A Green State of Mind

Steve Burgess
Laundry Service Team

Milliken & Company holds ourselves accountable to our global community for the impact we have on Earth. We call this ECO 360. For over a century, we have worked to reduce our environmental impact and make positive contributions to the communities in which we do business.

I think my mom taught me some of the same values in her own way. She lived through WWII in Germany and had to deal with rationing and other difficulties from the war. Her choices of words to me were to "not waste things" and to "use things until they were worn out or useless." And that meant handing down items like toys and clothes if they could still be used by others. In today’s green terms, her advice would translate to reduce, reuse, recycle and sustainability.

As a member of Milliken's Table Linen team, we have tried to add these values into our products, from accountable manufacturing to designing sustainable products that help the end users reach the same goals. One Signature Plus napkin can replace an average of 300 paper napkins over its lifecycle. It also saves water and chemistry and energy in laundry processing; because of their design, they do not have to go to the dryer before ironing. Did you know a dryer is one of the largest energy users?

At Milliken, we are ISO14001, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, and certified carbon negative by the Leonardo Academy. If you want more information you can look into all these credentials, but most people ask, ‘what does all that do for me?’

I believe people are becoming a little bit more conscious about their impact, like my mom's basic values of not wasting things. Diners, chefs, and linen suppliers are beginning to appreciate the efforts toward sustainability.

What do you think would be the impact on patrons dining decisions if they realized a certain restaurant was practicing sustainable methods? Most skeptics will argue that price trumps green. In some cases it may, but let's say the choice comes down to two equally priced restaurants. Except, one is dumping paper napkins into the landfill like they are trying to increase the town’s elevation! And the other has a reputation and maybe even a certification for sustainable practices. They are renting Signature Plus reusable linens. What if these linens are certified to be Carbon Negative? ‘Carbon what?’ Negative, meaning we capture and offset more carbon dioxide than we emit. We actually capture 10 times more CO2 than we create globally. That's more than 10 million metric tons of it every year.

How? By capturing CO2 through the trees we plant and nurture in Milliken forests (over a million a year). By offsetting it through the use of alternate fuels. By conducting energy audits, reducing consumption and conserving energy. We earned our status the hard way, not by buying carbon credits.

So, back to the restaurant decision. Which one would you pick? The paper mountain builder or the guy doing their part to be a sustainable business? Hey, unless the food tastes like a tree, I'm going with the guy using Signature Plus and not killing the trees. I think my mom would advise me to do the same!

If you are interested in pursuing ECO 360 sustainability certification, contact the Milliken Table Linen team for more information.

Steve Burgess
Milliken's Laundry Service