When Farshad Sayan (LA '79) began washing fellow Jumbos' clothes in his off-campus apartment over 20 years ago, all he wanted was a few extra dollars. He had no idea that the small drop-off laundry business he started with his brother as a college job would be practice for the future.
Last week, however, Sayan found himself adding a new link to the growing chain of unique, eco-friendly dry cleaning stores he owns. Located off Boston Avenue at 152 North Street, Clevergreen Cleaners offers a full range of dry cleaning and tailoring services with a environmentally conscious twist: none of the cleaning methods use toxins that will damage the environment.
Sayan, who graduated from Tufts with a degree in chemistry, said he never expected that his education would lead him to where he is today.
"The dry cleaning business was a dirty business," he said. "They were messy and crowded."
After graduation, Sayan worked temporarily as the manager of a Hyatt Regency and then planned to open a racquet club. But while attempting to sell off dry cleaning equipment from a Framingham building he intended to convert into a club, an equipment buyer told Sayan about the history of the cleaning industry. It was during this conversation that Sayan learned about Tuttle Cleaners, a dry cleaning business in Charlestown, Mass.
According to Sayan, the store changed the way he saw the dry cleaning business.
"Tuttle was unlike any dry cleaners I had ever seen," Sayan said. "It was spotless and wide open." Sayan ended up buying the business and now operates several Tuttle Cleaners locations in the Boston area. He has been in the cleaning business ever since.
Sayan's businesses are Certified Environmental Dry Cleaners, approved by the International Fabricare Institute, the industry's main governing body. According to Sayan, the dry cleaning industry is changing rapidly.
"Not being enviro-conscious is shooting yourself in the foot," he said.
According to Sayan, the majority of dry cleaners haven't kept up with newer, safer technology. They still use perchloroethylene, or "PERC," as their solvent of choice.
While an effective cleaner, PERC is also a nervous system depressant, and overexposure affects the brain in ways similar to alcohol. It can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and skin and, at levels close to those allowed in the workplace, has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
According to the California Department of Health Services, PERC may also be responsible for higher incidences of liver and kidney damage. Once in the water table, PERC's density causes it to sink to lower levels but still remain highly mobile and toxic, thus making contamination cleanups problematic.
Perhaps most notoriously, PERC leakage from an industrial facility was fingered as the cause of leukemia in several children in Woburn, Mass. The resulting lawsuit was the basis for the 1998 film "A Civil Action."
In spite of these concerns, transitioning from traditional to environmentally-friendly machines can be costly. According to Sayan, most businesses lack the capital or the interest in the initial investment.
Sayan, however, has been a leader in the local industry. In 2001, Tuttle Cleaners became the first cleaner in the Boston area to utilize GreenEarth, a hydrocarbon substitute for PERC that biodegrades, but is still insoluble in water.
According to Sayan, Clevergreen Cleaners is "a step beyond that." The process they use "is the purest form of dry cleaning" that involves more advanced and safer solvents, he said.
Clevergreen uses a biodegradable hydrocarbon solvent known as DF2000, which vaporizes before it touches the garments and is then sucked up, filtered, and reused. The resulting process is much gentler than normal dry cleaning processes, which immerse the clothing in PERC. This green approach can even be used to clean beaded and sequined garments, Sayan said.
Clevergreen also makes an effort to conserve water. In addition to its specialized dry cleaning equipment, the business also owns two normal washers and specialty shirt washers, all of which recycle and filter their water into a reservoir. All of the equipment is computer-controlled to help maximize its efficiency.
This is all part of an effort to remain true to Clevergreen's original mission statement: "We are committed to educating ourselves and ongoingly improving the essence of 'Quality garment care.'"
"I spent a lot of time thinking about 'Why am I doing this?"' Sayan said. "I don't need the headache. Clevergreen was created out of a vision I have for what the dry cleaning industry could be."
Sayan's stores are physically designed to be open and inviting. The store fronts appear more like a family restaurant than a cleaner, with artwork dotting the walls and soft music playing in the background.
Sayan's vision has been gaining recognition since he first started building the Clevergreen chain. Four months after opening the first store on Charles Street in Boston, Clevergreen received the prestigious Best of Boston award from Boston Magazine. Clevergreen also offers a 15 percent discount to anyone with a valid Tufts ID.
"Twenty years ago," Sayan said, "I was more interested in preserving the company than helping the consumer." Now, the focus of his business has changed from the company to its customers and employees.
If Sayan has learned anything in his 28 years of dry cleaning, it's that "People want good quality service. They want to be taken care of. I am in the business of taking care of people," he said.
