Every fall since 1987, the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award has recognized companies in Illinois that demonstrate a commitment to reducing environmental impact and encouraging a more sustainable Illinois economy.
For 2016, Roscoe is proud to have earned the 30th Annual Governor’s Sustainability Award again, which we previously won in 1999. Other Governor’s Sustainability Award winners include Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie, Argonne National Laboratory, CDW, City of Naperville, ComEd, The Field Museum, Marathon Petroleum, Quaker Foods, and United Airlines.
“This is not an easy thing to get,” said Kevin O’Brien, director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC). “It takes a lot of work, there is a lot of screening and, frankly, there is a lot of competition for this award.”
1 Award, 6 Achievements
Roscoe won the award based on six different achievements in the last year:
- We dramatically reduced our solid waste from 60,000 gallons of liquid sludge to 78 cubic feet of de-watered waste annually, which was accomplished by modifying our wastewater pre-treatment process to use inert clay instead of ferric-chloride and installing a sludge filter press
- We eliminated 21,000 plastic bags annually by switching to reusable bags
- We reduced our water consumption from 2.22.gal/lb. to 1.13 gal/lb. and BTUs from 2757 BTU/lb. to 1516 BTU/lb. on 6 million pounds processed annually (made possible by upgrading our equipment in 2009)
- We reduced our annual consumption of natural gas by 10% by installing high-efficiency natural gas unit heaters
- We reduced our annual consumption of electricity by 8% by installing high-efficiency LED fixtures with motion sensors, which also increased lighting from 25 to 80 candles
- We attained TRSA’s Clean Green Certification in 2016, which recognizes commercial laundries that demonstrate responsible leadership in sustainability and conservation to protect the environment
What’s Next for Roscoe?
Looking to the future, Roscoe has two new projects in development to further increase their sustainability. The first focuses on solid waste reduction by de-watering liquid sludge, and the second involves additional water recycling. All of the above reflects our core culture centered on sustainability that started 95 years ago with recycling towels.
Contact us to learn more about Chicago work uniform and custom mats Clean Green Certification
