Quality Product Superior Service

Sunset Linen & Uniform is committed to reducing our impact on the environment.  We incorporate environmentally responsible practices in every aspect of our business.  All of our rentals can be laundered and reused many times over which in turn helps reduce our customer’s environmental impact.

Sunset continuously monitors production equipment and machinery to ensure maximum operating efficiency.  We regularly evaluate detergents, processes, packaging and products used and monitor their impact on the environment.

Over the past 30 years, we have made significant modifications to our facility and implemented methods to reduce the use of energy, water and consumables.  Here are a few of the conservation measures we have employed here at Sunset:

• Installed high efficiency lighting
  
• Installed and maintain a heat reclamation system.  We reclaim heat from our waste water to heat incoming water.  The system recycles water at 110 degrees
  
• Operate and maintain a Continuous Batch Tunnel Washer designed to reduce water consumption by 50 percent
  
• Our delivery drivers use handheld computers to streamlines their routes reduce fuel consumption
  
• Uniforms are folded to reduce hanger use by 30 to 40 percent.
  
• Hanger recycling to further reduce our hanger use by an additional 30 percent.
  
• Sunset recycles all textiles, as well as making charitable donations to help homeless shelters. 
  

We offer cost-effective, green alternatives to laundering in household washers or unregulated sites where untreated wastewater is discharged into the local sewer system.  Sunset helps reduce the amount of disposable products whose manufacture, packaging and distribution consume vast and valuable resources.  Consider the financial and environmental benefits of using:

• Cloth napkins instead of paper
  
• Cloth towels instead of paper
  
• Heavy-duty aprons instead of paper or plastic aprons
  
• Re-usable clean-up rags instead of paper towels or toss away rags
  
• Professional quality dust and wet mops instead of one time disposable mops.
  

As a member of Textile Rental Servcies Association (TRSA), Sunset participates in the Laundry Environmental stewardship Program (LaundryESP®) and sustainable laundering practices.

The LaundryESP® tells the story of the textile services industry’s positive impact on environmental protection. This voluntary pollution prevention and resource conservation program enables TRSA to facilitate the industry’s continued commitment to increasingly efficient use of natural resources. It is a cost-effective and flexible methodology for tracking improvement and creating more sustainable business practices.

Results compiled since 1997 demonstrate to the industry’s customers and regulators and environmental groups that textile service operations have made great strides in instituting company-specific initiatives that advance LaundryESP®’s mission. A wealth of data quantifies these improvements and proves that voluntary participation fosters individual corporate responsibility. LaundryESP® has helped members achieve significant reductions per pound of textile laundered since 1997 including:

• 24% reduction in CO2 emissions
  
• 27% reduction in total energy consumption, including
  
• 26% reduction in natural gas
  
• 9% reduction in electricity
  
• 75% reduction in fuel oil
  
• 81% decline in propane
  
• 30% in all hydrocarbon (production) fuels
  
• 10.9 trillion BTU reduced
  
• 33% reduction in gallons of water

Our business is naturally “green” with its reusable products and best practices such as the recycling of water, recapturing of heat and overall reductions in energy usage. The LaundryESP® program, developed with the EPA, demonstrates our industry’s commitment to sustainable operations.

Survey Results Attest to Efficiencies

The LaundryESP® Facility Data Survey of TRSA member companies produced the above results.  The most recent such questionnaire covered members' environmental performance from 2007 through 2009, crowning the accumulation of 13 years of year-by-year data on these parameters plus each facility's production (volume of textiles cleaned, jours of operation), wastewater treatmetn and discharge, sludge generation and management, and other variables.

LaundryESP® Member Roster

More than 800 laundry facilities have provided data for at least one of the 13 years the survey has spanned, with the number of responding locations ranging in any single year from about 400 to about 650.  For the most recent iteration of the survey, covering 2007 through 2009, 539 facilities provided data, many of which are part of multi-location operations represented on this roster.

TRSA and EPA: Allies in Resource Conservation

TRSA presents LaundryESP® results to EPA to demonstrate the industry's progress in resource conservation and pollution reduction.  Previous audiences within the agency have included officials from the Engineering Analysis Division, Office of Water; and Design for the Environment Program, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.  Collaborating with the agency on LaundryESP® also provides an opportunity to discuss issues with EPA representatives to ensure the industry is subjected to only fair, balanced environmental regulation.