This month’s sustainable cleaning is sponsored by


www.kcprofessional.co.uk The Sustainability Forecast


Tomorrow’s Cleaning Editor, Charlotte Taylor, looks at sustainable cleaning in 2012, and asks some industry experts what their prediction is for all things green.


The buzz word for the last few years has undoubtedly been “green.” I’ve heard it everywhere I go – from doing my weekly shop to researching at work. These days, we all do our bit when it comes to recycling. Our coffee and our chickens enter our homes in reduced packaging. We even carry our goods around in


recycled hemp bags. But do we know why we’re doing this? Do we really understand sustainability?


I do believe that the consumer side will take a long time to accept the benefits of going green, especially when it often comes at an additional cost, in a world where cost is a huge


factor in the current economical climate. But, the question still exists - what about the commercial industries, including the cleaning industry?


I’ve watched the cleaning industry embrace green cleaning in the past few years. It began as an idea and now it has taken a firm hold in


“There is remarkable little formal or centralised research data on whether sustainable cleaning in Europe is growing. This lack probably results from confusion over the definition of exactly what constitutes sustainability in cleaning as well as the current unstructured gathering of market information concerning sustainability. Too often companies, whose cleaning products are by their nature toxic, claim that increasing dilution or reducing chemical usage by other means makes their product ‘sustainable’, when true maintenance of the environment for future generations; true sustainability, can only be achieved by eliminating unnecessary


discharges of toxins and pollutants. The AISE ‘Charter for Sustainable Cleaning’ is a worthy attempt by the soaps and detergents industry in Europe to ‘reduce the footprint of the detergents and maintenance products industry,’ but does following that charter actually guarantee sustainable cleaning?


“We do have some signs that sustainability is gaining pace. Activeion, whose products clean with no use of chemicals whatsoever other than tap water, knows from the continuing development of its sales and of its new markets, that the wish for, and use of, sustainable cleaning is definitely increasing. New product and service companies are


“In 2012, sustainability within the cleaning industry will come under pressure, as the


22 | TOMORROW’S CLEANING | The future of our cleaning industry SUSTAINABLE CLEANING


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focus further shifts to costs and profitability, and away from environmental and social issues. Increasingly, clients for building cleaning services are rejecting sustainability based initiatives unless they can demonstrate a short term return to the bottom line. While previously, clients may have considered environmental or social initiatives as part of a corporate CSR policy, today profit maximisation and cost reduction are key, and unless initiatives will provide a measurable return within the financial year then they are unlikely to be considered. For cleaning


constantly being founded to serve the worldwide chemical-free cleaning market. Certification of sustainable cleaning products and of sustainable approaches to cleaning is growing every year. Sustainability has already become a badge of corporate social responsibility, and this wish among cleaning professionals to be seen to be green will continue to rise.”


Activeion www.activeion.co.uk


contractors, the challenge is to be able to monetise their initiatives in terms of cost reduction and bottom line gains and also to manage execution risk so that the client gets what they have agreed to. Cleaning contractors with a track record of delivery in this field will have a better chance of success than those that are starting out.”


Andrew Large, Chief Executive of the CSSA


www.cleaningindustry.org


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