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A Greener Approach to Laundry Starts with the Little Things

by Randy Radtke

True or false: Adopting a Green campaign is a huge undertaking requiring a major commitment of resources? False. Greening up your facility mostly requires preplan- ning and some outside-the-box thinking, especially when it comes to the laundry room.

"It's i m p o r t a n t for l a u n d r y managers and general managers ofthe property to have realistic ex- pectations," says William Bittner, national sales manager of the

Speed Queen brand of commercial laundry equipment. "That starts with the realization that tweak- ing cycles will never be a counter measure for old, inefficient wash- ers and dryers. However, if your laundry is modern and equipment newer, small adjustments can net significant savings and help make strides toward a Greener property."

Old, inefficient equipment can he a huge drain of laundry resourc-

es because it impacts everything, including staffing.

Equipment Tips A Greener approach in the

laundry s t a r t s with a few key equipment features on the wash- ing side, such as programmable controls, multiple water levels, and high G-force extraction. On the drying side, dryers should have a balance of airfiow, tumble action,

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GREENER APPROACH

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and heat. "A careful balance of the key

components of the drying process will be far more efficient that just a heavy Btu input," says Dave Phillips, national sales manager of the Cissell brand of laundry equip- ment, adding that, "many manu- facturers like to push high Btus as fast, efficient drying; however, without a balanced design, extra energy could just be wasted. A Green approach definitely doesn't include wasting energy."

To make the drying process even more efficient, managers should seek washers with high speed ex- traction of 300 G-force or higher.

"Fast, efficient drying obviously includes a quality commercial dryer, but more efficient drying actually starts with a washer-ex- tractor with super high G-force," says Kim Shady, vice president of distributor sales for the UniMac brand of laundry equipment. "One needs only to review the difference in water retention between a 300 G-force cycle and a 200 to see the impact of spin speed.

"For a laundry washing a 60- pound load of terry towels, mois- ture retention at 200 G-force is about 67 percent, compared to 57 percent at 300 G-force. This dif- ference can greatly reduce drying times," adds Shady.

With lower G-force, the gap can be even more dramatic. Going from 86 to 300 G-force can reduce the laundry's drying times by as much as 30 percent.

Shady, however, cautions that t h e r e are diminishing r e t u r n s when going above 300 G-force and managers should weigh machine cost a g a i n s t those r e t u r n s . A machine with 300 G-force can be economical and deliver the Green results the property is seeking.

Often, a Greener approach in the laundry starts with outside- tbe-box thinking. Some laundries have seen the benefit to upgrading

from a dated 75-pound single dryer to a stack 45-pound tumbler. The move gives the laundry more dry- ing capacity—90 pounds total with two 45-pound cylinders —in the same fioor space as a single unit. Laundries also benefit from faster drying times and reduced utility consumption when a 60-pound load is split between the two dry- ing cylinders.

"Some of our stack tumblers were originally designed for laun- d r o m a t s seeking more drying capacity in a smaller space," said Barry Christenson, national sales manager of Huebsch brand of laundry equipment. "Increasingly, we are seeing interest in the stack product from managers of on- premises laundries."

Still not convinced you should replace your 20-year-old, hard- working drying tumblers for more energy-efficient units? Consider that dryers account for roughly 70 percent of your laundry's energy consumption. It pays to be Green, and it doesn't take long before the savings offset the purchase price of new models.

Choosing the Right Formula Wash cycles, because of the vari-

ous steps and energy input, are an area where laundries can Green up very quickly with just small chang- es. For example, small reductions in water use in a 60-pound capac- ity washer-extractor, multiplied by the number of loads processed daily and multiplied out for the year really add up. That's where laundries that have washers with more than just the standard three or five water levels have a signifi- cant advantage in efficiency.

"Some might view features, such as 30 or more programmable water levels, as overkill, but in truth, this fiexibility enables laundries to fine-tune water consumption to the lowest level, while still maintain- ing quality wash results," Shady

Wa.s/i cycles, becaiitie of tke various step.'i and energy input,

are an area where laundries can Gr-een up very quickly with just

small changes.

says. Tailored wash cycles also help extend linen life.

In addition, managers must look even deeper than just fill levels. They also should be reviewing the wash formulas themselves that are being utilized for various loads.

For example, is your operation using a prewash step for all loads? This step is only necessary for the laundry's heavy soil loads, thougb many laundries make it part of every load. This can add 15 to 25 percent more water to the cycle.

