The Environmental Benefits Of A Sustainable Laundry Service

Both domestic and commercial organisations must consider the impact they are having on the environment - this includes laundry facilities. Some people will only do laundry on an individual basis at home or at a laundrette, switching to a lower temperature or choosing short cycles to try and reduce environmental impact.

However, for the hotel industry and other commercial sectors, laundry is a huge logistical operation that is very demanding in terms of a range of resources. Here at Stalbridge Linen Services, we are committed to providing sustainable industrial laundry services for our clients. 

Read on to find out more about the importance of sustainable linen and laundry services.

How Industrial Laundry Services Impact The Environment

As a modern business, a commercial laundry service of any size will have a notable carbon footprint. Stalbridge Linen Services is dedicated to reducing our impact on the environment through our sustainability promise, The Johnsons Way. The three main areas of concern for sustainability in the laundry industry are:

Energy

Laundry machines, especially those on an industrial scale, use large quantities of electricity to run the main drum of their washers and dryers, whilst energy is also used to wash at high temperatures, which is a particular requirement for hygiene standards.

In order to reduce energy consumption and costs, commercial dryers must be able to handle large load sizes whilst drying them in the most timely manner possible. Older drying machines are prone to the leaking of hot air, becoming clogged with lint and wasting energy with inefficient drying techniques.  In today’s market, modern dryers are designed with a number of features that can have a huge impact on the efficiency of your commercial drying.

An important factor when operating any commercial laundry process, over-drying can quickly drive up energy costs and consumption, as well as greatly reducing the life expectancy of your linen. Fortunately with improving technologies, over-drying is rapidly being eliminated. 

With over-dry technology, the dryer will automatically determine the moment your linen is dry, wasting little to no energy compared with a traditional dryer. This will not only increase the productivity of your operations, but it will also benefit the environment, capping your energy consumption and raising your efficiency.

Chemicals

Whilst you can choose to use less harmful chemicals for your laundry needs in the home, commercial laundry services often rely on predetermined detergents and fabric softeners for their washing. These can pose an environmental hazard when released as wastewater.

Water

More obviously, linen and laundry services working on a large scale use huge quantities of water every day. As the climate crisis develops, water resources will become increasingly scarce, with reserves battling droughts and contamination, meaning any overconsumption of water is already a cause for concern.

Water-saving technologies can be a key component to becoming a sustainable linen and laundry service, allowing higher levels of washing to be carried out and using significantly less water than standard machinery.

Commercial laundry operations can utilise industry washers with more water-saving technology than a standard domestic washer, typically taking advantage of large continuous batch washers (CBWs) and industrial dryers. It’s believed that CBWs will use up to 60% less water per pound of linen than a conventional washing machine, meaning less energy is used to heat water, reducing energy consumption dramatically.

Commercial Laundry Services & Circular Economics

So what’s the solution for commercial laundry and linen suppliers? For this kind of big business where resources produce a large waste output, one option for sustainability is to adopt a circular economy model.

Our current economic system is linear, in that we take resources from the earth to make products, which results in ever-accumulating waste. A circular economy tackles this problem by eliminating waste production and recycling resources. This system also encourages a switch to renewable energy sources, whilst breaking the link between economic activity and the overconsumption of finite materials.

This process involves retaining the intrinsic value of products and materials by circulating them when they are at their highest value point. This works within two different cycle types:

Technical cycle - where products are recycled, repaired and remanufactured

Biological cycle - where products biodegrade to enrich the earth through processes like composting

The circular economy model also encourages commercial producers to support the regeneration of nature, through the preservation of natural resources, and a reinvestment into our threatened landscapes.

Circular Economics In the Commercial Laundry Industry

For industrial linen and laundry services, implementing this model means conserving excess water for the next wash, refilling detergent containers, and using reusable or washable storage for clean and dirty laundry.

Some services will also pioneer a switch to more eco-friendly machines which run on renewable energy or have a low energy usage system. Washing at a lower temperature will also reduce energy consumption, with industrial laundry services finding alternative detergents that wash to the same hygiene standards at a cooler level.

Energy-efficient machines can automatically adjust water, spin and heat levels depending on the weight and quantity of laundry, helping to maximise energy efficiency.

