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News
Green cleaning business walks the talk
Thursday, 19 November 2009
By Virin Gomber
The rapidly growing popularity of eco-friendly and sustainable practices has resulted in a number of businesses jumping onto the green bandwagon – some not so serious but others taking it very seriously and making tangible contributions.
Clean Planet director Mark Houghton Brown. Photo Virin Gomber.
One such dedicated NZ company, Clean Planet, is giving new meaning to the term green-washing and satisfying businesses’ appetite for environmentally sustainable suppliers. Founded just 18 months ago, this eco-friendly commercial cleaning business has grown exponentially from an initial three franchises to more than 25 throughout Auckland.
Clean Planet director Mark Houghton Brown thinks many companies are developing sustainability strategies and looking for suppliers to help them ‘walk the talk’.
“The sustainability concept is hard to define, and it’s particularly harder to convince businesses on this. But we have experienced exponential growth following this track since starting,” Mark told Business to Business.
“There’s huge demand for truly environmentally-friendly services, not just tokenism, and companies are paying attention to what’s going down their sink for both the health of their staff and the health of our environment,” he said.
The company aims to significantly reduce its use of chemical based cleaners; the products they use avoid environmentally-damaging chemicals such as bleaches, chlorine based cleaners, EDTA, dyes or phosphates and keep the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to an absolute minimum.
Clean Planet is an active member of the Sustainable Business Network, and focussing on reducing the company’s carbon footprint by employing a range of sustainability initiatives. Its cleaning team’s uniforms are made from sustainable textiles; all franchisees drive Euro 4 eco-friendly vehicles; customers are supplied with eco-friendly cleaning products and consumables for use between visits; and its vacuum cleaners have special filters to clean the air.
“We have set pretty high standards for ourselves, so are now also producing our own locally manufactured commercial green-cleaning products, which have recently achieved independent Environmental-Choice accreditation,” Matthew Morrison of Clean Planet said.
“Our products work better than the conventional cleaning products, and our services are still reasonably commercially viable,” he added.
Where possible, the company uses products with Environmental-Choice certification; this includes its own formulations of new-generation multi-purpose cleaner, toilet clean and dishwashing liquid. Approximately 90% of the products Clean Planet franchisees currently use are produced in the company’s Mangere Bridge factory.
The first retail product in the Clean Planet home range is Clean Planet Hand Clean Gel, a hand sanitiser with skin conditioners that is free from phosphates or EDTA’s and contains no nasty colours or dyes. The products are allergy-friendly and not harmful to children or adult hands.
The company’s clients include some of New Zealand’s most demanding workplaces, from blood test provider Labtests to industrial manufacturer Fletcher Steel to retail shopping centre Southmall.
The centre manager for Southmall in Manurewa, Alan Cameron, said his decision to move to Clean Planet fits with a new campaign to update Southmall’s image and reduce the centre’s carbon footprint. “We believe environmental sustainability is important – we all need to be doing something and Clean Planet provided an ideal solution,” he said.
One of the major changes Clean Planet has implemented with Southmall is the use of a new environmentally friendly floor scrubber, which can save thousands of litres of water each year and eliminates the use of chemicals. The technology electrically converts plain tap water to perform like a powerful detergent, with no added chemicals.
“Our mission is ultimately quite simple. The cleaning industry is essential, but it has a highly destructive impact on human health and the environment. We want to turn this around, and show there is another way; initially by developing and using naturally-derived, ecologically-benign yet formidably effective formulations which are kind to people and animals and biodegrade rapidly once they have done their job, and then by bearing down holistically on every aspect of the business, so we can help our clients to be green as well as clean,” Mark explained.
The company is also looking to spread its green-cleaning services further afield, with the establishment of the first Clean Planet regional franchisees outside Auckland including Wellington and Christchurch.
“The huge response to what we’re doing tells us that we’re on the right track – that more and more people see there is a better way and want to support it,” he concluded.
