EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network

Folehaven Green Laundry

Introduction

The evaluation of a refurbished communal laundry for an existing non-profit housing development.

Description

The green laundry is a communal laundry in a non-profit housing department for 1.600 people. The laundry was renovated in 2000, and designed as a "green laundry". The idea is to collect, cleanse and reuse all wastewater from the washing machines for new washes, in order to reduce water consumption and to avoid outlet of sewage. Also, rainwater is being collected and used for washing.

The wastewater is cleansed biologically, including an aquarium and a 'marshland' with fishes and turtles. This serves as an exhibition on the water circuit, especially for children. Furthermore, use of renewable energy has been included in the laundry.

Due to this concept, the laundry received massive and generally positive attention from the media, from environmental experts and from other non-profit housing associations.

It is important to notice, that the renovation consists of two parts:

'Traditional' renovation of the laundry, where old washing machines, tumble dryers etc. have been changed with new and more efficient equipment;
'Green' (and more spectacular) part, which includes the recirculation of the waste water, storm-water collection and biological treatment of the wastewater.

In 2002 the green laundry was evaluated, on environmental, social and economic issues. The evaluation was designed for this specific case, and was not based on a general concept. The evaluation pointed out a number of problems and questioned the environmental benefits, it also encouraged the owners and their consultants to set up an action plan to improve the laundry. The evaluation report recommended that the green laundry should not be replicated (in the present form) other places. The owners are however proud of the facility, and have gained other benefits from the laundry including positive attention in the media, therefore this might motivate others to creat similar projects.

This includes one of the few evaluations of a 'green' project, and it illustrates some of the problems related to such evaluations including a lack of data, disagreements on the results from the initiators etc. The evaluators have similar experiences from evaluation of other projects.

Background information

The handling of sewage in Denmark is to a large extent influenced by the Aquatic Environment Action Plans. These plans stem from the late 1980s, at that time focus was on the eutrophication of the Baltic and other Danish seas. They meant large investments in sewage treatment plants, basically financed by an increase in the price of water (a sewage tax). The increased water price, a number of campaigns and other measures have lead to a decrease in the water consumption, especially the water consumption in private households.

The focus on water and sewage in the early 1990s generated a number of experiments with alternative ways of handling wastewater. The sewage infrastructure in Copenhagen is mainly a one-line system, where rainwater and sewage from households come in the same pipelines. When there is heavy rain, the pipes overflow. The water is lead to retention trenches where it is kept for until the rain is over, and is then lead to the sewage treatment plant. If the capacity of the basins is not big enough, there will be overflow of polluted rainwater and wastewater into the recipients in times of heavy rain. Local collection or percolation of rainwater can help to solve this problem.

Methodology

The evaluation method is based on the general experience of the evaluator, and therefore newly elaborated. The evaluation builds on the material at hand. It was not, from the beginning, an evaluation with in-dept calculations or search of information with was not at hand.

EU involvement

The project was financed by support from the Green Fund (a national fund), the Urban Ecological Fund in Copenhagen and Valby Bydel (a local council representing the district Valby where Folehaven is located).

Conclusions

The result can roughly be divided into environmental benefits and economic benefits.

1. Environment

The sludge contains environmentally damaging substances LAS (Linear Alkylbenzen Sulfonat) and NPE (NonylPhenolEthoxylater). It is uncertain where they come from, but it could be due to residents using other types of washing powder than the eco-labelled ones that the functionality of the laundry was based on;
The first year the water consumption has been reduced from 30 to 13m3 per day, which is far more than expected. Most of the reductions (70%) are due to the new and low-consuming washing machines, 22% are due to use of storm-water and re-circulated wastewater, and 8% are due to fewer washes. However, the percentage provided by storm-water and re-circulated water has recently been increased to app. 60% of the water consumption for washing;
The consultants expect that the green cleansing plant will be able to provide all the necessary water for washing in the future. According to the evaluator this will be difficult, as the washing machines use less water, and the wastewater for recirculation therefore is reduced also;
A consequence of the efficient and water saving machines is that the environmental and economic benefits of the recirculation plant become relatively smaller. The electricity consumption has been reduced by app. 10%, so the total today is app. 600 MWh. However, there has been no separate measuring of the electricity consumption on the laundry, so the 600 MWh include all the shared consumption in Folehaven (i.e. all the electricity that is not used in the households), for instance light in stairways and in common rooms. As there have been no changes in these facilities - except that a coffee automat that has been installed in the laundry- it is estimated that the reduction is all due to the new laundry;
The reductions are mainly due to new efficient washing machines, whereas the recirculation plant has implied an increase in electricity consumption due to UV-light, pumps and others, but all in all the net result is a reduction in electricity consumption. A part of this reduction has been reached by changing electrically based equipment to equipment based on district heating and gas. Therefore this energy consumption has increased, so that the total energy consumption today is bigger than before the renovation. The precise amount is however uncertain, as no precise data for water and electricity consumption before and after the renovation were available. Therefore the environmental benefit of the green part of the laundry is uncertain;

2. Economy

The investments in new washing equipment is good, both in economic and ecologic respect. The green part of the laundry (local cleansing and recirculation of the wastewater) is however more problematic, because of the electricity consumption and the reduced water consumption of the washing machines, which reduces the profitability of the green waste-water treatment.

Contact info

Lading Arkitekter
Tove Lading (Architect), tel. 0045 32 83 19 68

Publication date

Researcher

Tove Lading, arkitekt & Lena Holm Christensen, arkitekt

Cities

Folehaven, Denmark

Links

More information on Lading Architects Practical Evaluation Tools for Urban Sustainability

Description of the project (PDF, 105KB) English

The report (in Danish only, PDF, 601KB) Dansk

Document type