August 2020

Don’t put your dry cleaner in a box! They can help you clean a lot more than just those “dry clean only” items. Give your everyday wear the same love that you do your work attire with wash and fold services. Think about how often you change what you’re wearing – your working from home attire might look different from your running errands outfit versus your loungewear when the day’s over. And kids change their clothes often too, especially with back-to-school routines starting up again. Rest assured, the weight of laundry doesn’t need to fall on your already busy shoulders. Cue the perfect solution to save you time and effort. Wash and fold services make it easy for you to take care of the laundry. Sorting your clothes, washing, and folding can all be taken care of by a GreenEarth Affiliate. They’ll sanitize and disinfect your garments so they are safe and soft on your skin and ready to be worn again. And for those garments that need dry cleaned, GreenEarth is a non-toxic cleaning system without harsh chemicals or odor. So it’s ideal for sensitive skin and comfortable for kids and adults alike. When you’ve got a lot going on, trust a GreenEarth Affiliate to cross laundry off that to-do list with wash and fold. Find an affiliate near you here.

PSA: Staying in your PJs all day isn’t the most motivating work from home attire. Pajamas and bed are typically associated with one another, and when you’re wearing the same clothes you slept in, your brain will stay in that bedtime mode and lack the productive drive needed to do your job effectively. Getting dressed for work absolutely sets the tone for the day ahead, especially when you work from home. Plus, under current circumstances, it’s pretty likely you’ll be joining in on some video calls. You should look the part. You don’t want others to see a disorganized room behind you when you turn on your webcam, so why should your outfit be any different? And this isn’t a waist-up suggestion, either—we’re talking shirts, slacks, the whole getup. You don’t have to wear a full-on suit (although, you might want to if you have someone to impress), but wearing something you’d normally wear into an office and combing through your hair is certainly a step in the right direction. Aside from what you’re wearing, how you wear your clothes is equally as important. A clean, crisp, and freshly pressed dress shirt or blouse goes a long way. Ahem, your local GreenEarth cleaner is the one for the job! And because our Network of Affiliates clean your dry cleanable items in a proven environmentally safe system, there’s no worry of color fade, shrinkage, or damage to even the most delicate of fabrics. GreenEarth is also odorless, so while your garments are dry cleaned, they won’t come back to you with a dry cleaned smell. Have we convinced you yet to sharpen up your look for those work from home Zoom meetings? Get started by finding your nearest GreenEarth cleaner using our Store Locator. Tips for taking care of your business clothes: Give your garments room to breathe. Cramming clothes in an overly full closet can create wrinkles as well as wear down sensitive fabrics. Button buttons and zip zippers! If left undone, your garments’ zipper teeth and/or buttons can easily catch on other items in your closet and result in damage. Always make sure to secure these fasteners before putting clothes away. Don’t cut hanger straps out of tops or dresses—use them to reduce stress on the rest of the garment. Hang suit jackets on wide wooden or padded hangers to help them keep their shape. If you wear a belt with your work pants, take it out when hanging them back up. Even if you plan to wear them again the next day, leaving the belt hanging in the loops weakens the fabric.  Tie and untie with care. While pulling on the thin end of your tie through the knot may be the quickest and easiest way to get it off, you run the risk of permanently misshaping the fabric. Follow the tie-tying steps in reverse to remove it and ensure it lasts. Don’t let items sit in plastic garment bags. Over time, it can trap in humidity, thus attracting mildew.

How much does a Sustainability strategy underpin the overall business strategy? During the financial crisis of 2008, those businesses that survived had reviewed their operational practices with a keen eye. Headcount was reduced, recruitment was frozen and discretionary spend had to be reduced to create a reasonable bottom line. At GreenEarth Cleaning, we would be talking to manufacturers and brands about promoting green dry cleaning on their care labels, and although there was no cost to this, sometimes the answer would be something along the lines of “as much as we’d love to, sustainability isn’t a priority right now, we’ve got to save our business.” Realistically, this was a sign of not being prepared for the crisis rather than not being on board with sustainability. As a result, many brands leaned from this and have taken steps towards a greener recovery, ensuring that Sustainability IS business. The signs have been there with the increase of sustainability roles, and also the integration of sustainability led objectives built into core roles. There has also been the advent of different organizations that focus on sustainability and ethics topics, performance measurement, and key initiatives. Different organizations have held conferences that have focussed purely on the topic and some events where sustainability has featured on the agenda. The topics within events have also been diverse, from sustainable garment aftercare to modern slavery to leather garment production. A survey carried out by Drapers in 2019, gave an excellent insight into the state of play in terms of the company’s actions, requirements from government, and consumer expectations. It stated that 91.6% acknowledged that their customers are showing a growing interest in environmental issues, whilst also acknowledging that to achieve a more sustainable product (and all that involves), the consumer will have to tolerate more expensive prices to achieve the common goal. Brands and manufacturers still have a way to go in terms of creating focussed sustainable ranges, but they are on the increase, with brands also including a higher proportion of recycled materials in the product and packaging. Encouragingly, over 80% of respondents believe that sustainability is important to the senior leadership team and just under 60% said that their firms are investing more into sustainability compared to the previous year. There is a focus on how the government can play its part. One of the main features is about education, with the possibility of ensuring that alterations and repairs skills feature heavily on the national curriculum. Certainly, a large amount of the skills provided to businesses who offer these services, come from other parts of Europe. How these U.K. skills gaps are filled post-Brexit, remains to be seen. Over 70% of respondents felt that there should be ‘Mandatory environmental targets for retailers with a turnover above £36m’ and over 60% agreed that the government should use the tax system to incentivize ‘re-use, repair, and recycling’. In addition, it was felt that there should be a reduction in VAT for repair services. So, how intact will sustainability strategies be, as we hopefully begin the dawn of a new era, starting the unmeasurable recovery from COVID-19? Since the new normal of the pandemic, GreenEarth has run several webinars on sustainable aftercare, which have all been well attended and the feedback suggests that there is an appetite to adopt a more sustainable way of caring for clothes. Also, brands and manufacturers are still adding style codes to the list, where GreenEarth is recommended as the preferred form of garment aftercare. And certainly, a lot of the content for other webinars has featured sustainability and ethics to some degree. And on the political spectrum, there appears to be early signs of cross-party agreement (at committee level) to see the “new normal” brought about by the pandemic, as a ‘golden opportunity’ to find sustainable solutions for certain industries. There are many angles to the sustainability of the fashion industry, and it starts with all of us. A big part is indeed aptitude, but another significant part is attitude. Let’s keep the momentum going!