SALESIANER is a family-owned company founded in Vienna in 1916, initially having started as a laundry and cleaning business. In 1970, Hans Krautschneid, the son of the founders, imports the idea of textile renting from the US. Since then, the company has specialized in renting out and washing textiles, in 2020 having a total of 30 sites in ten countries. The company owns an additional 15 laundries throughout Europe, offering textile rental and hygiene services for the healthcare sector, hotels and restaurants as well as workwear for industry and commerce.

The company did not reach the share of active washing substances with an eco-label of 19.8% in 2019 but aims to attach its goal of 75% in 2025. The reduction in energy consumption per kilogram of laundry has effectively reached the goal of 1,54 kWh/kg in 2019, SALESIANER following to further improve this by 2025 to a 1,35 kWh/kg. Overall, the company aims to reduce the consumption of energy, chemicals and water by 2025. 

Subsequent to the Industrial Revolution, a new approach to a product’s lifetime has been implemented into the society, textiles becoming disposable and being quickly discarded. Currently, the lifespan of a piece of clothing is between 2 to 10 years and only 12% of the material used for clothing ends up being recycled, no data being available to reused materials. As most of the textiles end up in landfills, there is an urgent need to reuse textiles that end up being thrown away due to fast fashion. 

SALESIANER is Austria’s leading textile rental company, generating a turnover of around €241 million in the 2019/20 financial year and working under the Austrian Ecolabel with the aim of protecting the future generations and the environment.

The company is focused on elongating the lifespan of professional materials used in the healthcare sector, hotels and restaurants as well as workwear for industry and commerce. SALESIANER is also offering cleanroom textiles, washroom hygiene products, dust control and graphic mats. Their focus on sustainability is revealed through their targets of using less water and energy consumption in the cleaning process, using ecologic active washing substances for laundry services, and reducing transportation emissions by using trucks complying with the EURO standards.

The company has an equal share of 35% between healthcare and hotel and catering sectors, with an additional 25% of activity within the workwear for industry sector and the smallest percentage of work dedicated to washroom hygiene. 

The laundry energy consumption has decreased from 1,73 kWh / kg in 2015 to 1,52 kWh / kg in 2020.

The corporate carbon footprint has decreased from 0,44 CO2/t of laundry in 2015 to 0,4 CO2/t of laundry in 2020, the company aiming to further reduce this increment to 0,28 by 2025.

The water consumption per kilogram of laundry has decreased from 12,21 l/kg in 2015 to 11 l/kg in 2020.

The Diesel consumption in litres of fuel per kilogram of transported laundry has complied to the European regulations, having decreased from 0,0199 l/kg if 2015 to 0,0186 l/kg in 2020.

During the pandemic, the company has ensured sustainability remained a priority whilst ensuring the best hygienic standards are met, having been certified as a flagship company by the Austrian government:

“While global supply chains for disposable medical products had all but seized up, SALESIANER MIETTEX was able to guarantee the supply of high quality, hygienic textiles for general hospital operations as well as for intensive care and surgical use every single day. This is something that absolutely needs to be given greater priority in public sector procurement activities, as it really is a matter of life and death.” - Monica Rintersbacher, Managing Director Leitbetriebe Austria