Evergreen Cooperative Laundry taking over Cleveland Clinic-owned laundry facility

Lydia Coutre

Evergreen Cooperative Laundry is taking over management of Cleveland Clinic's laundry facility in the city's Collinwood neighborhood, an expansion that brings more than 100 new employees into ECL.

The additional location joins ECL's original facility in Glenville, where 50 workers are employed.

"This expansion validates the core idea at the heart of the Evergreen model—that businesses owned by workers can succeed and thrive in the market, helping close the wealth gap," Brett Jones, executive vice president at the Evergreen Cooperatives, said in a prepared statement.

ECL is part of the Evergreen Cooperatives, a network of companies in Cleveland that creates jobs and builds community wealth through cooperative business ownership with businesses located in historically disinvested neighborhoods, according to a news release. To achieve this goal, Evergreen Cooperatives leverage the purchasing power of anchor institutions.

"We are proud of this new collaboration with Evergreen Cooperatives because of the impact it will have on the local community," Ralph Turner, executive director of patient support services at Cleveland Clinic, said in a prepared statement. "We see this as an important step we can take to support the health and wellbeing of our neighbors, including the ECL employees."

ECL was the first of the Evergreen Cooperatives, which launched in 2009 with the support of the Cleveland Foundation and other local stakeholders. The cooperatives now employ 220 workers. The other cooperatives are Evergreen Energy Solutions and Green City Growers.

"The city of Cleveland welcomes the opportunity for all businesses — new or well established — to participate and grow in our community," Mayor Frank G. Jackson said in a prepared statement. "Investments from employee-owned companies like Evergreen Cooperative Laundry help create more wealth for people in our neighborhoods while making our city an even more desirable place to live, work, play and do business."

"Evergreen Cooperative Laundry taking over Cleveland Clinic-owned laundry facility" originally appeared in Crain's Cleveland Business.

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