Preserving the environment and working to combat climate change are amongst the most pressing challenges facing the world, and achieving sustainable solutions involves making changes in all aspects of the economy to achieve the goal of Net Zero.

What is Net Zero and How do We Get There?

The goal of Net Zero is to create a situation where any CO2 emissions by an organisation are minimised and offset by other activities to the point where there is no contribution to climate change gasses being released into the atmosphere.

There are many steps that can be taken to achieve this.

• Reducing the amount of energy that is used means identifying ways to improve efficiency by choosing less energy intensive appliances and equipment so that less energy is used overall.
• Moving towards the use of renewable energy sources including the implementation of solar power or wind power to supplement other forms of generation.
• Taking advantage of offsetting techniques including tree planting and greening.

To achieve Net Zero, businesses and other organisations need to look at all areas of their operation and where possible minimise waste and resource use including materials such as paper or plastics which have a substantial environmental footprint.

Can Your Choice of Hand Dryers Help

Hand dryers might seem to be a relatively minor contributor to a business’ overall carbon footprint, but they are also one where material improvements can be made in a way that not only reduces CO2 emissions, but also reduces costs.

In most workplaces and entertainment venues, when hand drying is considered, there are two main options:

• Disposable paper towels
• Wall mounted hand dryers

At first glance, using paper towels might seem to be the most environmentally friendly choice as once they are in the bathroom, they do not use any power, however they are in fact a much bigger to both waste disposal challenges and energy consumption than they might appear to be.

The manufacturing process for paper towels is energy efficient and requires substantial raw materials.  For every tonne of paper towels that is manufactured, around 17 trees need to be cut down.  In addition to this, the manufacturing process itself releases the equivalent of 624KG of CO2 annually for every 100 uses per day.  

Not only do paper towels require large amounts of energy to manufacture and result in large areas of tree felling, but they also need to be disposed of through either incineration or at landfill which creates additional environmental problems.

Electric hand dryers do away with the need for raw materials and waste disposal, and their energy requirements mean that for an equivalent level of use, they are responsible for much lower emissions.  Having said that, the actual amount of energy used by different types of hand dryer can vary enormously.

A conventional warm air hand dryer uses slow moving air that is blown over a heating element to dry the user’s hands.  By comparison, Mitsubishi Electric Wave hand dryers work more quickly using a fast-moving jet of air that simply blows droplets of water from the skin without the need for heating.  This means that much less energy needs to be used and helps to reduce your bills.

Find out more

Reducing your carbon emissions and energy use is a key part of any net zero strategy.  To find out how much energy you could save by choosing a more efficient hand dryer, please contact a member of our team today to book a demonstration or to discuss your needs.