Case study: environment
An industrial laundry uses a lot of water, gas and road. Here, with figures and sources, is what Buanderie Bonin's choices represent compared with common industry practice.
- 59 to 94 tof CO₂e a year: order of magnitude of the heat recovered from wastewater
- 14 tof CO₂e a year avoided by one dryer with heat recovery, measured in Québec
- 17 tof CO₂e a year avoided on the road, by serving nearby hotels
Estimates at full capacity (20,000 lb of linen a day, 360 days a year), based on published benchmarks. Methodology and sources at the bottom of the page.
The starting point
In a conventional laundry, wash water is used once, then goes down the drain still hot. Dryer heat goes up the stack. And linen often travels far, from a laundry in the suburbs to downtown hotels.
Water heating weighs heavily: in a hospitality laundry, about 42% of all the gas used goes to heating water3. Buanderie Bonin tackles all three losses.
| Lever | Common practice | Buanderie Bonin |
|---|---|---|
| Water | Used once, then discharged | 100% of final rinse water reused |
| Heat | Hot water and dryer air discharged | Recovered from wastewater, dryers and boilers |
| Road | Laundries often in the suburbs | Clients downtown |
Water
Most washer-extractors use 17 to 33 litres of water per kilo of linen, and tunnel washers 17 litres or less1. Even the most advanced recycling systems listed by the EPA reuse 85 to 90% of the water1.
In practice. Buanderie Bonin reuses 100% of its final rinse water for the first wash, instead of discharging it. At the conservative benchmark of 13 L/kg2, a laundry our size without recycling would draw about 118,000 litres of water a day at full capacity. Every 10% of water reused therefore represents about 11,800 fewer litres drawn from the water main each day.
Heat
Buanderie Bonin built its own system: coils carrying clean water to the washers run through the wastewater basins. Still hot, the used water warms the incoming water, which arrives cold, especially in winter.
Washing takes about 0.2 kWh of heat per kilo of linen2. Water-to-water heat exchangers generally recover 50 to 80% of the heat in wastewater, according to manufacturers4, and TRSA cites 50 to 75% recovery3.
| Heat recovered | Published benchmark | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| From wastewater | 50 to 80% of the heat in wastewater4 | About 900 to 1,450 kWh of heat a day at full capacity, or 86 to 138 m³ of natural gas and 59 to 94 t of CO₂e a year |
| From drying | 16% less gas, measured in a Québec laundry5 | 7,642 m³ of gas and about 14 t of CO₂e a year, for a single industrial dryer |
Montréal Metropolitan Community by-law 2008-47 caps the temperature of discharges to the sewer at 65 °C12. Recovering heat from wastewater also means returning it cooler to the system.
Proximity
Buanderie Bonin favours nearby hotels. Its facilities are 8 minutes from downtown. A downtown delivery run is about 10 km round trip. For a laundry 40 km away, the same run would be about 80.
In practice. An average medium diesel truck uses 24.4 L per 100 km8. Each run therefore avoids about 70 km, 17 litres of diesel and 48 kg of CO₂e6. At one run a day over 360 days, that is about 17 t of CO₂e a year.
Linen that lasts
Between 50 and 70% of a textile's emissions happen before its first use, and replacing a single bath sheet represents about 15,000 litres of water and 8 kg of carbon9. Yet in the UK hospitality industry, only 10% of linen is retired because it is actually worn out9, and bed linen often lasts 100 to 150 washes10.
of stained items saved: once taken out of circulation at the quality-control step, the items are treated with a stain-removal formula, instead of being classed as unusable.
The ironer is fed by hand. No clamps grip the sheets, which spares the fibres and extends their life.
Buanderie Bonin's wash formulas respect proper temperatures and wash times. They therefore need fewer products, which reduces their impact on the linen and the environment.
For your hotel
Under the GHG Protocol, emissions from the goods and services a company buys, services included, are part of its indirect emissions (Scope 3, Category 1)11. Your hotel's laundry is one of them. Choosing Buanderie Bonin lowers that line without changing anything in your operations.
| Per 1,000 lb of linen | Order of magnitude |
|---|---|
| CO₂e avoided, wastewater heat only | about 8 to 13 kg |
Example: a hotel sending Buanderie Bonin 1,500 lb of linen a day avoids 4.4 to 7.0 t of CO₂e a year, on wash-water heating alone.
Methodology and sources
Reference volume: facility capacity, 20,000 lb (9,072 kg) of linen a day, 360 operating days a year. Figures are orders of magnitude at full capacity, not measurements.
Water: benchmark of 13 L of fresh water per kg for a small industrial laundry without recycling [2], or about 118,000 L a day at full capacity; 10% of that is about 11,800 L.
Wastewater heat: 0.2 kWh of heat per kg for washing [2], assuming this heat leaves with the wastewater; 50 to 80% recovery [4]. Natural gas: 37.89 MJ/m³, or 10.5 kWh/m³ [7]. Boiler losses are not counted, which understates the gain.
Drying: 16% savings and 7,642 m³ of gas a year for one industrial dryer, measured during a demonstration at Buanderie Blanchelle in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu [5]. Buanderie Bonin's number of dryers is not factored in.
Emissions: 1.889 kg CO₂e/m³ of natural gas and 2.790 kg CO₂e/L of diesel [6]. Average medium diesel truck: 24.4 L/100 km [8]. 40 km comparison laundry: illustrative assumption.
- 1EPA WaterSense, WaterSense at Work, section 3.5 : Laundry Equipment. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2023.
- 2Máša et al., Energy Intensive Process in Professional Laundry Service : Up-to-Date Approach. Chemical Engineering Transactions, vol. 35, 2013, p. 259-264.
- 3TRSA, Energy Efficiency in Hospitality Laundries. Textile Services Magazine, janvier 2008.
- 4Christeyns, Cut energy costs through heat recovery. Christeyns (fabricant), mars 2023.
- 5Énergir, Industrial Dryers : Energy Now Recoverable. Énergir Informatech, août 2011.
- 6TEQ, Facteurs d'émission et de conversion. Transition énergétique Québec, version du 16 août 2019.
- 7Énergir, Natural gas properties. Énergir.
- 8RNCan, Enquête sur les véhicules au Canada 2009, rapport sommaire. Ressources naturelles Canada.
- 9TSA, UKHospitality, A Guide to Valuing Hospitality Linen : Helping Linen Last Longer!. Textile Services Association, UKHospitality, UK Housekeepers Association, 2023.
- 10Diversey, Why every hotel should re-think linen. Diversey, une société Solenis, livre blanc, 2026.
- 11GHG Protocol, Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions, chapitre 1. World Resources Institute et WBCSD.
- 12CMM, Règlement numéro 2008-47 sur l'assainissement des eaux. Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, 2008 (copie publiée par la Ville de Vaudreuil-Dorion).
Sources accessed in October 2026.
“We refuse to compromise on our wash protocols, our equipment or our team's training.”
Facility tours on request · 2165 Parthenais Street · 514 521-7997
Plan a visit