Blog

“The Earth is what we all have in common.” In a year when our differences have certainly been on full display and we often need to be reminded we have more in common than what divides us, the quote from American author and poet, Berry Wendell feels even more impactful on this trip around the sun.  It’s why, since the beginning, our mission statement has been doing business without doing harm. It’s our goal to provide the best possible fabric care with the lowest overall environmental impact. It’s also why the month of April continues to be a landmark month for us. While our Network of over 2,000 dry cleaners worldwide spends 365 days out of the year working to minimize our carbon footprint, Earth Month brings us the opportunity to celebrate those accomplishments and lay out goals to improve upon them for the year to come.  Simply by choosing your local GreenEarth dry cleaner, you too are having a positive impact on our planet. Not only will your clothes and household items be cleaned in the most sustainable way possible by the industry’s leading best-in-class professionals, but you’re also extending the life cycle of those garments and reducing the amount of textile waste making its way to landfills. Because GreenEarth isn’t just good for the environment, it’s gentle on garments too, allowing them to look newer longer.  Start to finish, the GreenEarth Cleaning system marks off all of the boxes for sustainability and that is by no accident. From the environmentally non-toxic solvent at the core of the system, to working to reduce utility usage, to coordinating national clothes drives preventing landfill waste, our team will continue to improve our sustainability initiatives and leave a better planet for generations to follow.  So here we are, calling on you to join us in celebrating Earth Month by making a commitment to put an end to fast fashion and join the sustainable fashion movement. It can all start by making the decision to care for your textiles sustainably, using your local GreenEarth cleaner.

The days are growing longer, the temperatures are inching higher, and the flowers are blooming—spring is officially here! That also means it’s patio cushion cleaning time! After a long, cold winter, getting outside, soaking up the sun, and breathing in some fresh air is good for the mind, body, and soul. However, in order to enjoy your patio, a bit of prep work is likely involved. Your outdoor furniture may be looking somewhat the worse for wear after being in heavy usage the last warm season. But there’s no need to worry about putting in the time and elbow grease to refreshing your cushions when you can count on a GreenEarth cleaner for your patio cushion cleaning needs (and do it expertly, might we add). If you’re a regular dry cleaning customer, you may know that your cleaner offers professional services for household items like bedding, curtains, and table linens. Patio cushions are so often overlooked, though. These pieces collect dirt, dust, pollen, and even mildew in some cases, and they beg for the same TLC given to your interior fabrics. Numerous GreenEarth Affiliates provide specialty cleaning for outdoor furniture, tackling any stains and odors without the use of harsh or harmful chemicals. The GreenEarth Cleaning process is made up of just one simple ingredient—pure liquid silicone, or essentially liquified sand. It’s non-toxic and non-hazardous, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sees no need to regulate its use. In fact, liquid silicone is the base ingredient in many of the shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and cosmetics we use every day. And it’s better for fabrics too. Unlike petrochemical solvents used traditionally in dry cleaning, liquid silicone is chemically inert, meaning it doesn’t chemically react with textile fibers; it carries the detergent to fabrics and gently carries away soils. Items come back softer, brighter, and odor-free each and every time. When you entrust your patio cushion cleaning to a GreenEarth cleaner, you’re leaving them in the safest and most capable of hands. With the transformations we’ve seen over the years, we wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t even recognize your cushions after they’ve been cared for by the pros! Yeah, our Affiliates are that level of good. So, let’s get your patio ready for the warmer days ahead: search your nearest GreenEarth location here. Between cleanings at your local GreenEarth cleaner, there are a few things you can do yourself to maintain your outdoor furniture. Use covers when the furniture isn’t in use or if you’re expecting a heavy downpour. Should your cushions be left out in the rain by accident, shake or wipe off any excess water after it stops and give them time to air out. Make it a habit to sweep off any surface dirt and dust from cushions to keep them looking in better shape for longer. If a stain does occur, you can mix ¼ cup of mild liquid soap with 1 gallon of water. Work that solution into the spot using a sponge or soft-bristle brush, then rinse and pat dry. During the off-season, cushions are best stored in a cool and dry environment. Plastic bags shouldn’t be used, as they can trap moisture and cause mildew to develop. You can actually purchase special storage bags for your cushions that allow air to flow while keeping out dirt and pests.

