Everyone drycleans. Be it your regular laundry preference or a more occasional service, reserved for expensive suits and luxury gowns, regular trips to the drycleaner are unavoidable. And while nothing else is as effective at reviving a beautiful garment, there can be an ugly side to this service; where historically, harsh chemicals and single-use products have been required in the cleaning process, significantly impacting the planet (and the quality of our clothes too). That said, not all drycleaners are created equal, and recently, our longstanding go-to, Regal Drycleaners, was officially announced as the country’s only certified zero carbon outfit, so now, our conscience can be as clean as our clothes.
Despite its long history as the leading drycleaner in Auckland, Regal’s recent acquisition of an Ekos Certification (a New Zealand-based measurable and verifiable standard) really cements our trust in the brand’s ethos. It has been a rigorous road to reach this point, but this status now means that an independent body has observed the carbon emissions within each element of the company’s business activities. And in instances where Regal was unable to change its processes to be more eco-conscious, efforts have, instead, been directed towards fully offsetting its carbon footprint by supporting the Babatana Rainforest Project in the Pacific Islands.
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But it’s where changes have been made that is the exciting and industry-disrupting part. Unnecessary packaging is a thing of the past, with single-use plastic garment bags banned entirely, and biodegradable film only offered as an optional extra, giving the power of choice back to the customer (something that should really be the new standard). In addition, there is also an offer of a reusable garment bag, which can become your new drycleaning regular (and doubles as a laundry bag when you’re ready to take everything back again). To add to that, the Couture Care service (the only service we would use for our most precious pieces) offers wooden hangers instead of the typical plastic.
As far as the chemical impact is considered, there are many benefits to using Regal’s cleaning processes — the gentler solutions help our beloved garments last longer. This limits potential textile waste and avoids toxic chemicals that some other drycleaners use (that have been shown to harm the planet, as well as the workers exposed to them daily).
Continuing in the vein of maximising the lifespan of our clothes, Regal’s specialised restoration services will bring pieces that we might have written off (and thrown out) back to life, and the company also offers a free pick-up and delivery service, which (in addition to being utterly convenient) tackles the cumulative carbon emissions of our individual, sole-purpose trips to drop off dry-cleaning.
With all of these thoughtful additions considered, it makes sense that Regal is our drycleaner of choice. And, given that the brand was voted the best in the city by our readers in last year’s Everyday Heroes, it’s safe to say that whenever we need drycleaning done, there’s only one place we’ll be calling.