Chlorine bleach baths are an- other barrier to a Greener laundry (oxygen bleaches and hydrogen peroxide are considered more environmentally-friendly). They are definitely not a requirement for all loads and add 15 percent more water into the cycle. Cutting them out, when possible, is a Green initiative not only for the water savings, but because they are hot water fills, the laundry reduces utility consumption because it isn't heating as much water.

Jim Mitchell, principal techni- cal support specialist at Ecolab, a leading supplier of laundry chemi- cals, says bleaching remains the key method for oxidizing residual

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4 Executive Housekeeping Today/May 2009

EXECUTIVE CORNER

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GREENER APPROACH

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during this tough economy, the As- sociation Office has implemented a salary freeze for all staff. Addition- ally, two other options are heing considered in order to save money. They are: 1) Give each staff mem- ber a week off this year, without pay or. 2) Have each staff member work an additional four work hours per week, without pay, for a 12- week period. This would reduce the need for part-time staff.

All cuts or reductions that have already been implemented, or that are presently under consideration by the IEHA Association Office, have been made in order to benefit YOU —the member! The money that's being saved hy our Office staff is able to be put back into the Association in order to provide YOU with additional benefits. Two excellent examples of those cost savings being put into use are: 1) The Association has the funds available during this difficult economy to put the highly-ac- claimed Self Study program online hy the end of 2009, and 2 ) We also have the ability to purchase the Housekeeping Channel® (www. housekeepingchannel.com t, which will further heighten awareness of the IEHA brand to the public.

I am very proud of our IEHA As- sociation Office staff and the steps they've taken to trim and hold our operating costs. If you'd like to express your thanks to our great staff, I encourage to you send them an e-mail at

stains, though many laundries may not be getting solid results in their bleaching process. One reason for an underperforming bleach cycle may rest in the laundry lowering the temperatures of its hot water to cut costs.

"The hot water temps in hos- pitality laundries are dropping rapidly... most are running in the range of 110 to 130 F (43 to 54 C) now," Mitchell says. "This is very ineffective for oxygen bleach. Chlorine bleach will perform bet- ter at lower temps, but far less effectively."

If a Greener laundry is the goal, it's important to work with your chemical company representative to fine tune wash programs and ensure you will not be sacrificing wash quality by adjusting cycles.

More Easy Fixes Sometimes it's easy for us to

overlook the obvious, and that's the case in the laundry as well. A fast way to conserve valuable resources is to maximize the capacity of your equipment. If staff is frequently under loading machines, obviously that translates into more loads throughout the day. Taking time to educate staff on what a "full load" looks like can help save water and utilities.

"Some controls on the market today can help managers identify if there's a prevalence of under loading in the laundry," Shady says. "Some of our new washer- extractors offers operations reports that track error codes such as out- of-balance loads," he adds.

Frequent out-of-balance condi- tions usually are a result of staff consistently underloading the washer.

Pretreating stains is another quick fix that can help the laun- dry reduce its water and energy consumption. Housekeeping staffs are on the front line in dealing with stains, seeing them before

the laundry staff. If they can pre- treat stains before linens enter the laundry, it could greatly reduce re-wash totals. Not only could that mean fewer loads daily and utility savings, but it may help scale back stafí time as well.

These are just a few tips that apply to the laundry. Certainly, when the property embraces the entire Green concept, other small changes can be identified to gener- ate additional savings and create an overall more environmentally- friendly facility. ^

Randy F. Radtke is a Public Relations Specialist far Alliance Laiindiy Sys- tems, located in Ripon. W/, He may be readied at randy.iadt/ie@alliancels.

Setting Up a Web Site for Your Chapter

A New Program Being Offered by IEHA July h 3009 ,

Are you ready to get started?

IEHA encourages its local Chapters to work with IEHA's Webmaster, Paul Rathey, to set up their Chapter Web site. The initial cost for your site is $250 with an annual fee of $50 for maintenance. Paul will handle the HTML basics, the domain name, the page template with proper logos, and all necessary links. In addition, Paul will make some recommendations forvarioustypesofcontent to include in your site's pages. By having Paul develop each ofthe Chapter sites, you can be assured that the aesthetics will be excellent and will show continuity and relationship to the overall IEHA site. If you are interested in working with the Association Office and Paul Rathey to assist you with your new Chapter site, please contact Sarah Larsen, Deputy Director at (800) 200- 6342, ext. 103.

Thanks so much for your consideration of this offer.

Beth B. Risinger CEO/Executive Director

12 Executive Housekeeping Today/fAay 2009