Erik van Loo's innovation: Snurk bedding

Lying dormant since John and Yoko's bed-in, duvet-led activism is back. When Erik van Loo found himself unemployed he wanted to start something new that raised money for vulnerable members of society. In particular he was moved by the fact that "only one in 10 Dutch homeless youngsters can be given a roof over their head and a structural solution". Next, he picked up on a casual observation by his partner, Peggy van Neer, 33, about how boring most bedding was. "We realised the best thing about a white sheet was that it was the perfect canvas to put a message on," he explains. They developed their ideas into two designs: a cardboard box-printed duvet cover (Le-Clochard) and a mattress printed to look like a pavement (Le-Trottoir). Snurk – meaning "to snore" in Dutch – was born. The point of Snurk wasn't just to introduce a new design for the hell of it, but to challenge consumers to confront the issue of living rough. Over the past three years Snurk has raised almost £50,000 for SZN, a Dutch foundation for homeless youngsters. The money has been invested directly into youth shelters, including financing the decor of a new hostel for homeless teenage mothers. "We're really excited about investing in live-learn-work projects," says van Neer. "We've joined up with housing corporations in different Dutch cities to run one-year projects with the goal of getting homeless teenagers off the street." In the UK, Snurk works with emmaus.org.uk . Van Loo and van Neer have big plans: "We will keep going until the whole world sleeps under our bedding and homeless youngsters all have a safe place to go." For more information, go to snurkbedding.com Email Lucy at [email protected] or visit theguardian.com/profile/lucysiegle for all her articles in one place