Fornet

Leon Wennekes

the eco dry cleaner of the future

With over fifteen years’ experience in the business, it was only a matter of time before Leon Wennekes launched his own dry cleaning startup. Fornet opened its doors in Zuidas in June of this year, and now Leon and his team are proving that there are plenty of ways to go green in the dry cleaning and garment repair business.

“The question is: does every household really still need its own washing machine in the future?” Leon asks from behind the counter of his flagship store on Claude Debussylaan. “On average, people do 2.2 loads of laundry per week. The rest of the time, that machine is standing there doing nothing, and meanwhile taking up one to two square metres of space per household.” On top of that the machines at Fornet wash two to three times more environmentally friendly than the laundry machine at home. “So our laundry process is more sustainable than washing at home and besides that we give clothes longer life with gentle cleaning processes and our repair department”, Leon adds. “We do everything a traditional dry cleaner and repair shop does, while keeping a sustainable future in mind.”

Eco pledge Fornet’s services consist mainly of laundry, dry cleaning, garment repairs and shoe polishing. Except for flat linen, Fornet does everything on site, working exclusively with energy-efficient machines. “We also work with a number of eco pledges. To begin with, thanks to the efficient washing machines and e-bikes used to collect laundry from clients, we emit 30% less CO2 and we use 48% less tap water per kilo of laundry.” Furthermore, the gentle care Leon and his team give garments guarantees they last longer, while the in-house repair service contributes to a circular textile economy. “We aim to give clothes and shoes a longer life by nine months, resulting in a twenty to thirty percent lower environmental impact according to research by ECOs.”

90% less microplastics Added to this, Fornet is the first dry cleaner in Benelux to implement a professional microplastic filter by Planetcare, resulting in ninety percent filtration of plastic microfibres from polyester garments. That’s important because, as Leon points out, “More than a third of the plastic soup in our oceans is caused by the plastic particles that washing machines don’t filter out, and so end up draining into the oceans.” All of these environmentally friendly measures are part of Leon’s ambition to help everyone in the district, from local residents to corporates, reduce their textile eco-footprint. “We’re already working with a few organizations and hope to expand that in future. Unlike the industrial laundries that use containers for transport, Fornet focuses on laundry-bag sized volumes that are easy to collect on a daily basis by e-bike. We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to opt for eco-friendly garment cleaning and repairs.”

Fornet Claude Debussylaan 5A 1082 MC Amsterdam +31 (0)6 23 61 30 58 support@fornet.nl www.fornet.nl