Category: blogs

Maximized Sustainability – End To End By: Ron Benjamin

In most cases, the measure of sustainability is straightforward and addresses one step in an overall process. For example, in the dry cleaning business, people often consider the solvent in which the garments are washed as a key determination as to whether or not this step is sustainable as it relates to the environmental safety profile of the solvent.

However, a holistic view requires considering all of the steps in an end-to-end process and how each relates to people, the planet, and the on-going profitability of the entity involved. In most cases, while one step may be more sustainable than that of alternative ways to perform that step, other steps in the process may be less sustainable so that overall the end-to-end steps of the process may not result in the maximized sustainable result.

Amazon is an unusual example of changing not only the way the end-to-end steps of a process are optimized, but also of redefining the entire end-to-end steps of a process in an entirely new way. A perfect case in point of this unusual example of redefinition is their recent purchase of Whole Foods.

Given their distribution network and the way Amazon is repositioning the logistics associated with the “last mile” in delivering products to their end users, most observers saw their purchase of Whole Foods as a game changer in the grocer industry. The stock capitalization value of most traditional grocery store chains declined while the stock value of both Amazon and Whole Foods increased when this acquisition was announced in June. Certainly from a view regarding the on-going profitability/sustainability of the traditional grocery store chains, most assume this change will negatively affect the long-time traditional chains and believe more and more consumers will opt for Amazon’s grocery offering over the coming years.

And as it turns out, one can argue that it is not only the profitability piece of sustainability that Amazon will be affecting, but given the change in logistics, the effect on the environmental piece of sustainability will also be affected since less driving of individual cars and more delivery via a logistics network will put less carbon emissions into the atmosphere. And with that goes a positive effect on the human health piece of sustainability as well.

Measuring the sustainability effects of change is difficult when all aspects of the change are considered. However, we at GreenEarth always try to look at our dry cleaning technology in this holistic way and believe we can demonstrate to all who want to know that our GreenEarth Cleaners are delivering the maximized sustainability solution in our industry. We are even more proud that many outside our industry, including garment manufacturers, garment retailers, landlords, and regulators, agree with us as demonstrated by their requirements for the use of our GreenEarth technology. We pledge to continue our efforts to find ways using new technology to become even more sustainable for those we serve.

Green Heating Sees Red By: Garry Knox

The right kind of heating today is a global issue with many impacts. Not just in terms of its efficiency from an environmental point of view but as prices rise, a cost perspective too.

Lots of new ways to provide energy have been seen in the last decade from solar panels to wind farms, but how can homes and businesses get the best use of that energy, when heating comes into play?

Born out of Yorkshire, England but set to be a global phenomenon, FunkyHeat provides style led infra-red heating with energy efficiency built in.  The Award Winning heaters look great as customers can personalise their own heaters if they choose (Photos, logos etc.) but they are also very smart in the way that they work, saving energy when the world needs that more than ever.

Infrared heaters can provide the same comfort levels at lower temperatures than convection heat. Convection heaters will require a third more energy to heat a room and is likely to see higher heat loss caused by draughts than infrared heating, therefore infra-red heating has less wastage and less energy use.

In 2016 FunkyHeat won the GOLD award from Designer Kitchen and Bathrooms for Innovation in Sustainability, whether for home use, an office or a store that’s got to be good news for the planet and utility bills.

For further information, please visit their website

The GreenEarth Platform of Responsible Sustainability By Joe Blaha

The advantages of a chemical solvent over water based methods of cleaning textiles were discovered in the 1800’s when the realization that stains that would not come out in water would come out in turpentine.  Dry cleaning (cleaning without water ) was born and from there continued to evolve.

It is hard to imagine how that this early process was performed pleasantly or safely, as turpentine is extremely flammable, has a strong unpleasant odor and is highly toxic if inhaled.

Over the years other solvents with fewer negative attributes have come and gone.  The early 1900’s saw the widespread introduction of the more economical but still highly flammable petroleum based Stoddard solvent.

The Stoddard solvent has such a low flash point that it was the cause of many fires and explosions in these early plants.

The next carbon based solvent, perchloroethylene ( perc ) was widely adopted in the mid 1900’s as it had no flashpoint, reducing the fire hazard and had a more aggressive cleaning capability than Stoddard. It was soon to become the solvent of choice for the dry cleaning industry.

This honeymoon with “perc”came crashing down in the late 1900’s with the widespread advent of site and ground water contamination lawsuits, the sky-high costs of remediation and the realized health concerns of occupational and co-residential exposure. Landlords often saddled with the cleanup costs increasingly rejected leasing to dry cleaners which has led to the introduction of many new alternative solvents.

GreenEarth liquid silicone solution which is not a carbon-based solvent, was introduced to the industry in 1999.