These changes to laundry service operations will benefit the environment in a number of ways. These include:

• Reducing waste production
• Protecting local water reserve levels
• Removing the risk of water contamination
• Lowering the carbon emissions of the business

The Future Of Sustainable Laundry Services

Industrial linen and laundry services are known to consume energy and water, as well as producing waste. As such, a huge amount of investment has been made into technological add ons, where in future we will all be switching to increasingly eco-friendly laundry practices.

Some of the technological solutions currently in the works include:

• Microplastic filtering - most fabrics shed microplastics in the wash, which damages the biodiversity of our water systems.
• Technology to locate and only wash stained areas - this would limit water overuse from a full wash.
• Using ultraviolet light to break down stains - new technologies can kill harmful bacteria in a more targeted sense than general laundry.
• Clothing fibres that don’t produce microfibres - innovation in clothing production could stop microfibres at the source.
• Fully biodegradable detergent products - this would prevent toxins from ending up in water systems and are already becoming more readily available.

Widespread Benefits Of Greener Laundry Practices

Commercial laundry is a major part of the hotel and restaurant business, and so a commitment to switching to greener practices will have a positive knock-on effect on the wider sector as a whole. 

For instance, switching to practices that limit overconsumption of natural resources and excess laundering will change the way that hotels deal with their laundry products, whereas sustainable practices will save companies money in the long run, whilst reducing the carbon footprint of each area of the industry.

Once eco-friendly laundry practices have been implemented at a commercial level, it will be easier to encourage and develop small-scale sustainable practices for domestic laundry purposes, where big corporations can pave the way for real change on an everyday basis.

Hotels and other businesses can spread their green messages to their customers to ensure everyone is working to protect the environment. This would include asking guests to only request extra towels or bedding if they need it, rather than this being the default.

Widespread implementation of circular economics will also ensure that everyone benefits from the recycling of resources, making production cheaper and more efficient in many areas.

Stalbridge Linen: A Sustainable Linen & Laundry Service

At Stalbridge Linen Services, we’ve made a bold commitment to four major pillars of sustainability in order to future-proof our business and protect the environment. This is ‘The Johnsons Way’, our innovative strategy to ensure sustainability is incorporated into every aspect of our business, whilst projecting forward towards long-term goals.

Read on for a breakdown of our four key pillars, and what they mean for the future of our business.

Our Family

At Johnsons Stalbridge, we are committed to maintaining employee experience across our services, guaranteeing a range of opportunities and support to safeguard the future success of our company. This part of our sustainability promises includes looking after the health, safety and well-being of our employees, visitors and others who are impacted by our operations.

By 2030 we aim to develop an effective quality, diversity and inclusion programme, as well as develop our Academy to provide life-long learning and career paths.

Our World

This pillar outlines our understanding of how resource-intensive our linen supply and laundry services can be due to high levels of energy and water usage. We are working to implement a system of circularity to improve our environmental impact, whilst encouraging other businesses to be more eco-friendly through our implementation of linen-for-hire systems.

We are also invested in a consideration of our wider environmental impact, where we are working to protect biodiversity and limit deforestation practices related to our supply chain. We are committed to reducing water consumption by 25% before 2030, as well as reducing waste to landfill by 75%, reducing Scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions intensity by 40% and eliminating single-use plastics.

Our Integrity

We recognise that we must hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards in order to meet our own goals for sustainability and customer satisfaction. We are working to align all our current processes with these requirements, whilst continuing to consider how we can improve.

One way we are doing this is through the implementation of our Sustainable Purchasing Policy, where we aim to transition towards the use of fully sustainable eco-friendly products and processes by 2030, whilst preserving total transparency concerning our sustainability performance.

Our Communities

At Stalbridge, we have a long history of reinvesting in our local communities. We invest in social impact schemes to give back to our customers, and to ensure our operations are fuelled by healthy and thriving structures.

We utilise monetary donations and make the most of our employee’s talents and interests to support local enterprises and invest in projects for change, resulting in tangible improvements.

Reliable & Sustainable Linen & Laundry Services

At Johnsons Stalbridge Linen Services, we provide a range of services to launder your commercial linen, working at a professional level with hotels, restaurants and kitchens. We are committed to our sustainability pledges and are always looking for ways to make our business more environmentally friendly.

In addition to our laundering capabilities, we also offer a range of premium linen products as part of our linen hire services, supplying everything from chef wear to bathrobes. This can be sent directly to you through our reliable delivery service, with our fresh thinking and flexible approach meaning you won’t be locked into a contract.

If you would like more information about how we can support your business, then contact us now, or submit a free quote enquiry today.