Meet The GBPAP2020 Winners: GCS-BIH77 (France), Overall Winner Cat. ITS

 

GCS BIH77 (Blanchisserie Interhospitalière) (France) has won the Overall Best Practices Award in Category ITS. The International GBPAP2020 Jury appreciated the company’s outstanding focus on quality, CSR and sustainability.

BIH-77, a laundry that cares for its staff

BIH77 is a laundry which opened its doors on April 1, 2013 under the impetus of six hospitals in Seine et Marne having a common desire to regroup their linen function and to invest in modern equipment to be at the cutting edge of technology. It is located in the industrial zone north of Meaux. The laundry currently processes 24 tonnes of laundry per day, mainly hospital and residential laundry, and its maximum capacity is 30 tonnes per day.

BIH77 values its employees

BIH77 is a social enterprise that values ​​its staff and is ready to offer chances to people in precarious situations. To this end, it has several training programs to improve the quality of it staff. Recently, the company signed a partnership agreement with SCOFOB for the opening of a laundry in a training center. In recent years, BIH77 has taken a number of measures in terms of recruitment, focused on the integration of people in precarious situations and people with disabilities. “The workplaces have been adapted to these people to allow them to work in good conditions. This made it possible to win a prize in the MNH competition for the recruitment of disabled people,” notes Serge Gibert, the laundry manager.

BIH77 has also invested in measures ensuring the well-being of all its staff. An acoustic study was carried out with the installation of individual equipment for each employee, including hearing protection, depending on the position of the decibels to ensure occupational health. In addition, the 6,400 m2 processing facility was built with 77 windows which allowed the workstations to be positioned according to the position of the windows allowing natural light to pass through.

Quality of service

Maintaining and improving the quality of service is very important to BIH77. The processes of constant validation of the adherence to RABC standards and of the current procedure for ISO 9001 are maintained. Monthly bacteriological samples are taken and are also sent to member institutions and clients to keep them informed of the current level of service. Bacteriological samples are also taken twice a year by an external company to preserve objectivity. BIH77 has taken many steps to improve sustainability. Optimising energy efficiency and limiting the use of chemicals that are harmful to the environment are high on the board’s agenda. A few examples include research on the adaptation of detergent to washing at low temperature and recovery heat exchanges. All the water used in the laundry processes is treated by osmosis to obtain a water quality suitable to the needs of the plant, thus limiting the use of chemicals and improving the rendering of the laundry when leaving the machine. The green roof on the building has a regulating effect on the temperature inside as well as on pollution and humidity.

Innovation is a constant process

There are several heat exchanger systems, the heat given off by the water is recovered to heat the washing water and a water collector has been installed. Optimising washing loads by grouping them by categories also optimises efficiency while improving service quality. In addition, the laundry has invested in light sensors, solar panels and energy-saving light bulbs.

BIH 77 has established partnerships to reduce waste and promote the recycling of pallets, paper and cardboard. Recycling actions are an ecological but also an economic and even a social problem. These partnerships allow the creation of integration projects with the creation of jobs for people in precarious or disabled situations.

 

Proud GBPAP2020 Overall Award (ITS) Winners

GBPAP2020, a great streaming success!

Over 20.000 professionals from the industry followed The Global Best Practices Awards 2020 in an extensive program of some 7 hours on November 4 and 5 last and witnessed how the international independent jury of 20 professionals gave the Overall Awards to Oceanside Cleaners from the USA (Retail Textile Cleaning Cat -SME), Oxwash from the UK (Retail Textile Cleaning Cat Big) and GCS – BIH 77 from France (Cat Industrial Textile Services).

 GBPAP2020 Aftermovie