It’s fair to say that 2020 and even 2021 so far have presented many complexities for the learning generation of today. Whether it’s a child taking their first steps into learning, or mature students starting a new career path.  Homeschooling and learning certainly have their place, but the consensus is that it is not a complete replacement for the ‘classroom’, especially as the transition happened so very quickly. At GreenEarth Cleaning, we’ve always made it our place to focus on the future generations as well as supporting the here and now.  If nothing else, we want everyone to know what ‘Sustainable Aftercare’ is as part of their growing up process, so that environmentally non-toxic alternatives are a “given”. This is why we will again be sponsoring the ‘Sustainability Award’ at the ‘Fashanne Awards’ 2021.  Fashanne is fronted by U.K. journalist and presenter Anne Davies and is considered to an awards program like no other. Connecting young designers with business, as industry leaders judge the work of finalists, drawn from hundreds of submissions made by university undergraduates from all over the U.K. The aim of these awards is, to be a platform for emerging talent, provide a viable route for employability, and engage with the very best designers of the future.  For the Sustainability category, GreenEarth will be looking for the submission that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to Sustainable designs, and for creative solutions that will lead to extending the life of the garment.  So often sustainable garments are a representation of sustainable production and giving guidance for end of life, but the ‘In use’ element can often be ignored. Pre-covid, I sat down with Anne to discuss our vision for the award for 2020; the same applies for 2021.  The main difference now is that there are lots of voices asking for a ‘Green Recovery’ for the economy following the pandemic.  Take a look at the clip here. It’s great to have the opportunity once more to engage with people who are just about to embark on their careers, which is why GreenEarth Cleaning is delighted to sponsor the ‘Sustainability Award’ for 2021. If you’re a university undergraduate with a passion for sustainable fashion, visit their website here.

It is no secret that most people have spent an enormous amount of time in their homes the past twelve months. With a pandemic and record cold temperatures, families have been snuggled up indoors for what feels like an eternity. Good News! Spring is just around the corner and so is warm weather and long-awaited vaccinations. What better time to rid yourself of the winter blues and lingering germs than a full “green” spring cleaning? Experts advise that you tackle spring cleaning in small amounts so you are not overwhelmed. A great start is sanitizing your garments and upholstery, using your local GreenEarth cleaner. Click here to fin the GreenEarth cleaner nearest you. It is difficult to see the germs, dust, and food that builds up on furniture and clothing through time. Sanitizing with GreenEarth will awaken your senses with fresh air, soft touch, and a clean look of the pristine fabric. All of this is accomplished with an incredible silicone-based solution that is proven to be safe for you, your clothes, and our planet. The feeling of cleanliness will boost your productivity and mental positivity. It will help remote employees focus more on work and provide the office environment necessary for success. At the end of the day, when you’ve completed your spring cleaning, you can take pride in your belongings and know that you achieved it all while using a healthy, environmentally safe choice with GreenEarth Cleaning, the only truly sustainable way to clean clothes and your household items like; comforters, linens, curtains, rugs, upholstery, and tablecloths. So call your GreenEarth cleaner today and ask them about their household services.