Now eighteen years later, it still stands alone as the only non-regulated dry cleaning solvent available commercially to the industry. The largest of the operators of shopping centers in North America , including Kimco and Regency, will only provide new leases to GreenEarth Affiliates based on their environmental concerns for the other new and still carbon based alternatives.

GreenEarth Cleaning has never stopped enhancing and promoting additional operational and environmental benefits, that are available to its Affiliate network.

Along with the GreenEarth solution used to process garments in the dry cleaning machine, the GreenEarth Cleaning System has promoted the elimination of regulated spotting chemicals and additives commonly used openly in the workplace of those still operating on the carbon/petroleum based solvent platforms.

Available to GreenEarth Affiliates now, are a proprietary suite of viable and environmentally friendly spotters and additives that are designed to safely optimize the capabilities of its unique silicone chemistry.  Couple that with the list of benefits that are offered by the activated clay cold purification process which include utility savings, less additive use, excellent cleaning performance, the best solvent mileage, shorter cycle times and a cooler plant environment, there is no more sustainable or lower cost dry cleaning system available to the industry.

With GreenEarth Cleaning the opportunity to claim “Maximized Sustainability“, the theme of this year’s Las Vegas Clean Show presentation, is a reality!

 

It’s Classic Cleaners again

Out of the business for the past eight years but with more than 20 years of experience in dry cleaning, Janice C. Gray relaunched Classic Cleaners on Northside Drive East near Walgreens in March.

“It’s been really interesting. I’ve had some of my old customers come back,” she said. “This one gentleman came around one morning and I stepped out the door and he asked, ‘Are you back here?’ I said ‘I am,’ and he said, ‘I am so glad to see you. I know my clothes are going to be taken care of now.’”

Gray first got into dry cleaning, also under the name Classic Cleaners, in 1991 with a shop in the Gentilly Square shopping center, then home to Winn-Dixie. When Gray learned that the site on Northside Drive was for sale, she purchased it and had the building purpose-built for dry cleaning. After some setbacks with getting the building ready, she moved Classic Cleaners into it in 1995.

She grew her dry cleaning customer base under that name and in this same location for 14 years before selling the business, but not the building, in 2009. The first buyers, from Savannah, kept the Classic Cleaners name but were more interested in having a door-to-door cleaning business and moved out of Gray’s building after one year, she said.

They took the equipment with them. As Gray explains, when a dry cleaning business is sold, what is valued in the sale is mostly the equipment and the “book of business” or customer base.

Other business owners then leased Gray’s building, invested in new equipment and operated there under the name The Greener Cleaners for seven years. But that company moved out at the end of 2016, leaving in place the equipment, which Gray bought from the bank that had financed it.

Read full article here.

Sustainable Living – More Than Just Recycling By: Aaron Newport

Sustainable living consists of more than just recycling and it is a warm feeling to see so many businesses in nearly every industry taking positive strides toward a sustainable planet for future generations. Of course our focus is typically the dry cleaning industry and fashion industry, as those are the industries’ carbon footprints that GreenEarth Cleaning is dedicated to minimizing. However, sometimes the work of another organizations stands out as going above and beyond the call to action from corporate responsibility. Leesa is a company whose mission is one GreenEarth Cleaning is excited to share and happy to stand beside.

Leesa is a mattress company, but they are doing much more than selling an innovative mattress. What grabbed our attention was their contribution, which they deliver 3-fold. Their 3-part contribution consists of donating one mattress to a homeless shelter for every 10 mattresses they sell, planting one tree through the Arbor Day Foundation for every mattress they sell, and donating their time and resources to support causes they believe in. Those are all values we can get behind.

GreenEarth Cleaning shares the ideals and values of Leesa. And we are happy to support their cause. Check out their awesome mattresses here!

Global Names Sign Up To Circular Fashion System By: Garry Knox

Global brands including H&M, Adidas and Marks & Spencer have signed up to a The Call to Action for a Circular Fashion System at the recent Copenhagen Fashion Summit presented by Global Fashion Agenda, the summit organisers.

Earlier in the week, ahead of the Summit, Global Fashion Agenda, in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, published an in-depth assessment of the fashion industry’s environmental and social performance – the first edition of the Pulse of the Fashion Industry report.

The 139-page report shows that there is still long way to go in terms fashion sustainability, scoring a mere 32 out of 100 points; small and medium-sized firms, which represent about half of the market, have done little to improve their performance. The report is the first of its kind to ever use data from the HIGG Index, the world’s leading standard in measuring sustainability performance crated by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, of which GreenEarth is a member.

The summit’s nine-hour programme was kicked off by sustainability leader and co-founder of the Cradle-to-Cradle movement, William McDonough, who proclaimed that “being less bad is not being good“. The nine-hour programme also included more than 50 high level speakers, including,  circular economy authority Dame Ellen MacArthur and Hugo Boss CEO Mark Langer.

