Doing laundry is nobody's favorite chore, but it may now be the greenest one for tenants living in Columbia's University Apartment Housing.
Columbia has recently transitioned to high-efficiency washers and coin-less machines in laundry rooms throughout its University Apartment Housing buildings. The high efficiency, front-load washers use about 50% of the water and utilities when compared to traditional top-loading machines, which means less stress on the environment and a cleaner conscience along with cleaner clothes for tenants.
"High efficiency washers save around 17 gallons of water per cycle, which translates into a savings of nearly 8.5 million gallons of water per year at the University's Apartment Housing buildings on its Morningside campus," said Mark Kerman, Columbia's Assistant Vice President for Residential Operations.
High efficiency washers load laundry from the front - rather than from the top like traditional machines - and can tumble clothes through a much smaller pool of water. High-efficiency washers also use less gas to warm up the water - because less water is needed for each load - and also extract more water during the spin cycle, resulting in a significant reduction in gas and electrical consumption.
To make University Apartment Housing laundry rooms even more efficient, Columbia has also recently converted to "coin-less" laundry equipment. Not only is the new coin-less technology convenient for tenants - it eliminates the inconvenience of using and having to search for coins by allowing tenants to use their ATM or credit card to do their laundry - it also conserves energy by eliminating the need to collect, count and transport the coins, resulting in reduced vehicle emissions. It also reduces the number of service calls, as approximately 30% of a property's services calls are related to the machine's coin slides.
"Doing laundry is already a chore, so any way we can make it more hassle-free for our tenants is a good thing," said Kerman. "We also like the coin-less technology because it is environmentally friendly and makes money collection easier."
LEARN MORE
Check out these tips on how to go green with your laundry at:
http://www.earthshare.org/tips/greenwash.html
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/12-energy-saving-laundry-tips.html