Hand Dryers And Hand Sanitizers: Two Ways To Reduce Your Business' Carbon Footprint

Carbon tax regulations in many areas have brought environmental awareness to a higher level. Business owners must now make serious efforts to reduce their carbon footprints for more than simply altruistic reasons. Many of these business owners are starting in the bathroom by installing automatic hand dryers and hand sanitizers.

Paper towels have come under fire in the last decade for being a major culprit in the fight to reduce landfill waste. Paper towels were formerly found in about 99 percent of public washrooms in North America.

Paper towels had a number of benefits over cloth towels when it came to public washrooms. They were convenient for patrons. They were usually more convenient for business owners too because they didn't have to worry about laundering them. Nor did they have to worry about transmission of disease through multiple usages.

Unfortunately, they had some drawbacks too. Destined for the garbage can after just one use, they created a lot of litter. This meant that litter must be removed frequently. In bigger businesses with heavy traffic, it sometimes meant several trips per day to the dumpster. It was one more thing that ate up employee's work time and took away from the real running of the business.

Automatic hand dryers eventually hit the market and became the norm. They were seen by many as a way to reduce litter and add efficiency to a business' operations.

The problem with these early models was their inherent lack of efficiency. Some businesses managed to reduce paper towel usage somewhat. However, most weren't able to eliminate it altogether. The units proved to be too slow and insufficient for most patrons. Many would start with the hand dryers, only to turn to paper towels to finish the job for lack of patience.

Business owners also began to notice that the cost "savings," if any was negligible. Any savings from reduced towel use was eaten up by increased electricity costs.

The renewed interest in (and in some cases, mandate of) environmental awareness has lead to much better product development. Modern high-speed automatic models, like the Blu-Storm and the Xlerator Hand Dryer, are considerably more efficient than their predecessors. In fact, they dry two to three times faster than older models and use an average of eighty percent less electrical energy.

Most modern hand dryers are "touch-free." This means they turn on using automatic sensors and shut off after a programmed period of time. This allows patrons to use them without transmitting germs to the surface of a button.

Hand sanitizer dispensers are another popular method for reducing paper towel waste in public buildings. These units are a soap-and-water-free way to remove bacteria and germs from the skin's surface. These devices exploded in popularity during the swine flu epidemic of 2008 and 2009.

Units like the Purell hand sanitizer dispenser look like washroom soap dispensers. They can be installed anywhere, not just the restroom. They are touch-free and motion sensor operated. They dispense hand sanitizer when a user holds his palms over the sensor. The amount that is dispensed is portion controlled. The liquid or foam needs only to be rubbed into the skin to be effective.

Correctly used, the liquid or foam is at least as effective as soap and hot water at killing germs. Placed in several locations around a business' interior, these dispensers save trips to the washroom sink, time, energy and paper towels. They also help to effectively reduce the spread of disease-causing germs in public areas.

Many hand sanitizer and automatic hand dryer units are recognized by LEED for their reduced environmental impact. "LEED" stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design," a "green" building certification system. LEED helps building and business owners make environmentally-conscious building and decorating choices.