Cintas saves up to 599 million gallons of water per year through its companywide system. Of note, Cintas Industrial Laundry is capable of delivering significant improvements in water use compared to home laundry by providing approximately 20 percent water savings – in addition to significant energy and soap savings. Cintas has also demonstrated leadership in sustainability by taking steps to lower water use and minimize environmental impact at several facilities through enhanced wastewater treatment, as well as enhanced water reuse efforts.
" At Cintas, our employee-partners are fully engaged in practicing workplace sustainability and environmental stewardship. We also recognize the importance of partnering with organizations like Evoqua that share our commitment to improving sustainability within the communities in which we operate. "
For example, at its recently upgraded Newmarket, Ontario facility, Cintas has saved more than two million gallons of water in the first three months of operation through a new reuse system. Other Cintas facilities are taking significant steps to lessen water impact across operations utilizing water reuse with dissolved air flotation systems and, in some cases, reuse coupled with ultrafiltration and microfiltration systems.
“We are honored to recognize a leader like Cintas Corporation with the Evoqua Water Sustainability Award,” said Ron Keating, Evoqua CEO. “Cintas goes above and beyond to protect the world’s water and it is our privilege to partner with them in their efforts to care for the environment.”
As part of the awards program, Evoqua employees nominated companies from among its 38,000-customer base for their sustainability efforts to treat, re-use, and conserve water. Finalists for the award included: Air Products, Ford Motor Company, the National Mall, and Cintas.
Air Products installed a new water treatment system in its Los Angeles-area plant to reduce water use. The solution was implemented by Evoqua Water Technologies to address water scarcity during seasonal drought and to help meet Air Products’ Grow-Conserve-Care corporate sustainability initiative. Grow-Conserve-Care outlines a goal of conserving 5% of water by 2020. The Los Angeles-area plant produces hydrogen for a variety of customers, including zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. As a result of the anticipated water reduction, Air Products and Evoqua were awarded the 2017 Industrial Project of the Year by the WaterReuse Association.
As part of its corporate sustainability efforts, Ford Motor Company improved the efficiency of its wastewater treatment system at its Dearborn, MI manufacturing plant, where the Ford F150 is assembled. Ford’s goal is to save 30 percent more water by 2020 corporate-wide, with an ultimate goal of zero water use in manufacturing processes. Together with Evoqua Water Technologies, Ford installed a new water reuse system that saves an estimated 15.6 million gallons of water annually at just this facility.
The National Mall has recently undergone an overhaul of their existing irrigation system. The new system minimizes potable water use and maximizes storm water availability by utilizing storm water from the Mall lawn panels and the walkways surrounding them. The new irrigation system uses one million gallons of underground storm water storage which is filtered by Evoqua’s VAF brand V-Series TM and disinfected prior to lawn application. The system is pressure regulated to save energy. On-site control is accomplished using a smart device app that communicates between the irrigation interface and pump station and the central computer that is about 1.5 miles away. The project’s revitalization efforts, which demonstrated a commitment to innovation and energy efficiency, earned the Irrigation Association’s 2017 Vanguard Award for Turf-Landscape.