Meet the GBPAP18’s outstanding PTC showcases: Serena Kilaguni (Kenya)

For the coming period, we will present you week by week, the most outstanding PTC showcases that were officially nominated for The Global Best Practices Awards Program 2018. The profiles of these companies are also present in the WOPCOM platform, which you can access here.

Serena Kilaguni (Kenya) – The Special Award for Corporate Social Responsibility at GBPAP18 – Industrial Textile Services.

A great laundry almost in the middle of nowhere

Serena Hotels is a hospitality company which operates hotels and resorts in East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia. These hotels are up-scale level in all areas and accommodation is refined and stylish. This means service is deemed responsive, and hotels have an extensive array of facilities. Amongst others, Serena has a hotel/lodge in Tsavo West National Park in Kenia called “Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge”. Because of its relatively isolated location, the lodge has its own laundry facility which is part of the lodge.

Care for guests and care for employees

Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge is a lodge that offers numerous in-house-facilities like medical services, a conference centre, wellness services, comprehensive dinner possibilities and, of course, organised safari tours. The laundry facility operates to clean hotel linen like sheets and nappery. However, at minimal charge it can also be used by visitors themselves for cleaning personal clothing and fabrics. There are same day laundry services as majority of the guests use safari attire (special safari clothes). The company tries to make customers aware of the laundry facilities by using tent cards in rooms.

The laundry facility

There’s a various set of well-conditioned equipment in various capacities like washer extractors, tumble driers, ironer (calendar) machines and steam presses to do the job. There are dry cleaning facilities for delicate fabrics. Employees are empowered to reach their full potential which is done through promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Quality is maintained through visual inspections and can be proven by certification by
local government and certification by individual companies related to the laundry activities.

The laundry mainly processes hotel bedroom linen

A beautiful environment that Serena wants to keep preserved.

There are several ways Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge wants to preserve the environment. It even tries to involve its customers in this by advising guests in re-using sheets, bad towels and on how to conserve water. Also light sensors in guest rooms have been installed. To maintain green electricity, the company has invested in a large solar power plant that feeds the lodge and, of course, also the laundry facilities. With respect to the laundry process, operational sustainability is reached by only using proper loads and automatic dosage. Only selected cleaning chemicals are being used like eco-friendly detergents. There’s a bio digester on site that is fed by the laundry and that’s used to make it possible for grey water to be reused for gardens and for the local football pitch. Apart from the mentioned equipment like light sensors, bio digester and solar power plant which are fairly innovative techniques to save the use of resources, right now the company is in the process of acquiring even more modern washing machines and dryers that require less kwh consumption and use less water per load.
Management of Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge is proud that it has managed in an autonomous way to go green and apply eco-friendly business practices almost in the middle of nowhere.