New York – LG Electronics will
outfit all 45 Broadway theaters with new energy-efficient laundry pairs to help
The Great White Way reduce electricity and water usage.
The washers and dryers were
pledged last night at the 64th Annual Tony Awards, where LG served as the premier
sponsor of the show’s celebrity gift lounge backstage at Radio City Music Hall.
A laundry pair was donated to a theater each time a luminary stopped by. Guests
included Scarlett Johansson, Viola Davis, Helen Mirren, Sean Hayes, Nathan
Lane, Raquel Welch, Kristen Chenoweth and the band Green Day.
“When you think of
Broadway, you probably don’t think of laundry,” said Susan Sampliner, co-chair
of the Broadway Green Alliance (BGA), which has helped implement a host of
greener practices over the past two years, including major recycling programs,
switching to more eco-friendly cleaning products, and converting marquee and
outside lighting to more efficient LED or CFL bulbs. “But the reality is that
the theater community generates thousands of pounds of laundry a week, which
results in a huge expenditure of water and energy. By partnering with LG to
replace theaters’ older laundry pairs with new ultra-efficient washers and
dryers, we will be able to drastically reduce our energy and water
consumption.”
BGA estimates that a Broadway
theater on average does six loads or 54 pounds of laundry each day. By
replacing traditional top-load washers with LG’s new energy-efficient models,
it is estimated that the theaters can save 146,000 kilowatt-hours of
electricity and 1.5 million gallons of water annually, for a total savings of
$23,000 a year – enough to light all of the marquees on Broadway for three
months.
Stars were also encouraged to
“air their dirty laundry” by autographing a t-shirt made of recycled bottles
and sharing juicy tidbits of Hollywood gossip. Members of Green Day revealed
that drummer Tre Cool has the dirtiest laundry in the band, while Justin Bartha
said Zach Galifianakis took the title on the set of “The Hangover.” Other
participants included Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Mark Sanchez,
Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Ricky Martin, Matthew Morrison, Paula Abdul, Chris Noth and
David Hyde Pierce.
LG’s front-load washers with
direct-drive motors feature six-motion technology that allows the drum to
tailor each load with a combination of motions including rolling, stepping,
swinging, scrubbing, filtration and tumbling. The motions also allow for cold
water usage, which provides the cleaning performance of warm water while using
up to 51 percent less energy.
Like all its washers, the new
models are Energy-Star rated and use up to 40 percent less water than
conventional top-load machines, LG said.
