Everyday decisions for the environment

Each of our employees takes care of Lindström’s impact on the environment. At our laundries, the textile care workers make dozens of decisions that affect the consumption of energy and water. For instance, when choosing a suitable washing programme for textiles. In the same way, we constantly make decisions that effect the amount of textile waste we generate and the quality of our products. 

The most significant environmental impact in our business operation comes from the laundry process. This process consumes energy, water, and detergents. In addition, transporting textiles from customers to the laundry and back causes emissions. Most of the energy use in the laundry happens when heating up the washing water and to finish the textiles. We are constantly working on the development of energy efficiency. Heat recovery from the wastewater and the air from the dryers improves our energy efficiency significantly. Thus, we have installed heat recovery systems for many of our laundries. 

The product to be washed and its degree of dirtiness affect both the amount of water required and the quality of the wastewater produced. We always aim for efficient water use by recycling water at various washing phases. We can use rinse water as a washing water for the next batch. In rinsing, we always use clean water. 

Washing hotel textiles generates the cleanest waste water, and washing mats and industrial wipers generates the dirtiest water. If we cannot direct the wastewater to the local wastewater treatment plant, we will treat the water in our own wastewater treatment plant before putting it into drainage. 

“Changes in the distribution of our products affect our water consumption. One example is the increased amount of industrial wipers in washing, Therefore, our aim to keep up with previous years’ consumption levels per kilo of textiles washed is a challenging goal for us, and we are doing a lot of work to make it happen,” notes Sini Rajala, who is responsible for issues concerning the environment.