INDUSTRIAL CLEANING REVOLUTION
When the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust looked to improve their buying behaviour and up their green cleaning status, they turned to Arrow County Supplies for advice.
Spread along the valley beside the River Severn in Shropshire, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust manages 10 award-winning museums and 35 historic sites. Accommodating up to 500,000 visitors per year, the Trust works hard to ensure that their facilities are consistently clean and safe.
The Trust turned to Arrow County Supplies to help them assess their current buying behaviour and investigate how and where changes could be made. Striving to achieve green- cleaning objectives without compromising on effectiveness, Dave Bates, Stores and Transport Manager, said: “Before we engaged with Arrow, we were just buying anything cleaning wise. Our stockroom was filled with a huge variety of cleaning products, the versatility of which we were not aware of.
“We are committed to providing clean, pleasant and safe environments for our visitors, but we wanted to work much smarter; spending less whilst operating a green cleaning programme was the focus. We needed to understand very clearly what we were spending, what we were using and the alternative products and process that we could adopt to achieve a more environmentally- friendly way of working. It was at this point that we got in touch with the team at Arrow.”
Embarking on a trial period within several sites at the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Arrow completed an in-depth investigation of the Museum’s buying behaviour. Identifying the products that could be swapped for a greener alternative and processes that could be made much more efficient, it wasn’t long before the Trust began to see the benefits.
Dave continued: “Further to Arrow’s assessment of our cleaning function, we have swapped many of our products and refreshed a string of procedural practices in line with their advice. Sourcing products that are as effective, yet less harsh on the environment, Arrow has helped us to successfully implement a green-cleaning programme that we continue to develop. As well as cutting our floor cleaning products down by 50%, amongst other positive changes we now no longer use bleach or aerosols and many of our products are recyclable.”
To complement the changes to the cleaning division at the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Arrow spent time with the cleaning team to ensure that
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
they were not only trained on how to effectively use the new products, but to maximise the successful roll out of a change in culture. Demonstrating the practicalities and the benefits of green cleaning, Arrow helped Dave to engage his team to change methods and behaviours to cut labour time and save cost.
It wasn’t long before the benefits of adopting Arrow’s recommendations began to surface. Dave recalled: “Although we have seen no reduction in our excellent cleaning standards further to switching to ‘green’, our spending on cleaning products has significantly decreased. Since we have been working with Arrow, our bills have been cut by 50% which is amazing. Further to Arrow’s intervention, we have reduced our spend in high season by 30%. Changes such as swapping our toilet roll holders for over-fitted twin roll holders for example, have enabled us to increase our efficiency which in turn has ultimately saved us money and reduced waste.”
Since working in partnership with Arrow, the Ironbridge Gorge Museums have entered and won the Green Tourism Award. Assessed on everything from cleaning products to C02 and recycling, Ironbridge Gorge Museum has become the only multisite museum in the country to achieve this status. Citing Arrow as the driving force behind their success in this award, Arrow’s details were published on the award body’s website for the information of all other green suppliers.
www.arrowcounty.com FEATURE | 53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70