How do we save water?

There are a number of ways in which we save water. It starts with the raw material choice. By supporting the Better Cotton Initiative, we help improve cotton farming in Pakistan. BCI-farmers save about 17% water compared to non-BCI farmers. In our manufacturing facilities, we reduce water consumption through our waste-water treatment plant. Though we reduce water in several ways, including those we just mentioned, the percentage reduction of 25% that we report is based on a professional textile services company versus On Premise Laundry comparison. On Premise Laundries use between 11-25 liters of water per kilo of linen washed whereas professional textile services companies uses, on average, 8,2 liters of water per kilo of linen washed. Our comparison is based on 11 liters of water used by OPLs versus 8,2 liters of water used by professional textile services companies. This shows a 25% reduction in water use when hotels choose to outsource their laundering service to professional textile services companies.

Source: ETSA WECO Survey 4, 2015; Gooijer, Henk, and Rainer Stamminger, 2016

How do we save CO2 emissions?

Hotels can choose to launder on their premises - for instance in the basement - or outsource the laundering to professional textile services companies. When outsourcing linen management to professional textile services companies, hotels save up to 30% CO2e emissions, previous life-cycle-analysis shows. Why is that so? There are 3 main reasons. First, professional services firms use the most effective equipment such as tunnel washers or continuous batch watchers. The majority of hotels are not able to install such equipment on their premises because the premises are not big enough. Second, professional services firms have a greater load factor - this is core to their business. The higher the load factor, the less ressources you need to use per kilo of linen and the more effective you become. Third, professional services companies are run by people with deep laundering expertise. The know-how flowing into optimal programme setting and continuous optimization is core to the everyday job.

Source: Professional laundry service or On Premise Laundry (OPL) and home washing, 2017

How do we reduce microplastics?

All textiles release fibres when washed whether cotton, polyester or other material fibres. Microplastics stem from polyester fiber release. And it is a problem that we work hard on solving. We have developed a textile technology called BeirTex®, which reduces microplastic effluent by 40% compared to good market standard polyester-cotton linen. The reason for the reduced microplastic release is that the BeirTex®-technology relies on a yarn spinning method where cotton is spun around a polyester core. Compared to conventional spinning methods, where polyester and cotton is just intermixed, the positioning of polyester as a core means that less fibers are released during washing.

Source: The latest facts and research on microplastics from textiles, 2019 press release from Beirholm\'s Vaeverier

How do we measure transparency?

To produce a duvet cover, we go through 4 general production stages:

1. Cotton farming & ginning (score weight: 25%)
2. Spinning & Weaving (score-weight: 25%)
3. Bleaching & Dyeing (score-weight: 25%)
4. Cutting & stitching (score-weight: 25%)

Since we mainly work with vertically integrated manufacturers, our High-tech Manufacturing icon, which you will find on our mapping tool, spans all the production stages from spinning till stitching (stage 2-4). We are therefore able to disclose 100% transparency from manufacturing to your hotel room. Further, we currently can map out the major ginners from where our cotton is purchased. Based on our weighting methodology, we estimate that we have an overall transparency score of 85%. In the future, it is our goal to increase transparency to include cotton farmers as well. This is a huge and complex task due to the amount of smallhold farmers - in Pakistan alone, there are approximately 1.5 million.