforming the entire world. Fittingly, the Next Industrial Revolution - a hopeful, new transformation - is beginning in small textile mills with visionary leaders. One of the leaders creating this revolution is Victor Innovatex, a family-owned and -run contract fabric producer with operations in Saint-Georges, Quebec, and other locations in North and South America.

According to its president, Alain Duval (pictured here), one of Victor Innovatex's leadership advantages is its small size. "I believe that as a relatively smaller company we can be more agile and make a difference much faster than a larger company can.. We can show leadership by instituting changes quickly."

One of the changes Victor has been instituting is adopting eco-effective design objectives. This summer the company will begin selling an eco-effective polyester upholstery fabric (designed in collaboration with MBDC and Designtex). Victor's Eco-IntelligentT Polyester fabric is the first synthetic upholstery textile designed from the outset to be safe and healthy, with an understanding of everything that goes into it, as well as perpetually recyclable. The new fabric leaps beyond eco-efficient strategies to minimize waste and recycle discarded polymers, as a number of other textile companies are doing.

Duval's commitment to sustainability didn't begin with the Eco-IntelligentT Polyester project, though. "My grandfather who founded Victor and my father both cared enough about the world they were leaving for my family to consider the way they produced goods even more than 50 years ago. Back then, when my grandfather started recycling the wool scraps and made first quality goods to sell, it was more than smart business, it was efficient use of resources. As a young boy, I even helped at the mill to sort the wool clips by color so that we could recycle them and not have to re-dye them."

Today Victor is the largest wool recycler in North America. The company has also invested in making effective use of other resources. Beginning in 1985 Alain Duval and his brother began a several-year project to make safe and effective use of water and energy throughout the manufacturing process, bringing sizeable cost- and resource-effectiveness gains. And in 1999 Victor adopted an official 'sustainable' strategic challenge based on MBDC's Protocol, making sustainability one of the five core strategies to guide every aspect of the company's activities.

And while bringing the eco-effective polyester to market, Victor is also developing new products, process innovations, and partnerships as part of their larger Eco-IntelligenceT Initiatives. These initiatives include an exclusive arrangement to produce eco-effective Climatex® LifeguardFRT compostable fabrics, developed at another innovative small mill, Rohner Textil AG.

Victor's leadership isn't just about being 'green.' The Next Industrial Revolution will be fueled by prosperity, and Duval sees that as an equally important benefit of eco-effective design strategies. "Sustainability is not just about sustaining the natural environment but also about sustaining business. Doing better things will also become a financial benefit to Victor. It's the future of our company."

We think it's the future, period.

Previous Monthly Features:

May 2001, "The Five Steps to Reinventing the World" (Step 1: Free of...)

June 2001, "Positive Design Decisions in an Imperfect Market" (Step 2: Personal Preference)