Evergreen Laundry Adds 25 New Jobs to Community in First Year

CLEVELAND — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Cleveland Foundation President and CEO Ronald Richard recently marked the one-year anniversary of the Evergreen Laundry Cooperative and discussed a “one-year report card” for the worker-owned cooperative.

The new report, prepared by the Cleveland Foundation, outlines the benefits that the laundry and another year-old Evergreen business, Ohio Cooperative Solar, have brought the community.

The Evergreen Laundry Cooperative, located in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood, launders linens from hospitals, nursing homes and hotels, using ultra-energy-efficient technology and recycling waste heat and water. It launders approximately 3 million pounds each year, with a capacity of 10 million pounds.

It employed seven people at start-up in October 2009, and had 25 employees at its one-year anniversary. The Judson and McGregor retirement communities, Parma Community Hospital, and Staybridge Suites and Renaissance Cleveland hotels are its major clients.

“The Evergreen Cooperative initiative is a model for how we can create green jobs in communities all across Ohio and the country,” says Brown. “These for-profit, environmentally responsible businesses are helping revive historic but often neglected neighborhoods in downtown Cleveland.”

The Evergreen Cooperative is a partnership between the residents of six of Cleveland’s neighborhoods, the Cleveland Foundation, the City of Cleveland and several of the city’s most important “anchor institutions” — Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and many others.

You can read the Cleveland Foundation report here.