A forward-thinking laundry delivery service commits to becoming a fully carbon positive and zero waste business, with help from a Business Wales sustainability specialist.
Founded and run by Jonathan Day, Wash Cycle is an eco-friendly laundry delivery service. Jonathan got in touch with the Welsh Government’s Business Wales service to enquire about further sustainability support.
As a result, he signed up to the Green Growth Pledge and has committed to reusing waste, reducing carbon emissions, using eco-friendly raw materials and looking after the local community, amongst others.
Introduction to business
Cardiff-based Jonathan Day founded Wash Cycle Ltd in 2017 to provide an eco-minded laundry delivery service. The business offers a reliable, convenient and safe alternative to visiting a local launderette.
Combining a high quality, same day service with sustainable practices and exceptional customer service, Wash Cycle is committed to sourcing all raw materials from like-minded, sustainable businesses, thus minimising the use of plastic, reducing their impact on the water system via cleaner detergents, offsetting their carbon emissions and producing almost zero waste in their daily operations.
We caught up with Jonathan to get his thoughts on the importance of sustainability in business:
Why is sustainability important to you and your business?
Having grown up watching David Attenborough, I've always had a great fascination with our beautiful world and the vast diversity of life that the earth supports. However, as I have grown, I have also begun to pay more and more attention to the damage that we humans are causing to our world and at an upsetting rate.
At the same time, I have always had a passion for business and innovation, aiming to disrupt the way we live our lives for the better. Now, I will be honest, I never enjoyed doing laundry growing up. Even as late as starting university, I would still rely on the generous friends I made in my halls of residence. Which is exactly why it occurred to me that a service that offered to do your laundry, for not much more than the cost to do it yourself, could be revolutionary.
Annoyingly, around the same time, it seemed that others had similar ideas with one or two delivery laundry services popping up in London, however, neither were really championing sustainable techniques. I have therefore made it my mission to create a fully carbon positive, zero waste delivery laundry service while maintaining our competitive pricing position, ensuring that Wash Cycle is the option the United Kingdom opts for. This way, we can turn a usually quite polluting industry and chore into a positive activity for our environment.
Laundry is an essential chore that no one can avoid, so join us in turning that chore into something truly positive.
What would you say to other business owners who aren’t aware of the benefits of being sustainable?
We only have one planet. It really is that simple. We as the producers and providers of goods and services have a direct impact on how consumers use what we make and do.
Through a combined effort to both make changes ourselves and educate our customers on how they can also make a difference, then we will all be the better for it.
It’s time to take some responsibility for the full product and service life-cycles we are creating, including how they are disposed of. So reach out to your local sustainability team and start making a plan!
Business Wales support
Jonathan engaged with a Business Wales Sustainability adviser, Paul Carroll, to improve the business’ sustainability performance further. As part of the support, he signed up to the Business Wales Green Growth Pledge, an initiative, which provides an easy and straightforward way for businesses to plan and action a range of sustainability measures.
Some of the steps Wash Cycle has committed to implementing include:
- Purchasing energy efficient appliances and using energy-saving drying processes to reduce carbon emissions and save on energy bills.
- Working with local responsible suppliers to source eco-friendly laundry products.
- Reducing carbon emissions from transport by planning and managing collection and delivery journeys.
- Planting 8 trees per month to offset their carbon footprint.
- Using fully recyclable bottles and seeking a refillable service from local suppliers to avoid plastics going to landfill.
- Reusing waste products by giving laundry lint to bird enthusiasts to use for bird bedding.
- Raising awareness amongst clients of the benefits of sustainability.
- Engaging with local charities to provide discounted laundry services to the community.
Paul is also helping Jonathan to find a UK manufacturer that can make reusable laundry bags from sustainable materials, such as discarded tents destined for landfill.
Jonathan said: “Paul has been fantastic in helping us get in touch with new potential local suppliers with similar sustainability goals to ourselves. This is vital in ensuring that all stages of our service cycle have a positive impact on our communities.
A couple of mentions to the right people by Paul have also helped to get things moving along.”
Future plans and ambitions
We plan to become carbon positive. This will be achieved through increasingly efficient machines and transport infrastructure as we grow, such as electric vans and bikes, as well as increasing our investment in reforestation through a partnership with Ecologi – planting 8 trees every month per employee. We shall also keep working towards becoming zero waste certified.
In the future, I plan to franchise and expand Wash Cycle throughout Wales and England. Removing the tediousness of laundry for all while making a significant difference to the carbon footprint and damage to UK water systems by laundry.
If you want to read more success stories of how Business Wales has helped other people like you to start or grow their businesses, visit https://businesswales.gov.wales/case-studies or follow @_businesswales / @_busnescymru on Twitter.