UK/EUROPE
The European Textile Services Association (ETSA) named the United Kingdom’s Textile Services Association (TSA) winner of the title National Association of the Year Award 2024. This award honours TSA’s noteworthy efforts in the textile services sector, particularly its project tackling the substantial linen loss in the hospitality business.
An industry assessment conducted at the beginning of the campaign revealed that 61% of hospitality linen purchased by textile renters is lost annually, which presents a significant impact on costs but more importantly the environment. In a pre-emptive move, the TSA formed a UK Hospitality round table, which currently comprises 85% of hotel rooms and over 90% of the country’s laundry capacity.
The success of the project depends on obtaining end-user engagement, which was made possible by this action. After the round table, the TSA carried out more surveys, which revealed that housekeepers and general managers were significantly under-informed and underestimated the amount of linen which is lost. This finding prompted the development of a more comprehensive engagement strategy, which included the ‘Valuing Linen Manual’ and other training materials that prioritised sustainability over monetary loss.
