How do we measure transparency?

To produce a duvet cover, we go through 4 general production stages:

1. Cotton farming & ginning (score weight: 25%)
2. Spinning & Weaving (score-weight: 25%)
3. Bleaching & Dyeing (score-weight: 25%)
4. Cutting & stitching (score-weight: 25%)

Since we mainly work with vertically integrated manufacturers, our High-tech Manufacturing icon, which you will find on our mapping tool, spans all the production stages from spinning till stitching (stage 2-4). We are therefore able to disclose 100% transparency from manufacturing to your hotel room. Further, we currently can map out the major ginners from where our cotton is purchased. Based on our weighting methodology, we estimate that we have an overall transparency score of 85%. In the future, it is our goal to increase transparency to include cotton farmers as well. This is a huge and complex task due to the amount of smallhold farmers - in Pakistan alone, there are approximately 1.5 million.

How do we save water?

There are a number of ways in which we save water. It starts with the raw material choice. By supporting the Better Cotton Initiative, we help improve cotton farming in Pakistan. BCI-farmers save about 17% water compared to non-BCI farmers. In our manufacturing facilities, we reduce water consumption through our waste-water treatment plant. Though we reduce water in several ways, including those we just mentioned, the percentage reduction of 12.5% that we report is based on our own water consumption versus best pratice in the laundry industry. The top 10% of laundries with the lowest water consumption in our industry use on average 4 liters per kilo of laundered textiles. We use 3.5 liters per kilo of laundered textiles. This shows a 12.5% reduction in water use when hotels choose Blycolin as their Textile Services provider. In general, water consumption is decreasing across the entire industry due to continuous improvement of laundry processes, new textile and machinery technologies as well as growing expertise within laundry operation. At Blycolin, we are particularly focused on reducing our water consumption - not only because it provides a financial benefit, but also because clean water is a scarce ressource. In our laundries, we work especially hard on implementing technologies that enables us to reuse water to effectively bring down the need for fresh water in our laundries.

Source: ETSA WECO Survey 4, 2015; Blycolin own data, 2020

How do we save CO2 emissions?

In recent years, enormous efficiency gains have been made within the industry. Over the last 15 years in the Netherlands alone, 54,8% energy savings were realized through process- and chain efficiency greater use of renewable energy. Pushing for further reduction, Blycolin is among the leaders. We compared Blycolin's CO2e emissions with those of the average European industrial laundry. The average laundry emits 0,33 kg CO2e per kg of textile laundered while Blycolin emits only 0,286 kg CO2e per kg of textile laundered. This means, that Blycolin emits about 13% less CO2e per kg textile laundered compared to the average European industrial laundry. Why? Blycolin is on a journey of continuous improvement in the laundry. In specific, Blycolin has achieved strong reductions in emssions through process optimization and efficiency improvements, greater use of renewable energy, implementation of steam-free washing, and greater reuse of energy from the tumblers.

Source: ETSA WECO Survey 4, 2015; Blycolin own data, 2020