If you live in or around Santa Barbara, California, then you already know that this sunny Mediterranean-style seaside mecca has long been the envy of the central coast with its long strands of shimmering beaches, dramatic coastal mountains, exploding local food and wine scene, and youthful hip vibe thanks to the engaging student population anchored by UC-Santa Barbara.
Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners has long been driving the “look good, feel good” mentality of the area, but for more reasons than may meet the eye. As the area’s largest dry cleaner, you’ve probably seen one of their six delivery vans crisscrossing the city on any given day, but what you may not know is that not only are they servicing the community through laundered, dry cleaned, and preserved clothing, they are an industry leader in environmental sustainability, education, customer engagement, and green certification.
One of the biggest environmental issues that Ablitt’s sees in their business and dry cleaning in general is around recycling of film plastic. A lot of recycling centers are not able to recycle film plastic, but Ablitt’s is determined to keep these plastics out of their local landfills. As a result, they have taken several key steps in driving awareness and solutions. First, they’ve partnered with a US-based company that uses film plastic as a raw material for their product. Second, they’ve created an educational outreach program to teach the local community how to recycle and reduce film plastic usage. And last, they focus on reducing resource consumption and are actively investigating the use of post-consumer materials in their paper packaging.
– Sasha Ablitt
[/ultimate_heading]The green journey for Ablitt’s is ever evolving. As a critical part of their mission and service to their community, they partnered with Green Business Bureau to learn more about what other companies are doing to reduce their environmental impact, adopt best practices, and share what they have learned and what they’re doing with other likeminded businesses.
According to Sasha Ablitt, “we are a full-service dry cleaner that provides free pick-up and delivery to over 200 of our thousands of daily customers. By optimizing our van routes, we’re actively offsetting our carbon footprint compared to each customer driving to one of our locations. We pride ourselves on quality work and expertise, friendly and helpful customer service, and community involvement that includes continuous improvement in all areas of our business including constant focus on reducing our environmental impact. Our biggest challenge right now is educating our own staff and keeping the importance of our efforts top of mind for everyone because even small, daily acts can have a significant and positive impact.”
Other areas of focus:
- Optimized pickup and delivery route management to help reduce carbon footprint
- Pickup of recyclable plastic at customer locations
About Ablitt’s
For more information on Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners, please visit the following link or one of their local retail locations: https://ablitts.com
Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners has earned GBB Platinum Status
Click on Ablitt’s Platinum GBB Seal to see all of the greening initiatives Ablitt’s has completed in their efforts to become a green business leader in the dry cleaning industry.
