Everything Environment and Sustainability …

Updated October 2024

Overview

Regency is committed to reducing its impact on the environment and to being a responsible, local 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.

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

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.

In September 2024 we have acheived our 2024 goal of purchasing 100% of our electricity from renewable sourced (REGO) certified supply.

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 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.

Lifecycle of our Textiles

Because we wash carefully our textiles have a long service life. But when they are past their best we give them another life as rags and cloths for our Customers and local charities. We donated 23,000 KG of end of life textiles to the Salvation Army as part of the TSA recycling scheme in 2023.

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. We partner with Christeyns (We Care – Christeyns) and work together to ensure our chemicals work efficiently on low dosages with no wastage to use as little as possible. We use Christeyns Cool Chemistry system which holds an EU Ecolabel.

Car Pooling

To help our employees and the environment Regency encourage and support car-pooling. 15% of our team car share on their daily commute which saves 75,000k miles per year.

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.  

Our waste and recycling partner is Biffa and we have end to end traceability and reporting to ensure that all waste and recycling is disposed of safely and within regulations.  As at May 2023 our YTD waste dashboard for our 1100l bins is 96% recycled. 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 1100l bins.

In 2024 we will nominate environmental champions in the team to generate ideas and incentives on recycling.

Single Use Plastics

We are proud to be one of the only UK laundries who do not use any single use plastic shrinkwrap  for any of our commercial customers.  We carefully pack the linen into reusable fabric bags which are simply washed and reused.  Even our paper tags on the bags are made from mono board and can be recycled, saving 360,000 plastic tags per year.

The team are encouraged to bring in a refillable water bottle and we stopped using single use plastic cups in January 2024.

Community

The ‘Our Communities Pillar’ is very important to the Regency team. We make a quarterly donation to a local charity or organisation nominated by our team. One of our goals for 2024 was to give back to the local community via paid volunteering which we started in September by supporting the local council with wildflower raking. This will become a regular event for all team members who wish to volunteer.

In May 2024 Regency took part in No Mow May to encourage biodiversity and pollinating insects. This is championed locally within our local parish and we were keen do play our part. No Mow May 2025 is already in the diary !

In September 2024 we installed a new defibrillator which is accessible to our neighbours and is registered to The Circuit which links defibrillators to the ambulance service during our opening times.

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 October 2023 we launched our first employee engagement survey and are now putting actions in place in response to feedback.

A diversity survey is planned for 2024 in addition to our next employee engagement survey.

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.