Bob Cotton Praises CLS in BHA Blog
After doing us the honour of opening our new eco friendly factory, Bob Cotton then made us the subject of his regular BHA Blog.
NEW LAUNDRY PAVES THE SUSTAINABLE WAY
One of the major issues facing the hospitality industry at present is the question of sustainability. I was reminded of this when I had the pleasure of opening a £3.5m laundry facility operated by The Caterers Linen Supply recently.
The new laundry, which aims (but not exclusively) at contract catering companies uses 70 per cent less water and 25 per cent less gas and electricity than conventional laundries, minimises the use of plastics and packaging and significantly reduces ‘linen miles’ in its delivery routes.
All this has been achieved through careful planning and the introduction of new, highly efficient equipment to enable the plant to reduce energy costs significantly; it thus provides one of the most eco-friendly laundry operations in the UK. Can the hospitality industry match this? Some hospitality companies can certainly put up their hand, but if the industry as a whole is to reduce its energy dependability it will have to take similar steps if it is not to see its energy costs soaring.
Like laundries, hotels and restaurants are heavy users of energy, water and other utilities, as operators are all too well aware. Energy cost as a proportion of total turnover in the UK hotel industry has risen from 2.9 per cent in 2004 to 4.2 per cent in 2008 and it’s rising year-by-year. This figure is even higher in England (4.6 per cent) and highest of all in Wales (5.3 per cent) - the average only brought down by the fact that energy costs in London are lower because of the efficiencies of scale in the capital’s larger hotels.
Undoubtedly, some of this cost is still poured down the drain or burnt in the air. Refrigeration and air conditioning are both major sources of inefficiency and waste. Kitchens typically have stoves on for far longer than is needed; lighting and heating in hotels is wasted when unused rooms are kept heated, and when lights are left on unnecessarily; even water consumption in toilets can be reduced by switching to dual-flush models - push taps or taps with sensors also save water, as does fitting flow regulators.
Even food waste, an inevitable result of a catering operation (though are measures really taken to measure and reduce it to the minimum?) can be put to better use through composting; some contract catering companies have even installed wormeries in their premises to process food waste; others are turning used cooking oil into biofuel.
Catering operators can also encourage suppliers to play their part. The Caterers Linen Supply is an example of one supply company grabbing the initiative by reviewing every aspect of its service to make it as eco-friendly as possible. There are other examples that caterers already favour; the purchase of local produce reduces food miles; many suppliers are ensuring that their distribution schedules involve no wasted journey; caterers are also now insisting that suppliers’ packaging (a major problem for many large-scale catering operations) is reduced to the minimum.
These are the right steps in the right direction but I suspect that the tax and fiscal pressures on businesses to become even more sustainable will become much stronger in future years. We are now only at the beginning.
True, some solutions are expensive and may be uneconomic; on the other hand, many innovations, once installed, actually save money both in the short-term as well as the long-term. In a world where its natural resources are being used up at an unsustainable rate, the industry has to recognise that its consumption – necessarily heavy and sometimes conspicuously so - has to be restrained without damaging quality and standards. It can be done. If it is not, costs will rise even further.