National Clothesline

America’s Best Cleaners (ABC), an independent certification agency for the drycleaning industry, has partnered with the Green Business Bureau, a nationally recognized organization certifying green businesses. By partnering with ABC, the Green Business Bureau now includes, as part of its certification, a specific segment of their certification for drycleaners.

The Green Business Bureau helps eco-minded businesses and consumers save money while protecting the environment. With economic concerns over global warming and depleting natural resources taking backseat to anxieties about depleting financial resources, the initiatives of the Green Business Bureau (GBB) show that Americans who want to be more conservative with their money can actually benefit from taking steps to conserve the environment.

At the core of the GBB organization is a program of green initiatives that are very specific along with cost-efficient tasks that businesses can undertake on their path to sustainability.

GBB’s founder, Marcos Cordero, believes that “mindless greenwashing” has become a cultural epidemic, and he wants to offer businesses a practical and financially prudent plan for becoming environmentally responsible that includes more than just “planet-saving tips and tricks.’

“We have personally and actively, through our affiliates, been involved with helping to move our industry to the next level of sustainability,” said Christopher White, America’s Best Cleaners executive director. “Many of ABC’s top affiliates are in double-digit growth mode, due in part to a strong environmental message.

“With the current media’s perception of drycleaning and the greenwashing of so-called organic and ecological practices by certain drycleaners, a partnership with the Green Business Bureau made complete sense for ABC to ensure their certified affiliates and the industry as a whole had an all encompassing plan to meet their ecological goals and were a green business as certified by a third party,” White said.

ABC has promoted environmentally responsible drycleaning since its inception in 1999, supporting a wider use of wetcleaning and CO2 cleaning to its affiliates. In 2006, ABC invited the California Air Resources Board to speak directly to affiliates. In 2008, ABC hosted a panel discussion for drycleaners that brought in experts from garment manufacturers, fashion retailers, a specialist in chemistry research for drycleaning and marketing experts from a leading market research firm.

French Cleaners in West Hartford, CT, has already received positive feedback from customers. “The new Green Business Bureau certification is awesome! I was so excited to find out how quick and easy it is to use,” said Phil Cote President of French Cleaners. “I have been doing things in my business that make sense already and now realize I can do a lot more and feel good about it while letting my customers know in real time what I am doing, it’s not just some poster bought from a supplier.”

Zengeler Cleaners and the Glass Slipper Project (GSP) have renewed their ongoing partnership that helps thousands of high school women experience the joy of prom. This is the eighth straight year the family-owned company has partnered with Glass Slipper Project by accepting donations of prom dresses and accessories at all seven of its stores in Lake and Cook Counties in Illinois.

Zengeler Cleaners works with local schools to collect the dresses at the company’s locations in Deerfield, Hubbard Woods, Northfield, Winnetka and the headquarters store in Northbrook.

Last year, the drive gathered 3,650 dresses and hundreds of accessories, with a combined value of $1.5 million. The effort was officially supported by students from Deerfield, Libertyville, Lake Forest, Adlai E. Stevenson and Carmel Catholic High School. Students from many other schools brought dresses directly to Zengeler Cleaners locations, as did many Zengeler customers.

“Zengeler Cleaners is excited to support the Glass Slipper Project once again this year,” said Tom Zengeler, company president. “Their work provides an invaluable service for teenage women at a very vulnerable time in their lives. We are confident that we’ll have another extremely successful collection drive in the coming school year. In that spirit, we invite other schools who are interested in helping to contact us so we can all work together for this wonderful cause.”

The Glass Slipper Project was founded by women who recognized that many girls cannot afford the luxury of spending big dollars for a prom. The organization distributes the formal dresses and accessories free of charge to these students at Glass Slipper "boutiques," where each student receives individual assistance from a volunteer "personal shopper."

In addition to its role as an official collection point, Zengeler Cleaners also inspects, repairs as needed and cleans each and every donated prom dress brought to their stores – all donated to the organization.

Vito Graziano has joined Hamilton Engineering as a service technican. Graziano has more than 20 years of experience in the HVAC and electrical fields and has experience in all aspects of commercial building maintenance, repairs, installations, and ductwork.

Graziano holds an associate degree in climate control technology and has a third class refrigeration license, universal CFC certification and a State of Michigan journeyman electrician license.