Story at a glance:
- Leading manufacturer Autex Acoustics is embarking on new, exciting research and development as part of its Autex Future Lab.
- Work at the Future Lab is focused largely not on products themselves, but the overall system products belong to.
- As part of this work, Autex launched Embrace—the first NaturePositive+ Declaration Product for the construction industry—in New Zealand.
There is no such thing as a sustainable material. Those are strong words from the creative director at Autex Acoustics, Jonathan Mountfort. What he means, though, is nothing exists on its own. Materials are part of a larger process, and this leading manufacturer is working to better understand and improve processes.
In April 2025 Autex Acoustics launched Autex Future Lab, a team on a mission to find and develop new possibilities for materials and systems. “We take an idea and we look at it from all angles,” Mountfort says.
One result of that research and development recently is Embrace, launched in New Zealand. “It’s a bio-based, 100% New Zealand strong wool acoustic system manufactured in a way that gives it stretch, acoustic performance, a beautiful finish, and long-term durability,” Mountfort says. Many woolen and natural products fell short before, as processing to get wool into a usable form often includes acids or dyes that may contain heavy metals, Mountfort says. Not so with Embrace. “We’ve also gone through that material with a fine-tooth comb. We’ve gone through it and made sure nothing is going to be detrimental once it returns to the environment ultimately at the end of its life.”
Autex Future Lab is rethinking systems themselves as well as how products may fit into a system. “We explore everything from biology and material science to circular economy models,” says Sam Wells, product development lead for Autex Acoustics. “Some of our work is purely exploratory, testing ideas that may never reach market, and some evolves into real, scalable products. At its core the Lab gives us the freedom to experiment and collaborate with partners who share that same goal, to remake the way we make things.”
The Autex Future Lab is made up of a diverse R&D team; material scientists, acoustic engineers, designers, and sustainability experts all work side by side. “Collaboration is everything. Each project balances acoustics, aesthetics, and sustainability, so having that cross-disciplinary perspective keeps us creative and accountable,” Wells says.
Exciting Innovation: Spotlight on Wool
Photo courtesy of Autex Acoustics
Wool is just one exciting focus area Autex Future Lab has explored. “Wool is an incredible material—renewable, durable, and inherently acoustic,” Wells says. “We’ve been exploring how to enhance its natural qualities through new processing methods and life cycle analysis. We’ve already achieved carbon-negative outcomes, which is a huge milestone, and now we’re focused on unlocking even more of wool’s potential for high-performance interior applications.”
Beyond how wool is processed, Autex Future Lab also dug deep into both its origin and its future. “We selected a single farm and measured everything—from the soil and the grass the sheep ate to how the sheep were treated,” Mountfort says. “We looked at the entire farming system, even including how much diesel went into the quad bikes.”
The Autex Future Lab team followed the entire process—from when the sheep are shorn and the wool becomes a fleece to the sheep continuing its life and co-products arising from shearing and wool processing. One of these biproducts is lanolin; this is essentially wool grease and is used in everything from beauty products to industrial lubricants, according to Mountfort. All matter that ends up on the wool is separated and sold to fertilizer companies, while the water used goes through a process to ensure it is discharged clean, he says.
We selected a single farm and measured everything—from the soil and the grass the sheep ate to how the sheep were treated.
“Most of those fundamental issues that surround natural fiber industries are being fixed,” Mountfort says. “At the end of it we managed to deliver a woolen acoustic product that has a carbon negative footprint. There’s more carbon being drawn down and embodied in the system than has been omitted by that product being made. That accomplishes a really good first step; it’s a blueprint for being able to replicate that process at scale.”
The Embrace Wool Felt called LumaWool was recognized with the GreenTag NaturePositive+ Declaration assessment, certified at a PLATINUM level NaturePositive+ Rating of 160%. GreenTag certified that the product uses more than 99.5% of renewable resources, with Autex Acoustics giving priority focus to the protection of biodiversity during manufacturing. It also benefits the environment with minimal negative environmental impacts and achieves high levels of product health that benefit human health and well-being along the product’s supply chains and beyond.
“The more we create within, the more we give back to the planet by enriching biodiversity,” Mountfort says. “It’s one of the world’s first carbon-negative, nature-positive materials, certified by Global GreenTag—and it all started with a simple question: How do we make this material the right way?”
Pushing Industries Forward
Photo courtesy of Autex Acoustics
In general Autex Acoustics has a goal to reach 92% post-consumer recycled content. Much of that comes down to refining fiber consistency and quality through R&D, building on the company’s RePET technology, Wells says. “We’re planning to expand takeback and reprocessing systems to close the loop, making sure products can be recycled back into the system. The challenge is scaling post-consumer content without compromising performance, and that’s what drives a lot of our experimentation.”
Autex Acoustics is piloting simpler systems for clients to return off-cuts and end-of-life products in their heritage market New Zealand, while investing in local reprocessing infrastructure in other markets. The vision is a true closed loop, Wells says, with products made from recycled content that can be recycled again. While freight is a big hurdle, he says the Autex Future Lab is determined to solve it. “Systemic change doesn’t just happen; we have to build it ourselves.”
There’s a huge demand for materials that perform well and meet sustainability or circularity goals, Wells says. “The Lab gives us a space to prototype and test ideas quickly so we can offer fast-track solutions to designers who are under pressure to deliver on those targets.”
The Lab gives us a space to prototype and test ideas quickly so we can offer fast-track solutions to designers who are under pressure to deliver on those targets.
“But beyond the product itself, it enables broader industry influence; it’s where large-scale transformation starts. We can’t remake the way we make things without it. The Lab means more opportunities to experiment, collaborate, and ultimately shift the entire industry toward a nature-positive future,” Wells says.
Autex Acoustics has been carbon neutral since 2021, and sustainability has always been part of the company’s DNA. The Autex Future Lab builds on that work, scaling fiber innovation and moving beyond zero toward nature-positive, Wells says.
“It’s about creating products and systems that actively regenerate, not just reduce impact.”
Just like products don’t exist on their own, Autex Acoustics, too, is part of a larger system, Wells says. “Collaboration is key. No one’s going to solve this alone. We try to be open with our process and data, sharing results in partnership with others,” he says. “Everything we design considers both present performance and future recyclability. We don’t gatekeep technology; we want to help uplift the entire industry.”
