Cleaner and Greener One Gallon of Water at a Time

Freshwater is the most essential natural resource to sustain life. Yet over a billion people in the world lack water for daily needs. In addition, severe water shortages are growing in the United States and around the world. At Sodexo, we depend on an abundant and clean supply of water for a variety of our business functions and water scarcity impacts pricing, supply and the health of our employees, customers and clients.

Part of Sodexo Health Care’s division is Laundry Services, which provides commercial cleaning to hospitals and other clients across the country. The division is constantly looking at innovative ways to reduce its environmental footprint.

That’s why we are proud that Sodexo was recently recognized as a 2010 winner of the CIO 100 award for the enterprise wide use of customized computer software which allow us to streamline our laundry operations. CIO is a well respected magazine and website geared toward chief information officers and other IT leaders.

The software we are utilizing assists in several ways. First, and most importantly, it reduces our impact on water supplies; but it also provides great value to our clients, as well as our bottom line.

For example, the system has identified opportunities to decrease water use at one facility from 1.7 gallons per pound of laundry to 1.3 gallons per pound. It doesn’t sound like much, but over the course of time it has cut more than $67,000 from the water bill.

In Buffalo, New York, similar water reduction efforts are expected to produce an annual savings of $24,000.  In addition, in drought-plagued Phoenix, Arizona, with the addition of special equipment and an innovative water recycling program, Sodexo saves 94 million gallons of water each year compared to a conventional laundry facility. These processes have also allowed Sodexo to reduce the natural gas costs by about $40,000 annually, because the facility requires less heat to bring the water up to a proper washing temperature. 

We are proud of these accomplishments, especially since they fit right in with our Better Tomorrow Plan, which is based on a continuous commitment to improve our environment. Building a better tomorrow may be a big challenge, but when it comes to the Sodexo team, behind every challenge is a determination to overcome it.

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