Crescent Laundry Proves Commitment to Environmental Stewardship
Healthcare linen service Crescent Laundry, serving the Davenport, IA area for more than 100 years, has been certified Clean Green. The certification reflects Crescent Laundry’s dedication to standards for operational efficiency and sustainability.
Clean Green certification quantifies linen, uniform and facility services’ environmentally friendly performance by confirming an operation launders within TRSA-designated water and energy use thresholds; and verifies use of best management practices (BMPs) in line with the ASTM International environmental laundering standard.
Crescent Laundry’s customers can be assured their reusable healthcare textiles are washed, dried and finished with processes that maximize sustainability and reduce greenhouse emissions. Clean Green certified operations demonstrate significant commitment to conservation and green operations through these BMPs:
- Recovering heat from drained hot water and heat dispersed from the process of warming water
- Recapturing drained water from rinses for reuse
- Using environmentally friendly detergents
- Removing solids and liquids from wastewater
- Solar energy and energy-efficient lighting
- Recycling programs
- Re-routing trucks to save vehicle fuel
- Spill prevention plans
TRSA inspects laundry facilities seeking certification and approves documentation of their water and energy use and BMP deployment through production reports they submit to auditors during the inspections. TRSA’s certification management protocol includes auditor training by the association’s inspection program administrator.
Clean Green aligns with the ASTM International standard, Guide for Sustainable Laundry Practices, which recognizes key criteria for the certification as universal indicators of maximum sustainability in commercial laundry work. ASTM’s review of TRSA BMPs verified these as the most effective and practical techniques for a laundry to achieve green objectives.
TRSA members prompted development of the standard, which was vetted in the sustainability subcommittee of the ASTM Committee on Textiles. Top technical experts, scientists and environmental professionals from outside the linen, uniform and facility services industry reviewed the BMPs. ASTM is the global leader in developing and delivering voluntary consensus standards unparalleled in building consumer confidence in product and service quality.
“I applaud Crescent Laundry for their ongoing sustainability efforts and maintaining the highest standards in their production and delivery operations,” said Joseph Ricci, TRSA president and CEO. “Meeting all the criteria for certification is not easy, but the company is committed to industry-leading processes and technologies.” Crescent Laundry achieved Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification in 2014, proving their dedication to infection prevention through compliance with recognized industry standards for processing healthcare textiles as verified by onsite inspections and their capability to produce hygienically clean textiles as quantified by ongoing microbial testing.