Environment and Sustainability

Updated April 2025

Overview

Empire is committed to reducing its impact on the environment and to being a responsible, local and sustainable employer.  We question the environmental impact of all key decisions to ensure we are being as considerate as possible.  Our Environmental ethos runs in parallel with that of our Parent Company JSG and we have set ourselves clear, challenging targets to achieve which are called our ‘Vision 2030 Commitments’.

We have 4 Pillars – Our Family, Our World, Our Integrity and Our Communities. A link to the JSG Group second sustainability report is below which shows progress towards our targets and commitments

the-johnsons-way-launch-booklet.pdf (jsg.com) . 

https://www.jsg.com/media/2249747/jsg-third-annual-sustainability-report.pdf

the-johnsons-way-a4-web.pdf

Empire Laundry are also proud members of the Textile Services Association, more information about their valuable work in our industry can be found at TSA.

Power and Water

We invest in heat recovery and energy efficient machinery to ensure that we use as little gas and electricity as possible. Water is also recycled within our washing process to reduce consumption. Waste water from our primary factory is filtered to remove microplastics.  We plan our shifts for maximum efficiency to ensure there is no wasted production space which results in higher energy use.

All machines, heating, IT and non-essential lights are powered off and not left on standby to minimise waste.

Textiles

Our textile partners share our commitment to responsible sourcing. We source from a small number of quality suppliers to ensure we remain in control of our supply chain management and have auditable traceability. Our key suppliers all have membership of at least one or more of the following and many have achieved ISO14001 ;

• Better Cotton Initiative (The world doesn’t just need cotton, it needs Better Cotton.)
• Ethical Trading Initiative  (Home | Ethical Trading Initiative (ethicaltrade.org))
• SEDEX (Sustainable Supply Chain Solutions – Sedex)

JSG Group sourced 56% of cotton via BCI during 2023.

Empire Laundry are proud members of the TSA

Lifecycle of our Textiles

Because we wash carefully our textiles have a long service life. But when they are past their best we donate them to charities and recycling programmes

Chemicals

Whilst chemicals are a necessity for us, we ensure that our choice of supplier is aligned to our environmental values and is fully traceable and auditable. And safe for our team and customers. We partner with Ecolab and work together to ensure our chemicals work efficiently on low dosages with no wastage to use as little as possible.

Mileage Reduction

We carefully plan our delivery routes to ensure that they are mileage efficient to reduce fuel consumption. Our commitment to delivering on time and in full reduces the need for additional journeys.

Waste Recycling and Management 

We recycle dry mixed recycling (cans, paper, plastic) and have recycling points within the laundry and offices.  As part of the Simpler Recycling legislation we now recycle food waste and glass.

We have work to do with our trickier waste and are targeting increasing recycling volumes over the coming 12 months for waste streams which are not collected via our recycling services.

In 2025 we will nominate environmental champions in the team to generate ideas and incentives on recycling.

Single Use Plastics

In February 2025 we switched our drinking water provision from single use plastics to mains water and reusable Empire bottles. Saving over 12,000 plastic bottles a year. Whilst much of our linen is not packed in shrink wrap we do still have shrink wrap in use for some customers and linen types. We are reviewing our processes to reduce this use of plastic.

Community

The ‘Our Communities Pillar’ is very important to the Empire team. As we are now proudly part of the JSG plc we pledge to make a quarterly donation to a local charity or organisation nominated by our team. One of our goals for 2025/2026 is to find community projects and provide paid volunteering opportunities for all of our team.

Family

We care. For our team and their wellbeing. We ensure that our team have safe working environments. Providing the training and right equipment to do their jobs. Our ethos is to recruit locally and develop our team from within. In 2025 we will launch our first employee engagement survey and establish a Works Council to improve our internal communication and prioritise the welfare of our team.

Links

https://www.jsg.com/media/2249641/the-johnsons-way-a4-web.pdf

Sustainability (jsg.com)

If you have any questions or suggestions about how we care for our environment, please contact us.