Sir David Attenborough recently said ‘we’re running out of time to save the planet’ “Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change”. Many organisations believe that making environmentally positive changes to the way they work will be much more expensive, in my experience this is not the case.
Having been deeply affected personally by the David Attenborough series Blue Planet, I have a goal to accelerate the Worlds Transition to Sustainable Cleaning and I am convinced that it is only a matter of time before this happens.
The world is definitely changing and I see environmentally positive vegetable-based products and probiotic cleaners replacing 90% of traditional crude oil based commercial cleaning products within 3 years, as more and more companies embrace the concept of the Circular Economy.
I see two Mega Trends having a massive impact on cleaning, the Environmental Impact on air, water and soil pollution and secondly User Health. When I think back to the devastating effect that Netflix had on Blockbuster Video’s business and what Uber have done to the Taxi Trade, I can see changes of this magnitude occurring in the cleaning chemicals manufacturing industry.
I believe we are about to experience one of the biggest shake ups ever seen in our Industry. There will be casualties unless companies are prepared to adapt and accept that what was appropriate 2 years ago is not acceptable now. Unfortunately, history tells us that many businesses will not make that change and I worry for their future.
Resource scarcity, sustainability, and recycling are becoming more everyday influences on our lives, but increasingly the concept of the “circular economy” is being understood and implemented. Its definition is simple: an economy based on renewable resources rather than the ever-depleting fossil fuels we drill or pump out of the earth. Once they are gone, they are gone forever and while we are using them, they are doing a lot of damage.
We live in an ever-increasingly resource scarce world with finite fossil fuel resources, where prices are going through the roof. Therefore, it is vital that we begin to develop a circular economy in order to have a long term sustainable future. When better understood, it will be clear that the circular economy offers solutions to both social and environmental concerns.
The next big phase for us in cleaning, is about replacing all harmful non-renewable chemicals with environmentally positive products that are derived from renewable resources without affecting efficacy and increasing cost.
The Environmental & Health Impacts of Conventional Cleaning Products
A recent study by the University of Bergen in Norway has found that using conventional cleaning products on a daily basis can be as harmful as smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
With regards to user health, the recent study by PhD student Laura Van den Borre (VUB), entitled Health risks in the cleaning industry, provides some very important insights. Van den Borre investigated the cause of death for 250,000 men and women from the Belgian working population, spread over 20 years. Among other things, her thesis revealed that mortality rates for the cleaning sector are 36 to 45% higher compared to other occupational sectors. Moreover, cleaners are twice as likely to suffer from chronic lung diseases and cardiovascular diseases as those in other occupations. Additionally, interior climate is of great relevance to people’s health as well. Exposure to certain volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) often found in petrochemical products can be hazardous to health.
I recently did some work with the Camden Clean Air Initiative who believe that swapping out petrochemical cleaning products containing VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) can massively increase air quality in schools.
People with pre-existing respiratory conditions such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can be susceptible to colds and upper respiratory symptoms, when exposed to elevated levels of certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
According to a study conducted by Harvard in 2016, which aimed to assess the impact of varying levels of air pollution and carbon dioxide on cognitive function, it was found that, the average person is able to concentrate for 13 seconds less than if they were in a less polluted environment. Children are particularly vulnerable to poor indoor air quality
Early indications from a case study carried out by the Camden Clean Air Initiative in a local primary school seems to indicate that making small changes can have a large effect on the improvement in air quality. Improving air flow by opening windows and doors and exchanging conventional cleaning products for environmentally friendly ones can potentially reduce VOC levels by up to 50%.
The Health Benefits of Cleaning with Probiotics
A study indicating that cleaning with Probiotics can be an effective strategy against Hospital Acquired Infections, may well have implications in commercial buildings.
The study carried out by Dr Robin Temmerman in Belgium indicates that cleaning with probiotics lowered the presence of H-A-I associated microorganisms on hard surfaces.
It compared conventional cleaning procedures using petrochemical based products, to a probiotic cleaning regime. The results were very positive without significantly lowering the total microbial counts, i.e. good bacteria replaced the bad bacteria.
Microbial cleaning, as part of the daily cleaning protocol, resulted in a reduction of HAI-related pathogens by 50 to 89%. This effect was achieved after 3 to 4 weeks and the reduction in the pathogen load was stable over time
In layman’s terms the way probiotics work is by totally overpopulating a surface with food grade bacteria which then compete with the pathogens for food sources and ultimately there can be only one winner.
Although conducted to measure the effectiveness of probiotic cleaning products on the spread of pathogens in hospitals. It could logically be concluded that similar effects would be seen in a workplace environment with all the health benefits included.
Further circumstantial evidence comes from trials my company did recently in a large building in the City of London where the contractor noted an increase in the efficacy of the products and a “significant reduction” in staff absenteeism during the trial period.
Conclusion
We can no longer rely on conventional crude oil based petro chemical products that end up polluting our oceans and damaging our people. Instead, we need to focus on crop based and probiotic cleaners. When crops are harvested, they grow again and while they are growing, they are absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen. Once harvested they regrow.
Bacteria, continue to reproduce while there is a food source available and fortunately for us that food source is normally organic matter that we think of as dirt.
In my opinion we need to stop using conventional cleaning products and start to harness the power of nature. For millions of years bacteria have been randomly cleaning up the world at large, now let’s harness that power, to clean our built environment.