Surfacing the Problem with Granular Data

Recently, Tristin Hauptman was able to pull electricity usage data in near-real time on Wash Cycle Laundry’s electrical consumption in 15-minute increments. Having this info surfaced on our management dashboard allowed us to see that our overnight electric usage — when we’re not producing laundry — went up and down from day to day, sometimes without any reasonable explanation. This wasn’t just about leaving the lights on. It went beyond that.

So our ops and maintenance team kicked in, figuring out better end-of-shift “hand-off” procedures between production and maintenance and designing overnight shutdown checklists so that our maintenance team could begin shutting down equipment early and making sure certain equipment wasn’t missed.

The results: we’ve already reduced electrical usage by more than a typical household’s entire consumption, which should avoid emissions of about 4.2 metric tons of CO2 per year just from this intervention.

The Broader Lesson for Industrial Operations

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a really quick win about how having the right data in the right place can add up to significant changes over time.

There’s a broader lesson here for anyone running an industrial operation. We use a lot of energy — water heating, tunnel washers, dryers, ironers, compressed air, conveyors. When all of that runs during production hours, the consumption makes sense. But overnight, the baseline should be low and predictable. It wasn’t, and we wouldn’t have known that without granular, real-time data.

Trust the Team, Fix the Process

The fix wasn’t some expensive capital project. It was a checklist. But the checklist only happened because someone could see the problem in the data, and our team on the floor was empowered to design the solution. That’s the pattern we’re trying to build across the whole operation: surface the data, trust the team, and make incremental improvements that compound over time.

At Wash Cycle Laundry, sustainability isn’t a separate initiative — it’s embedded in how we operate. We use roughly 50% less water and 30% less energy than conventional operations, and interventions like this one are how we keep pushing that number in the right direction.

Learn more about our sustainable commercial laundry services or contact us.