With the launch of GLARE and the recent Sustainability Open Day, The TSA continues its green agenda for 2025. David Stevens, CEO of the association, looks at how collaboration and data can drive sustainability in the commercial laundry sector.
At the Textile Services Association’s (TSA) Autumn Conference last year keynote speaker Benita Matofska defined sustainability as “the ability to continue into the future.” As a trade association, we wouldn’t argue with this, the difficulty lies in finding the practical steps our industry can take to make that continuation a reality.
This is a huge task, and with the government’s introduction of Scope 1-3 emissions, legislation is making the topic of sustainability more than just the right idea, but a legal requirement. Members are more than clocking on to this, and the TSA’s recent Sustainability Open Day on 12th March 2025 attracted over 60 attendees. Environmental journalist Anna Turns was the guest speaker, and it was encouraging to see many of our members not only expand their knowledge but open up about the challenges we all face in future-proofing this sector. The day itself was a key part of the TSA’s green agenda for 2025, which at its core is all about data and collaboration.
“What really became apparent over the day was the importance of data – both to ensure we have baseline measurements to chart the industry’s progress, but also to be able to back up any statements on progress or targets we set,” says David Stevens, CEO of TSA. “We want provable results, we’re not interested in greenwashing.”
The data required is largely accessible but there’s a lot of it and it can be overwhelming. Providing help is where the TSA comes in. Collaboration with our members will help us understand our collective goals and how we continue on the path towards net zero.
Our recently launched GLARE platform embodies both principles of collaboration and data. The platform helps our members know what data they need to collect to understand the carbon emissions of their business, and how these compare with the sector at large. Each Scope from 1-3 is covered, so members can see what aspects of their operation fall into which Scope. GLARE also offers guidance on where to look to find the data and how to record it, too, through shared data platforms, helper tools, and the support network managed by the TSA. It is a resource that the majority of our members will now be using, from big corporations to smaller scale operations, GLARE creates a level playing field in terms of the results, reducing the risk of miss-reporting.
GLARE will also give our members an opportunity to discuss their findings, which we hope will lead to greater collaboration. The platform is also being rolled out to other national associations, with the vision that GLARE will be seen as the go to platform for the commercial laundry sector globally. As Benita told the conference, “the challenges we face in the future require us to work together.” It’s up to our members what they chose to share, but at the very least we should see patterns emerging. Recognising that common ground is surely a positive step towards tackling the challenges we all face.
Looking beyond GLARE, commercial laundries have been at the forefront of creating the circular economy. Our Infinite Textiles scheme is built on this principle. When we started this it was all about recycling, an end to end certification process. We then realised the industry had a lot of gaps in terms of managing assets in the beginning. Now we’re looking at that scheme to include all the supply chain both up and down stream. That said, while bed linen is relatively straightforward to recycle, clothing with zips and surgical textiles, for example, is far more difficult. The technology to do this is out there, but there’s no industrial scale recycling in the UK. Switzerland has committed to create a National Recycling Department but as it stands, the bulk of the UK industry’s recycling is sent overseas. Clearly we need something that can make recycling textiles scalable here too, a topic the TSA is discussing with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Lobbying with government is a slow process, but it’s a vital part of what we do on behalf of our members and the industry at large. Thankfully, the message is getting heard. The UK government has put together a circular economy task force, and in a recent report both the TSA and our Infinite Textiles scheme were highlighted*. The collaboration between our industry and the government could fundamentally change the recycling process for textiles, both nationally and beyond.
Since 2012 the commercial laundry industry has reduced energy use overall by 30%. While we’re making progress, the reality is that the industry currently burns 2.89TWh of energy a year. That is enough energy to power up Liverpool, Oxford and Cambridge. We have to keep pushing a greener agenda. Another key sustainability factor is increased electrification in commercial laundry facilities, which could be a gamechanger. Providing our members with more environment focused events, like the Sustainability Open Day, is part of this. Training the sector about Scope 3 emissions within the supply chain is another incentive in introducing GLARE.
The TSA will continue to be a catalyst to encourage sustainability. Over 80% of our members have already signed up to GLARE, and many of our industry events, from the Sustainability Open Day to the Autumn Conference, regularly sell out. All this underlines our members’ commitment to work together and keep reducing our energy and overall carbon footprint. It’s a long journey, but we’re moving in an encouraging direction.
The next important step in the journey will be the meeting between the TSA and representatives of UK Hospitality scheduled for June 25th 2025. This will aim to bring the sustainability programs of the two sectors into alignment, ensuring that they are complementing each other.
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