When people think of environmentally friendly washroom products such as waterless urinals, sensor taps and automatic hand dryers, they may not always think of style as well. It’s not unusual to talk to potential customers who are interested in the water and energy savings that Ecoprod’s range of products can offer them but are concerned that they want to maintain a high end look, as if the two things are mutually exclusive. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Many of our products have won awards for their design and aesthetics as well as for their energy and water saving credentials.

Style is absolutely critical in public washrooms

The impression that a washroom makes on visitors to a building can have a huge impact on how they perceive the building as a whole, as well as on their perceptions of the brand. Washrooms can be very high footfall areas that get a high number of visitors and its critical that, at the very minimum, they are clean and well maintained. Taking it to the next level and putting in washrooms that are creatively designed with style in mind gives the impression that the organisation as a whole operates with attention to detail and quality in mind.

As well as style, many organisations are coming to realise that a clear commitment to the environment is an important factor in determining the public’s attitude to their organisation. Here again the choices made in the washroom can have a significant impact. The washroom is an obvious place where an organisation can overtly demonstrate its commitment to water and energy saving in a way that is visible to visitors.

Visible commitment to the environment

Many of our clients install waterless urinals, sensor taps and automatic dryers as a publicly visible part of their commitment to reducing their environmental impact. We sometimes talk to people who believe that you have to make a choice between sustainability and style but that’s really not the case any more. That’s why products such as URIMAT waterless urinals don’t just have a functional role to play. We’re increasingly installing them into high end environments where the look and feel are just as important as the functionality.

One example is our installation of URIMAT waterless urinals at HotelMK – a Hilton-branded hotel at the MK Dons stadium in Milton Keynes. Sue Dawson, operations director of HotelMK, told us that “the key selling points were the fact that the urinals were eco-friendly and the aesthetics of their design – that’s what sold me”. In locations such as HotelMK there are strict brand guidelines that govern the installation of every aspect of the washrooms, with which the URIMAT urinals had to comply. The result is an installation that, in Sue’s words, is “a very modern-looking facility – we’re very happy with the results – it feels fresh and modern”.

Style and functionality work together

Our miscea sensor taps are often installed in dentists’ surgeries, another kind of public environment where style is as important as functionality. Says dentist Philip Friel, “When you’re building a new clinic you want something that looks very nice from an aesthetic point of view and in that respect the miscea tap is outstanding. The look of it is important but it’s also about the function and the reliability. We use it all the time, day in day out, so it gets heavy use.” Another client, Dr Werner Slabbert of the Sussex Implant Centre, agrees: “The first time I saw it [the miscea tap] in someone else’s practice I was quite impressed with it, with the aesthetic look of it…It is a gold standard tap and that’s what our aim was with this practice – to set up a gold standard practice.”

When one thinks of products such as automatic hand dryers, perhaps aesthetics aren’t necessarily top of mind, but products such as the Mitsubishi Jet Towel are designed with form as well as function in mind. Mitsubishi developed this product specifically with the needs of interior designers in mind. That’s why the Jet Towel is available in white, black or silver – colours that have been chosen because they go with virtually every colour palette that a washroom designer might choose. The Jet Towel also has a cutting edge, slightly futuristic look which works particularly well in ultra modern buildings or those where style is critical, such as nightclubs and restaurants.

Cut water and energy usage

Products such as URIMAT urinals, miscea or Conti+ taps and Mitsubishi Jet Towel dryers can all be included as part of the same installation to give a consistently modern and stylish look to a new washroom installation whilst also significantly cutting water and energy usage, so making a sizeable contribution to an organisation’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact. For example:-

• One paper towel dispenser used 200 times per day creates 1,800 pounds of paper towel waste each year. In comparison, the Jet Towel keeps restrooms cleaner and lowers the carbon footprint of hand drying by 85%.
• Traditional taps can use up to 10-15 litres of water per minute. In comparison, our Conti+taps offer flow rates of as little as 2 litres per minute, up to 70% less than traditional taps and our miscea taps use around 60% less water than traditional taps.
• Installing URIMAT waterless urinals can save an organisation up to 100,000 litres of water per urinal per year.