The significance of diversifying your business has never been more prevalent than it is in the current state of our global economy. We’ve witnessed businesses around the world—not only in dry cleaning but in all retail spaces—dependent on over-the-counter sales with no other source of revenue, forced to shutter their doors. It’s an unfortunate case, but it’s the reality of the situation. Those businesses that quickly adapted and diversified—if they were not already—have in large part been able to weather the storm.  In the early weeks of 2020, prior to the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus, GreenEarth partnered with a Brooklyn suit retailer, 9tofive. This partnership of course was slowed down due to public restrictions, but we’ve continued to grow our partnership and have introduced relationships between 9tofive and several Affiliates across the country, providing an opportunity for additional revenue for 9tofive as well as our Affiliates. The service offered by GreenEarth Affiliates for 9tofive customers is the tailoring of the suits purchased online, as well as one dry cleaning paid for by 9tofive.  For years, alterations have been an excellent method for diversifying your business, reaching a new audience, and optimizing your existing customers’ spend. Even through this past year, many of our Affiliates have reported alterations as one of the contributing factors in their ability to remain open and bring customers to their store. Whether those customers have purchased items online, they’re getting married, they’ve gained weight, they’ve lost weight, or maybe they’ve saved some money this year and have acquired some high-dollar garments they want to fit perfectly, there is a need for alteration services.  We recently spoke with GreenEarth Affiliate and the owner of Kingbridge Cleaners in NYC, Richie Aviles. Kingbridge operates a large, upscale tailoring business as a part of their store. Richie shared some of his thoughts with us in regard to his tailoring business. “Being able to provide pickup and delivery and having different types of customers through TV shows and hotels were all things that saw us through the pandemic. But alterations were also a huge part of that. Dry cleaning pieces unilaterally changed in volume, but the tailoring business was interesting because people weren’t buying clothes, they were sitting at home wearing Lululemon. Maybe they were gaining or losing weight, or only shopping online and unable to buy the correct size. So naturally, their next stop was to the tailor. I don’t want to say that our tailoring business was gangbusters. Volume dropped off significantly, but tailoring sales have really helped through COVID as contributing to overhead. Even prior to COVID, we have certain customers that come to us because we can tailor and clean their garments; we’re a one-stop-shop. Having all your eggs in one basket is incredibly dangerous, having multiple means of income hedges your risk. Diversifying our business has allowed us to be very positive for what the future will hold.” Understandably, we’ve all experienced the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty. The question of “how do we get through this?” has been front and center in everyone’s mind. There’s clearly no one simple answer to that question, but from the thousands of conversations we’ve had with GreenEarth Affiliates over the course of the last 10 months, there has been a common theme around those cleaners who have been able to weather the storm, and that is finding ways to diversify your business in order to drive some sort of revenue. 

Here at GreenEarth Cleaning, we’ve long championed that every day be celebrated like it’s Earth Day. So it’s only fitting that when the planet-loving holiday does officially roll around, we make a pretty big to-do about it. In 2019, we kicked off our inaugural Earth Day Clothes Drive to commemorate GreenEarth’s 20 years in business. A total of 140 U.S. affiliated retail locations—from Connecticut to Colorado to California—opted into the effort for the month of April and racked up a combined donation amount of more than 20,000 pounds, which benefitted Big Brothers Big Sisters as well as other regional nonprofits. At our headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, we partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kansas City and local taproom Bier Station for a one-day clothes drive event that diverted over 2,000 pounds of clothing from the landfill. Textile waste has and continues to be a pressing issue across the globe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that it occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space. However, the EPA also reports that 95% of all textiles have the potential to be reused or recycled—yet the current rate is only 15%. Through our Earth Day Clothes Drive, we hope to bring awareness to this disparity and initiate change, starting with our very own Network and their customers. We had planned to continue our clothes drive in 2020, but we could not in good conscience move forward with the event during such an unprecedented time. Although, we didn’t let that stop our sustainability mission entirely. Over the past year, we’ve still collected clothes at our home office in hopes of accumulating an especially large contribution for 2021. Denim brand Lee has helped us with that effort by already making a sizeable donation to the cause. We’re inviting all GreenEarth Members to join us once again in reducing textile waste and make an impact within the communities they serve. Clothes will be collected at participating Affiliate store locations, with donations to charities of choice happening on or right around April 22. For those interested in learning more about the 2021 GreenEarth Cleaning Earth Day Clothes Drive, please contact affiliatesupport@greenearthcleaning.com.

Historically blackout and lined curtains have been a problem for manufacturers, customers, and cleaners alike. The wrong fabric combination and a lack of aftercare testing instruction can lead to using an incorrect cleaning method. Dunelm had been working hard on a sustainable and robust care solution and approached GreenEarth Cleaning to provide context and insight from our perspective.  In partnership with GreenEarth affiliate Johnson Cleaners, we looked at the construction of the range and devised a testing plan that would compare the most commonly used forms aftercare (Perc, Wet Cleaning and GreenEarth) versus a control. The results were extremely favourable towards GreenEarth Cleaning and then began the process of Dunelm recommending GreenEarth Cleaning on the care label.  Our marketing team was able to offer design support to look at labelling options, to provide designs to Dunelm’s chosen labelling company.  We recommended to Dunelm that they display the (F) care symbol, as this automatically recommends a gentler and milder cleaning process. We also added some wording that encouraged the customer to use GreenEarth, alongside our logo and the website address for our global store locator. So, if you see Dunelm curtains with the GreenEarth logo on the packaging and the care label, you know these are the ranges that have been tested by GreenEarth Cleaning and Johnson Cleaners. This was then followed by a project meeting involving the GreenEarth Cleaning Team, the relevant fabric technologists, and representation from the Dunelm marketing team.  We collectively wanted to make sure that the messaging went beyond the care label.  This meant making sure that customers understood what GreenEarth cleaning was and how to access it and also that the Dunelm colleagues were equipped to deal with any queries from customers. This has resulted in in-store and online communications pieces, outer product packaging, as well as colleague briefings. Now, GreenEarth Cleaning is recommended on the labels of all lined and blackout curtains. And what’s more Dunelm customers can currently get 10% off curtain cleaning using GreenEarth Cleaning via Johnson Cleaners. https://www.dunelm.com/info/about/how-to-care-for-your-curtains

