Sometimes the questions you ask guide the decisions you make.
At Naturepedic, the question we asked from the start was How do we make a safer,
healthier mattress for babies? This question was based on a non-negotiable tenet that would drive company growth: our products would be designed with child safety in mind, no exceptions.
With that focus of purpose, deciding on materials and design became directed and
logical. We knew, for example, that we didn’t want phthalates and PFCs in our
mattresses. Furthermore, our question led us to rule on the side of safety: if a material was questionable at all and there was a healthier alternative, we would leave it out.
Our guiding question led us to certified organic materials as one of the best paths to
chemical safety in our products. Through certified organics we not only had greater
control of what was in our products, but we also gained a way to authenticate our
products to the consumer.
Staying true to a guiding question, however, meant developing creative solutions. Look at waterproofing. A safer, healthier mattress meant a waterproof product; a nonwaterproof crib mattress didn’t make sense, organic or not. We looked at the best
technology and materials available and decided to use food grade polyethylene. By
looking for the safest solution, we made a potentially different decision than if we had
simply said we wanted to make an organic crib mattress.
Our biggest challenge came in meeting flammability standards, a tricky business. We
did not want questionable flame retardant chemicals but also did not want to use wool, a potential baby allergen (again, safety). Using less flammable materials helped us in this goal, but it took perseverance and a number of clever redesigns to finally meet this goal, which we did.
Our unwavering commitment to product safety paid off, winning us more awards than
any other crib mattress manufacturer in the country. We’ve built a successful business model with sustainable materials and business practices, allowing us to expand beyond cribs into adult mattresses, but we reached there by committing to a core principle based on health and safety.
