Our theme this month is sustainability, a great topic, and a core value for Kreussler. We’re going to share how Kreussler creates a sustainable company we’re proud of. We are fortunate to have our founding family still at the helm of Kreussler GmbH, now in the 4th generation of Kreussler/ Travers, and that for them, sustainability has been part of our DNA for generations. Before it was a trendy marketing line, Kreussler has valued the concept and brought it into our planning and long-term goals. Why? Because it is smart business to be sustainable. It means you put long term growth in front of short-term gains, you follow a path that the next generation or the next five generations can continue, and you can show all your partners and stakeholders you value them and the shared resources we need today and, in the years to come.
We also understand that sustainability is not a product, we do not make it, and we do not sell it. To be good stewards, we must first be good at our jobs, developing, manufacturing, selling, and supporting the world’s best detergents and ancillary agents for the professional textile care industry. This is job one. We also understand that sustainable practices do not need to be just big-ticket items, although Kreussler has many of those. Sustainability within any company should start small and be simple.
For example, Kreussler’s detergent formulations have always focused on concentration and the elimination of inactive fillers. This results in a more expensive product by volume, possibly harder to sell into a marketplace used to low cost/ high waste options. Still, highly concentrated products touch many points on the sustainability and value chain. It means a more streamlined manufacturing process, less time and energy needed to produce comparable amounts of finished goods.
Filling requires fewer canisters and creates a reduction in storage and transportation costs—all these results in a reduced environmental footprint. Even the material we use for packaging, UN-rated HDPE, is the most desirable and most accessible form of plastic for recycling. The end-user concentrated products mean lower dosage; in organic solvent cleaning, much of the traditional detergent ended up as sludge in the still, increasing the volume of waste and cost to dispose of.
Kreussler’s dry cleaning detergents reduce the amount of still waste, reduce the formations of lint inside the machine and allow the solvent to recover quicker from the still. In the end, concentrated products save the cleaner and minimize the impact of operations on the environment. They are a more sustainable product.
A few of our sustainable achievements include:
- Selection of raw goods.
- The invention of professional wet cleaning, now in its 30th year.
- Adaption of solar and geothermal energy.
- Developing a bio-based dry cleaning solvent, SOLVONK4 approved by the USDA Biopreferred Program.
- Our in-house water purification and reclamation systems, super-efficient computer-controlled manufacturing, filling, and warehouse facilities all reduce or eliminate our dependency on finite resources.
We’ve made these sustainable choices, not to brag about them, but they were smart business decisions, many of them easy to do. Kreussler Textile Chemistry concentrates on manufacturing environmentally friendly and market-oriented solutions that present economic advantages for our customers. Kreussler produces highly effective products, which we combine with successful application technology. Our research and development, together with our product and process optimization, guarantees the most sustainable and efficient use of raw materials possible. We are also committed to avoiding hazardous substances and minimizing waste.
We encourage you to look around your dry cleaning plant to find areas where waste and inefficiencies are present, find a way to inspect drain valves and steam traps, wrap and insulate pipes, wash at a lower temperature and maximize load size. All of these are both smart and sustainable for your company and a great way to focus on the future. We hope you’ll consider making yours a sustainable company too.
