Ecological Fibers

Environmentally sound cover solutions

DOING BUSINESS... THE ECOLOGICAL WAY

Ecological Fibers is the world leader in manufacturing premier, environmentally sound, cover and bindery materials for the book, stationery, packaging, and security documents industries. Through our water-based acrylic coatings and our innovative, sustainable technologies, we provide vibrant, solvent-free materials that highlight your projects through color and texture.

Designed with the fashion of authentic leather and textile fabrics, each product is manufactured under strict quality standards and in compliance with our customers’ highest expectations. Ecological Fibers' cover materials are 100% solvent-free, water-based acrylic coated, and available in an amazing variety of colors, prints, embossings, and decorative finishes. With our leading selection of clean, acid-free, lignin-free, Rainbow^® dyed-through kraft papers and our extensive capabilities for coating, printing, embossing, and converting, we welcome and are capable of supporting designers' budgeted goals. Our customers are located throughout the world and are supported by our global network of sales, manufacturing, and operational services.

Ecological Fibers' facilities and operations are committed to exceeding environmental, health, and safety standards. With more than 45 years of experience in clean manufacturing and water-based coating processes, we take pride in pioneering the growth of environmentally sound cover materials and are pleased to offer one of the largest arrays of premier sustainable cover materials to the book, packaging, and print industries.

MORE THAN 100 YEARS OF ROOTED HISTORY

Ecological Fibers was founded on the roots of Narragansett Coated Paper Corporation in 1972 by Stephen Quill. Started in 1905, Narragansett Coated Paper Corporation set the foundation and roots for Ecological Fibers, while heritage, experience, flexibility and innovation have propelled Ecological Fibers to being a global leader in the environmentally-sound manufacturing of covering materials and design solutions. Initially a distributor of binders' board and related book construction materials to the domestic U.S book manufacturing market, Ecological Fibers expanded to include the Rainbow^® line of premier FSC^®, acid-free, lignin-free, dyed-through kraft colored papers.

Early in the 1970’s, Ecological introduced a number of innovative buying practices that are now standard throughout the bookbinding industry, such as enabling customers to buy only the cover material and colored endpaper in the exact quantities and sizes needed for their job. Once a novel practice in the 1970s, this process is now the staple among the book binding industry.

These sales innovations came directly out of Stephen Quill’s years of experience working in the bookbinding industry. Ecological pioneered the process of cut-to-size board and covering products, with the idea of eliminating waste while reducing cost and turnaround time, delivering goods to the bindery customers in a ready-to-use format. Such practices, once foreign to the industry, forever changed the manufacturing business and reduced per-unit cost of waste in converting processes such as board cutting, paper trimming, slitting, and sheeting. Guided by this basic understanding; binderies' in-house conversion facilities were a cost to customers, while binderies' production facilities were a profit source for customers, and that Ecological could provide the converting at lower costs through improved operating efficiencies, we slowly grew to become a global leader in manufacturing covering materials.

GREEN PIONEERS

In 1979 Ecological Fibers expanded the Rhode Island Division, crossing the line from converting and distribution to manufacturing. Today, various globally known coated materials are made at our 135,000 sq/ft Rhode Island facility: bonded leathers, latex-reinforced papers, imitation leathers, coated papers, printed and laminated products, embossed products, etc.

When the Pawtucket facility became part of Ecological Fibers, Ecological was challenged with converting this site from an antiquated solvent-based operation to one that used no solvents, PCBs, carcinogens, heavy metals, red-label chemicals, or any other toxic components. In keeping with the Ecological motto of ecologically sound practices (a novel concept in the 1970s) Ecological developed water-based acrylic coating technology— the only environmentally responsible choice for the future. At the time, there were no guidelines for clean production nor any regulations for waste reduction in the industry. Ecological pioneered the way for the coating industry to make this important environmental and technological advancement. For more than 45 years our Rhode Island coating facility has undergone constant improvements and continues to lead the way into greener manufacturing.

By 1990 Ecological Fibers achieved optimal production as a 100% environmentally clean coating operation. For reaching this goal, Ecological Fibers was honored with an EPA award, Earth Day Certificate, and is recognized by the Federal government as an innovative supplier of solvent-free covering material.