Q: HOW IMPORTANT HAve GREEN AND ENVIRONMENTAL considerations BECOME?
Bernard Jomard: The key points in laundry are water and energy consumption. The less water used equals less energy needed to heat the water, less detergent and less energy to dry the linen after washing.
Danube is able to wash one kilogram of linen with eight or nine litres of water, so we can save between 25% and 40% of water, detergent and energy.
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Ali Melhem: Environmental awareness has substantially increased among the hospitality sectors, being environmentally friendly and reducing ‘footprint’ is fundamentally key to sell our products and work with our partners.
Water and chemicals are critical elements to clean any piece of cloth and both are a heavy cost in the laundry business. With the focus on an environmental approach, hotels quite rightly enquire what type of chemicals do we use and how environmentally friendly are they?
It is obvious in the business environment that hotels and commercial laundries are working in the same direction on this fundamental culture change.
Henrik Mahaini: For some hotels, green and environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important. The hotels are aware of their responsibility towards the environment and use green as part of their image to attract guests.
The hotel industry is very competitive and it is important for the hotels to brand themselves in ways that makes them unique and one of those ways is by marketing themselves as ‘going green’.
Rajesh Menon: Since 2011 we have implemented the use of the high-efficiency low-temperature chemicals. These are phosphate-free and biodegradable in nature. We also introduced low pH per acetic based bleaches, reducing the wash cycles with one rinse, saving approximately 240,000 litres of water a month.
The temperatures are also lowered to 60 degrees instead of 75 thus saving LPG consumption. Battery-operated vehicles are used in place of petrol or diesel vehicles. Further, we have a ‘no plastic unless requested’ approach for our guest laundry delivery.
Pamini Hemaprabha: We encourage recycling of all our items likes hangers, eradicating plastic usage. With the cooperation of our engineering department we have proper water saving and recycling plants which helps us save lot of water consumption.
We will soon look into eradicating the laundry bill and incorporate it in our iPad system which will be implemented soon in guest rooms. It is always important to ensure proper stock of linen in laundry operations to ensure proper usage of chemicals.
At the hotel we have washing scales in place which are strictly monitored. We make sure that whatever the occupancy we never underload the machine, which helps us to save energy and chemicals.
Tom Marshall: ‘Being green’ is at the forefront of everything we do. Sealed Air and Diversey have been sustainability leaders long before it was fashionable but now, more than ever, it’s a critical requirement; consumers want reassurance that they are doing their bit for the environment and suppliers have an obligation to meet their expectation.
The world recognises that people’s actions today have implications for the future of our planet’s wellbeing but ‘being green’ also has a positive effect on a business’ bottom line; it’s a win win situation.
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