On my blog this week I am featuring an exciting up and coming mattress brand, Una Organic. This mattress company uses only 100% certified organic materials, each mattress is Fair & Social certified and they are one of only a few mattress brands that have a negative carbon footprint helping to fight climate change …. and some are adjustable to adjust the firmness on each side of the mattress! I caught up with founder Roger van der Matten to find out more. Welcome Roger!

Hello! My name is Roger van der Matten. I am  Dutch, 46 and married with 3 children and the founder of Una Organic. For my sanity I love spending time with my wife and kids and to be out in nature jogging and walking and I also do yoga.

What inspired the founding of Una Organic?

I noticed that mattresses are the single largest home product that is made of non-recyclable fossil fuel foam, glues and (poly) micro plastic shedding fabrics and 7 million of them end up in landfill in the UK every single year. I also noticed that the one-mattress-suits-all concept of current (internet) mattress brands wasn’t really designed with the customer in mind.

What is the most popular mattress/product in your range? 

The Una Organic Delux adjustable mattress and our Organic adjustable pillow are the two most popular items in our range. Although the Organic Essential mattress, kids mattress and extra soft topper are not far off.

Your mattresses are made of 100% certified organic materials – including using strictly organic certified latex.  What are the advantages of using organic mattresses?

The advantage for our customer is knowing guaranteed through independent certification) you are sleeping on a mattress that doesn’t contain and off-gas VOC’s, fire retardant chemicals and other nasties that you end up breathing in. The advantage for our planet is that organic certified materials are renewable, biodegradable and sustainably grown without the use of biodiversity killing pesticides

Your mattresses can be adjusted for firmness – including on each side of the mattress. Was it difficult to design a mattress to suit everybody’s preferences? What made you decide to make an adjustable mattress?

There are many internet mattress brands that claim their mattress suits everyone but in reality this is not the case. With Una I set out to create an adjustable mattress which solves two issues. The first issue is that partners sharing a mattress often have different preferences and needs. With Una they don’t have to compromise and each can have their own firmness within one seamless mattress. The 2nd issue is that our needs change. We may need a different firmness during pregnancy or with a (sports) injury or back pain. With Una you have an incredibly long lasting mattress (lasts as long as 3-4 cheap synthetic foam mattresses) that allows you to easily change the firmness at any time.

Firm or soft – do you have a personal preference for your own mattress?  

My Una has the medium firmness on top, soft in the middle and firm on the bottom.

Each Una Mattress is also “Fair & Social Certified”.  What does this mean? 

Being certified by CU Fair Choice is a guarantee that companies are committed to sustainable development and the improvement of social conditions, meeting the demands of a growing number of environmentally conscious consumers.

As Una Organic is based in the UK, are your products available to purchase and order worldwide?

Una Organic is based in the UK and Germany and available across the UK and Europe.

Have you always wanted a career in mattress making/designing, or did you have ambitions elsewhere?

My passion is to grow a company that has a positive impact on its staff, customers and the planet which is why Una is a member of 1% for the Planet, pending B Corporation certified, Climate Neutral certified as well as Fair Choice certified.

Personal now – what outfits and shoes would you normally be found wearing?

Casual clothing. I like Esprit who offers many clothing items made from more sustainable organic cotton. I just bought a pair of vegan leather boots from them too.

Do you have any favourite shops or online sites?

Esprit, Able & Cole.

What’s next on your clothes/shoe wish list?

A new ski/snow jacket and trousers 🙂

Boots or Shoes?

Boots in winter nice and dry and warm. Flip flops in the summer.

Links you would like to share e.g. website/facebook etc so that readers ncan find out more about Una Organic.

For EU readers www.una-organic.com for UK readers www.unamattress.co.uk on FB and Insta @unaorganic.

Fabulous to chat to you Roger! I never realised what a difference there was health wise between a synthetic mattress and a natural one!

Linda x

All photographs have been published with kind permission of Roger van der Matten ( apart from the Pinterest photo, which was taken by Linda Hobden)