When bedding technology has never respected so well what nature has given us!
Why sleep naturally
There is nothing more natural than a wool mattress.
The benefits of wool help both young and old sleep better.
And what if innovation in bedding also meant relying on the maturity of a traditional technology that has proved its worth over time.
Discover the benefits of wool for sleep.
The eco-design of bedding is not only good for the planet, it is also good for you, so that you sleep ever more comfortably.
Environmental impact is always part of our constant thinking about manufacturing and sourcing.
Our commitment, by offering natural and recyclable products, is to take part in the collective effort to:
- develop a local economy based on solidarity
- support reasonable and responsible consumption
- limit the impact on our planet
It is up to each of us, at our own scale, to set an example.
Faced with consumer demands on ecological issues, our products resonate perfectly with the dimensions of sustainable development, in 5 aspects:
- Eco-designed finished products
- Natural & recyclable materials
- Extraordinary durability
- 100% natural wool
- A local value chain
- Economic frugality
We respond to the challenges of fairer trade.
Ecodesign
The Le Briand workshops manufacture finished products that respect the principles of sustainable development and of the environment.
These products are handmade, made to measure and made in France.
Their manufacture requires very little energy:
- The raw material (sheep’s wool) is ready to use. There is no need to transform it, it only has to be cleaned before the bedding is made.
- Only a few operations are mechanical. Manufacturing techniques are primarily manual. No automation.
- Materials are worked with a concern for economy of gesture and a science of the right measure, with precise and regular movements, so as not to waste time, energy or resources.
- The production chain generates no hazardous waste.
The raw materials we use are healthy, sustainable and recyclable.
These characteristics mean that our natural French bedding saves the consumer money, with less waste generated right up to the end of the product’s life.
In the case of a wool mattress, for example, 99% of the material is reused during refurbishment. The only thing we throw away in a used mattress is dust! The ticking, for its part, can most of the time be reused as a protective cover when your new piece is delivered.
Given these extraordinary virtues, it seemed logical to set up a recycling program.
Natural, eco-friendly raw materials
Mattresses and box springs are made of entirely natural materials, with no industrial synthetic component.
- flax
- wool
- cotton
- untreated raw fir wood, from sustainably managed forests
- hemp
- horsehair
The cultivation of these materials causes little pollution and is not in danger of disappearing. On the contrary, wool grows again and again on the sheep’s backs, following a natural cycle.
The vast majority of them are also recyclable materials. They are fully biodegradable after use.
As a result, we are fully part of a circular economy.
We do not resort to chemical products in the way we manufacture.
No chemical or industrial process is required to produce sheep’s wool, for example.
The materials used in Le Briand bedding are free from products that are toxic to human health and to the environment.
The Le Briand workshops carefully select healthy materials produced by farms that comply with strict quality criteria as well as environmental and animal comfort standards.
We work with farms where the animals are not overexploited and are fed on grass and hay, with a low lambing rate.
The wool we use receives no chemical treatment before and/or after shearing, throughout the entire wool manufacturing process.
All conditions are met to offer you healthy, well-cared-for bedding.
Our materials therefore have a low impact on the environment.
Exceptional longevity
Experience, constant thinking about manufacturing techniques, meticulous selection of the best suppliers and more than a century of know-how enable us to turn out products in which the demand for quality is the guiding thread.
What is more, handmade, natural bedding is not thrown away, it is “refurbished”. The products come back to the workshops and leave them as good as new.
Thanks to this, our products enjoy a long service life, which can go beyond 60 years while keeping all their benefits.
If you think our bedding is nearing the end of its useful life, we have thought of everything with a recycling program to keep giving it value.
And who knows? The refurbishment of the wool mattress or the refurbishment of the box spring could save the day.
The lifespan of traditional bedding contrasts with the concept of programmed obsolescence, which is widely applied to industrial products.
Sustainable sourcing with 100% natural wool
Because of the nature and the proximity of our raw materials, making our natural handmade bedding is an environmentally-friendly cycle.
That is why we choose the best materials and the best producers.
Wool is a 100% natural and ecological resource, and an (almost) unlimited one.
It grows back naturally every year on the backs of sheep, which do very well with being shorn. The wool stock can therefore be replenished over a short period on the human time scale.
A local value chain
Our suppliers produce in France. The Le Briand workshops are located in Paris.
Materials therefore travel short distances.
These are products from local supply chains that we control.
- The wools are collected in central France, in the Allier valley.
- Our flax tow comes from Normandy.
- Our ropes, threads and twines come from Alsace.
- The nails come from the Île-de-France region.
- Our springs come from the Jura region.
- Our bed fabrics are woven in the Vosges and in northern Italy.
- Our jute fabric is produced in Seine-Maritime.
Our suppliers are small manufacturers, all with long-standing local roots.
We are therefore proud to have a supply chain that supports the national economy.
This creates a short circuit right through to the end consumer. And our customers are sensitive to these dimensions.
We are also involved in a number of initiatives to promote more local consumption, such as Près de chez vous.
It is through all these aspects that we actively take part in the development of a local economy based on solidarity.
We want to act at our own scale for the world, in the right way.
To begin changing it, we are convinced of the benefits of environmentally-friendly production and sourcing.
On an individual scale, this has a direct impact on the purchase price, which can be a deterrent for consumers, unless they consider the durability, the comfort, the adaptability, the preventive properties and the buying experience of such bedding. You might be surprised, and we are here to guide you along the way!
On a collective scale, sleeping on a Le Briand box spring means a planet less impacted by human activity, thanks to much lower environmental and societal costs than with other bedding options.
Economic frugality
In a world where fast consumption has long dictated our choices, economic frugality invites us to slow down, to think, and to give meaning back to what we produce and consume. It argues for quality rather than quantity, durability rather than the ephemeral, and the art of doing things with accuracy rather than with excess.
It is quite simply the art of using the resources already available on our own territory in order to reduce our carbon impact.
At Le Briand, this philosophy comes into its own with the wool mattress and the traditional box spring. Here, nothing is thrown away, everything is remade. These everyday objects become lifelong companions: repairable, renewable, transformable. When they reach the end of their cycle, the wools are reused, composted, brought back into a virtuous cycle, the very opposite of the throwaway logic.
The making itself follows this science of the right measure: no useless sophistication, nothing superfluous. Every craft gesture aims to minimize the expenditure of energy, to make the most of natural, French materials, and to create products that are desirable and responsible, particularly in our relationship with nature and with living things.
At the heart of this approach: people, through a straightforward craft know-how built on sharing; nature, respected in its rhythms and its resources; and the common good, through a business model that chooses durability.
Above all, frugality creates social ties: it pushes businesses to pool resources, to change the relationship to work, to collaborate, to produce locally.
It is a state of mind that our forebears had deep in their bones, and one that could help us rethink a way of living together in the service of France.