As 2020 has come and gone, most of us are looking back on it as a year we’d like to soon forget. For most industries, business took a hard hit. State departments recorded record-high numbers of American citizens filing for unemployment. Hospitals around the world literally ran out of space. Family gatherings, vacations, concerts, and shopping outings were canceled. Oddly enough, it took no time at all for folks to realize social media and virtual web applications, the technology that has been largely accused of the demise of human interaction, was in fact our most personal means of communication and the only way for small businesses to reach their customers. It’s safe to say that 2020 was the most pivotal year in any working adult’s life. Cocktail hours amongst friends were taking place in their own separate living rooms. Grandma was able to watch her Christmas gifts being opened through a camera on her phone. Businesses were using state-of-the-art technology to conduct meetings, training, collaborating on projects, and communicating with their customer. People were forced to adapt to a new normal and our primary coping mechanism was technology and social media platforms. We saw countless stories of neighbors, including many GreenEarth Affiliates, stepping up to make a positive impact in their community through food drives, clothes drives, offering free services to first responders, and any other number of good deeds. The movement to support locally owned small businesses experienced a massive push. Communities were truly pulling together to see each other to the end of this pandemic. It warmed our hearts to see these stories and was the reminder of humanity we all needed to see. Without social media, how many of these stories would have gone further than those directly involved?  Understanding where our audience is, we’ve assisted dozens of GreenEarth Members in creating a strong online presence, using social media platforms to build relationships within their community and grow local awareness around their brand. Now more than ever, social media marketing is an integral part of operating a business. If you’re a GreenEarth Affiliate reading this, you can learn more about how our marketing team can assist you here.  I say all this simply to say—2020 was rough. But together we got through it, and we’re stronger for it. We’ve learned how to make some major pivots in our work and personal lives, and we’ve realized how important it is to support our local communities. As much as we’d all like to forget the year that was, maybe it’s vital we never do. All the same, cheers to 2021, may it be filled with smiles and laughter.

The holiday season reminds us all that there are great businesses all around us and giving back to the community. Shop locally, it makes for unique and thoughtful gifts. Showing your support to small, local businesses can be done in many ways. Writing an online review, engaging with their social media, and of course, purchasing their products or services are all great ways to do so. So you’re on board to shop locally this year, but you don’t know where to start. Here are some tips to find great presents that support your community at the same time. Talk it Out A great place to start is asking the people in your life if they have a favorite go-to spot in town. We put a great deal of trust into what our friends recommend and let’s be honest, we do this because they usually have great taste! One great experience leads to many new opportunities for a business so if you find out about a place, go ahead and pass it along as well. Take a Drive We know going into physical stores might not be your cup of tea this year, but a good way to explore what your town has to offer is making a tour inside your car. Of course, if you’ve loved going downtown and already know the best spots, we always encourage you to window shop locally as well. Most small businesses are offering curbside pickup options and your GreenEarth dry cleaner might even offer pickup and delivery so you can safely receive products and services from your local shops without stepping inside. Head Online Looking at your local newspaper or publications for recommendations is also a great starting point. Most articles you can find will actually list gift ideas for you: the best gift card deals, the best gifts for Mom, etcetera. What could be easier than that? Think Outside the Box Give the gift of no more laundry this year! Taking care of a loved one’s garments is what your GreenEarth cleaner is here for. Get in touch with your local dry cleaner and see if they are offering gift cards or schedule a pickup for a family member. These gestures mean a lot to the people in your life and, you guessed it, that small dry cleaner appreciates it a whole lot too. Find a GreenEarth cleaner near you.