Last month, trucks full of sheets, towels and tablecloths made their way from the Hampton by Hilton, The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman and Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa hotels to a new industrial laundry facility in the Industrial Park area of George Town.
Developed by Dart, the state-of-the-art facility is designed to reduce the environmental impact of the laundering process within the company’s hospitality portfolio.
Dart's Executive Vice President Matthew Bishop said streamlining current processes and implementing the latest in technology will significantly reduce water and energy use.
“Our teams saw an opportunity to make our hotel portfolio more sustainable by centralising the laundering services rather than each hotel partner continuing to do their own laundry on premises,” he said. “Not only does this save the hotels space, but processing all the laundry in one place also results in water savings of 17.8 million gallons per year, and carbon dioxide emissions reductions of 173,000 pounds per year.”
Although the central laundry facility was in the works before the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuing effects on the global tourism industry offered an opportunity to progress development projects that contribute to the interim local economic recovery while positioning the hospitality industry for a more sustainable future.
The new facility is expected to create up to 50 jobs as operations ramp up to accommodate the increase in stayover tourism this year.
“We took full advantage of the pause to ensure we are ready to put our best foot forward in welcoming visitors back to the Cayman Islands,” Bishop said. “In addition to completing the new laundry facility, Dart also undertook projects like the renovations at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman and the transformation of the former Comfort Suites into the Hampton by Hilton hotel.”
To recruit the drivers, laundry attendants, line supervisors and engineers needed to run the facility, Dart hosted a job fair to support recruitment for the facility in July 2021. The facility opened with 18 employees, half of whom are Caymanian.
“We know one of the key reasons people want to work with Dart is the opportunity to be part of innovative teams on meaningful projects,” Bishop said. “This facility embraces the latest in technology to help bring real environmental efficiencies to an area of hospitality that is often overlooked. The people who work at the laundry facility are making a difference to our environment and providing an important service in support of Cayman’s world-class tourism product.”
While primarily intended to support Dart hotels, the facility could also offer laundry services to large commercial businesses on Grand Cayman in the future, but will not offer laundry or dry-cleaning services to the general public.
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