Summer sustainability! In dry cleaning? By: Ron Benjamin

What’s the best way to take care of your summer wardrobe while at the same time taking care of the planet? And to enjoy extra time this summer?

In the minds of many consumers who care about doing the right thing for their linen, silk, cotton, poly, and other summer clothes, washing by hand or in a delicate washing machine cycle makes the most sense. And yet, studies have shown that cleaning and pressing using the GreenEarth process not only extends the life of garments, but because nothing goes down the washing machine drain into waste water treatment plants, it’s also easier on the environment.

The added bonus of not having to do the washing and ironing at home while at the same time having perfectly finished light and bright summer favorites makes summer sustainability even better! Bring us a few of your favorite items so that we can show you first-hand how summer convenience and summer sustainability go hand in hand.

Clean Without Compromise By: Joe Blaha

GreenEarth Cleaning is a true pioneer in enabling the dry cleaning industry to move away from the stigma, costs and health concerns which have resulted from its previous history of having to rely on solvents from the petrochemical family.

For over twenty years, the industry has responded by moving away from the widely adopted petrochemical “perc “ . This shift has been driven in large measure due to the financial concerns of expanded regulations, discovery of multiple sites with soil contamination and recognized health risks.

This movement away from perc was initially enabled by the introduction of newly formulated hydrocarbon based solvents that were positioned as an affordable and a less risky option but unfortunately have not eliminated the environmental and health concerns associated with petrochemicals.

GreenEarth is the only dry cleaning solvent that is not regulated by the EPA and the only solvent currently specified as an option in leases by major shopping center landlords such as Kimco and Regency Centers.

In 1999, GreenEarth was introduced to the industry commercially and has proven itself to be the unquestioned leader in promoting environmentally non-toxic and non-hazardous dry cleaning with retail outlets in over 40 countries.

Because only GreenEarth is not derived from the carbon back-boned family of chemicals but instead has a unique “inorganic organic” classification as pure liquid silicone, there is no need to offer superficial qualified marketing endorsements, often characterized as “ green washing “.

The use of wording in advertising that make claims of “ organic “or “ environmentally friendly “ dry cleaning should alert the savvy consumer that the process employed at that location most likely dry cleans with a petrochemical solvent.

GreenEarth customers concerned with supporting the most sustainable, gentle and safe option are offered a solution to their dry cleaning needs that requires no compromise.

It was with pride that GreenEarth Cleaning registered the service mark “ Improving the Fabric of Life “ and is fully invested in maintaining that commitment without compromise.

The path to a more sustainable fashion industry is forked; what the consumer can do in making more conscious purchasing decisions must converge with an industry that is determined to make these decisions easier and more readily available.

No matter what we’re told, by and large the fashion industry is not ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability. The fashion industry is still the world’s second largest polluter – second only to the petroleum industry. Many of the big brands’ environmental policies can be criticised as being damage control more than anything else; great for PR but largely ineffective when it comes to solving the real problem at hand.

However smaller, independent designers, with sustainability at the core of their brand from day dot, are becoming more widely available. The idea of ‘shopping small’ has benefits beyond supporting small business, and often comes with positive environmental impact.

If only smaller brands had the marketing budgets of the giants. Many of these fashion forward eco warriors are largely unknown to the average consumer. Arguably, a smaller supply chain contributes to their ability to remain true to their sustainable business practises, eradicating the need for fast, mass production.

The ability to have a conversation with the manufacturer at the point of purchase about where products are sourced and how they’re made is a huge benefit of shopping small. Markets such as the famous Brick Lane and Spitalfields in London or Glebe and Rozelle in Sydney are filled with hand crafted, eco conscious wares, made and sold by artists who are available to give honest answers about their processes.

Caring For Clothes – The International Guide By: Garry Knox

The back story of this Technical Handbook goes back about over 10 years. The Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry (ASBCI) has published a couple editions and has been working in partnership with GreenEarth® to produce the definitive international guide.

Caring For Clothes from the start of a garment’s life in the design stages, through to many years after it’s sold, is one of the most important impacts on a garment manufacturer’s life and indeed the consumer. What happens in the testing process and what is placed on the label can have many ramifications for the retailer, the dry cleaners and the consumer, with the consumers sometimes waiting for matters to be resolved, holding onto a garment that has been damaged.

This technical handbook is now available for retailers, manufacturers and dry cleaners to buy on the GreenEarth website.

Caring For Clothes covers everything from Care labelling systems to Cleaning and from Garment Assessments and Sustainability. You can view the full contents pages on our website.

GreenEarth® would like to thank the ASBCI, and in particular Malcolm Ball, for their assistance in getting the handbook published.