As part of HX: The Hotel Experience, the trade show held earlier this month in New York, I moderated a panel discussion on innovations in the laundry and how one can benefit by saving energy, reducing water and chemical consumption, and extending towel and linen life. There was a lot of laundry experience represented on the stage that day. It was an honor to have companies like Water Energy Technologies and Laundry Consulting, Pellerin Milnor Corp., Xeros, Inc., and P&G Professional Business represented. These companies and a number of other ones that were at HX are dramatically reducing the environmental impact of hotels.
Admittedly, I have never worked in a hotel laundry or even worked in a hotel for that matter, but I have gotten a pretty good sense over the many years that I have been covering this industry that the laundry is one of the operational areas most prone to inefficiencies and dysfunctionality—and possibly even strangeness. I say “strangeness” because I remember attending one trade show a number of years ago where a company was selling a product that, when placed in the dryer, would shorten the dry time by 25 percent. I recall the product looking something like a clump of material with sand or something else inside. Perhaps you have seen similar products. The laundry is certainly an area where you should ask for proof before purchasing.
There certainly is significant potential for things to go wrong in the laundry. Equipment may not be calibrated properly. The chemistry may be off. The operator may not really know what he or she is doing, or really does but prefers to cut corners.
Inefficiency is Too Common
I asked one of my HX speakers, Bob Beddingfield, President, Water Energy Technologies and Laundry Consulting, how often he sees hotels over-laundering or improperly setting controls, which leads to waste. This is what he told me: “The honest answer is—ALWAYS! The wash programs run too long, use too many chemicals and too much hot water. The dryers almost always run too long. People are way too comfortable and too familiar with throwing the linen in, hitting ‘Start’ and walking away. It is not the responsibility of the laundry workers to identify inefficiencies in the process. They are too busy going about their activities to spend any time analyzing operations and it is not their place to do that. Laundry managers are often too busy to analyze the machinery and programs to identify inefficiencies such as over-drying and excessive chemical use because most of them have more to do than they have time to do it in anyway.”
“It is the laundry machinery provider’s responsibility to properly optimize the equipment—especially the dryers—and it is the chemical company’s responsibility to properly optimize the washers and wash formulas,” Beddingfield added. “Most always, when you optimize wash formulas and washer operation, you reduce the amount of chemicals you use….”
“It is best to hire an unbiased third party to come in and analyze your laundry operations to identify inefficiencies and waste,” Beddingfield said. “It is not easy to find someone who can do this because there are not many laundry consulting firms out there but it is worth it to seek them out and employ their services. Their advice will ALWAYS save you money and sometime a great deal of money over the long run.”
All Must Work Well Together
Running an efficient laundry operation certainly requires a team effort. The chemicals guy has got to get along with and communicate with the ozone guy and the equipment supplier, and the folks actually loading the machines have got to understand—in terms as simple as possible—how to run the machines most efficiently.
The laundry has the potential to be an intimidating place for different stakeholders. If a new technology—an ozone system or perhaps a machine that uses polymer beads—means using less chemicals, how will that impact the chemical guy’s sales? Perhaps even his job? Will others worry about their jobs if innovation results in more laundry being completed in less time? It is almost a setting for a TV drama.
There are indeed some revolutionary things happening in the laundry these days. Not that long ago you would not think about washing without hot water. Now, thanks to ozone systems, cold water chemistry, etc., it is becoming quite commonplace. Other innovations are removing huge chunks of carbon impact from the laundering and drying process. It is great to see.
Got a laundry story to share? I can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com, or by phone at (813) 510-3868.
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