Genuine green washing
June 23rd 2008

Miele’s company motto is ‘Immer Besser’, which means ‘forever better’. Most major manufacturers tote similar catchy brand slogans, but Miele UK’s Malcolm Martin says the firm wouldn’t have lasted 100 years without continuous improvement. Brendan Coyne reports

Miele’s green credentials stretch back many years,” says Martin. “On the professional side (laundry and warewash), we have always placed a high degree of importance on reducing water use: optimising water consumption has a knock on effect of reducing energy and consumables too; in that regard, we have developed a number of innovations over the years.”

By way of example, Martin claims Miele was the first to incorporate paddle style drum technology, whereby the water is scooped from the suds container and dropped onto the load. The result is only as much water as needed is used, saving water and therefore energy, particularly in higher wash temperatures.

Martin says Miele’s latest range of commercial machines have many more energy and utility reducing features: “Electronic controls provide up to 200 programmes or to customise programmes to suit individual requirements.

For example, if you want to reduce the amount of energy and utilities involved you can recycle the rinse water and re-use it for the prewash or main wash of the next load - which we’ve actually done for some while.”

Similarly, he says Miele’s tumble dryers can significantly reduce customer’s electricity bills – and save time simultaneously. ‘All our products feature electronic sensing, which detects the residual moisture content in the clothing and automatically stops the programme when that degree is reached. In a hotel environment, for example, towels need to be immediately dry for put away whereas flatwork which requires ironing requires a degree of moisture retention – and the machine fully controls that. In other words, it eliminates operator guesswork: if you had an operator using a timed dryer to do polycotton sheets, they might be dry in 10 minutes. But if the operator sets it for 20 minutes ‘just to make sure’, you’ve wasted 10 minutes of energy use, effectively doubling costs and limiting throughput.”

Lower wash temperatures are a simple way to reduce energy, provided cleaning efficacy isn’t affected, and Martin says users can now bring down the temperature on any programme, provided it is not a thermal disinfection programme. However, he says the company is working with its chemical partners on that front.

“Currently the department of health is still endorsing the thermal route for good reasons in terms of controllability. But in order to push the low temperature [and therefore energy saving] route, we’ve developed a special pump that will pump the low temperature liquid cleaning agent into the machine and prevent it from completing the wash cycle if, for whatever reason, the liquid isn’t delivered. Most dispensing pumps, should there be a problem with the supply line or the container is empty, will continue to pump air and will not interface with the machine to provide a failsafe solution – paramount in disinfection. I believe we are unique in terms of interfacing with the machine in that sense. It was developed for the dental market but works equally well with the laundry sector and beyond in combating C.Diff, MRSA etc., at low temperature.”

Martin says that while much of the market, particularly smaller independent groups, is focussed on functionality and bottom line, there are signs that a significant chunk has woken up to the fact that more energy efficient, ‘greener’ products equate to operational cost savings, and improved bottom line. As energy bills continue to rise, he says Miele has “every confidence” that the majority of the market will recognise the savings to be made.