20 minute read
Big Interview
Cleaning UP
As governments ramp up plans to reach net-zero in the coming decades, the world’s attention is on tackling the climate emergency. The business supplies industry overall may not currently be lauded for its environmental credentials, but there are a few standout companies that are leaders in the field of sustainability. One of them is European jan/san vendor Greenspeed
Netherlands-based professional jan/san manufacturer Greenspeed is passionate about responsible cleaning. It flows through every aspect of the business, from its production factory and the ingredients it sources and uses within its detergents and microfibre cloths, to packaging and distribution.
Innovation is in Greenspeed’s DNA and the company is constantly improving the efficiency, user-friendliness and sustainability of its products, with everything tied to the circular economy. While its principles and vision offer a blueprint for sustainable manufacturing, it hasn’t always been plain sailing and an easy sell.
In what could be considered a perfectly timed interview – just before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), and with the ongoing pandemic inducing a fervent focus on health and hygiene – OPI’s Michelle Sturman spoke to Greenspeed Commercial Director Johan Tops.
OPI: Greenspeed may not be a familiar name to many of our readers outside Europe, so let’s start with a brief description of the company.
Johan Tops: Sure. Greenspeed’s sustainable detergents foundation lies with some diehard hippies sporting long beards and sandals who wanted to change the world for the better. They also happened to be scientists.
It marked the beginnings of Ecover around 40 years ago on a small farm in Belgium where the idea was to make the very first phosphate-free washing powder. It was made in a concrete mixer – so originally low skill, low budget and slightly amateurish – but born out of a big dream and vision.
In 1992, Ecover’s business had taken off and it built a big ecological factory – another world first, I believe. Then, in 2000, the company decided to enter the professional market. The initial five years were quite difficult as, at that time, there wasn’t really a demand for ecological cleaning products in the B2B sector.
I arrived at Ecover Professional in 2006 to help develop the B2B business. At about that time, Ecover signed its first large distribution partners. However, these were not in the OP industry, but came from the traditional jan/san arena.
So, for us, and equally for Europe, it was the beginning of ecological cleaning products in the B2B market. A few years later, there were several early adopters in the office supplies industry.
OPI: Let me guess. Lyreco was one of them?
JT: (laughs) Yes. I think that was in 2009.
OPI: Where does Greenspeed fit in?
JT: Ecover decided to refocus on the consumer sector and, on 31 December 2015, divested its professional division to Greenspeed. It was a pretty good match because, at the time, Greenspeed had already been in the B2B market for 20 years with its microfibre products.
Greenspeed had been looking for a sustainable detergents brand, and that’s what it acquired with Ecover Professional. It bought Ecover’s entire B2B division, except for the brand name.
OPI: So Ecover Professional as a brand name no longer exists in the B2B market.
JT: No. They didn’t want to sell the brand name Ecover Professional as it was too close to Ecover. Except for that, the whole concept hasn’t really changed. In fact, around 80% of the formulas Greenspeed uses today were originally developed by Ecover’s R&D department.
OPI: Let’s talk about Greenspeed as it stands now and its sustainability mission.
JT: It’s pretty interesting as we identified two big challenges, not just for Greenspeed alone, but the whole sector. Our entire philosophy is derived from these themes.
The first involves air, water and soil pollution while the second concentrates on user health, both directly and indirectly.
We focus primarily on the aquatic impact when it comes to the pollution of air, water and soil, as it’s virtually impossible to prevent cleaning products from ending up in the hydrological cycle.
Then there’s user health. A study by Laura Van den Borre – a PhD student from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium – investigated the cause of death of 250,000 people over 20 years. Her thesis exposed that mortality rates for the jan/san sector were 36%-45% higher than other occupational sectors – a considerable difference.
Moreover, she revealed cleaning staff are twice as likely to suffer from chronic lung and cardiovascular diseases. As an industry, we absolutely need to be aware and, more importantly, act on this kind of information.
Another critical issue the world is working on is the elimination of CO2 emissions and reaching net-zero. We are currently focusing on this and introducing new products that support this endeavour. However, most of the CO2 emissions from our operations come predominantly from inbound and outbound transportation.
OPI: Are you talking about the last mile?
JT: No. I’m referring to logistics in general, especially as cleaning items are relatively heavy. One solution to reduce CO2 emissions could be the introduction of innovative methods of shipping goods such as carbon-zero transport.
Another is a totally radical way of thinking in terms of product development. Either way, the answer should always be sustainable and healthy.
Perhaps we could simply remove the water from the detergent to make it super concentrated and less weighty. These are the kinds of things Greenspeed is thinking of in the long term.
The company’s overriding mission is to have a positive impact on people and the planet. The vision, or dream if you like, is our long-term goal – to have circular economy cleaning products that have a restorative effect on the environment and a potentially healing influence on the user.
OPI: Sounds like an extremely big mission. What’s the specific plan?
JT: Restoring the planet is a big thing, but it’s something Greenspeed is already trying to do. Two years ago, we added probiotics – non-toxic, non-pathogenic bacteria – to the cleaning range and created our Probio plant-based cleaners.
When they end up in the environment, the bacteria can potentially also restore nature. Another example is the circular economy, with our recently designed circular microfibre cloth.
OPI: I guess you’re referring to the Re-belle microfibre cloth.
JT: Yes, in keeping with our vision of selling circular products, we’ve recently introduced Re-belle – I really like the name – and it’s a microfibre that rebels against waste.
Instead of working with virgin materials, it starts with waste and out of this, mono-material microfibre is made. It has a long lifecycle of at least 500 washes, is fully recyclable at its end of life and represents a great example of fulfilling our mission.
OPI: What is the waste you use?
JT: Re-belle is manufactured from PET plastic waste, so it’s a fantastic innovation. But sustainability is about marginal gains too. For example, the packaging used is recycled cardboard rather than single-use plastic. The cloth’s lighter colours also help with the recycling of the product. It really is microfibre for the future.
As a side note, the production of our microfibre cloths meets the standards of the International Labour Organisation, while our manufacturing sites are audited by Sedex, one of the world’s leading ethical trade membership associations.
OPI: I don’t think many people truly understand what the circular economy means. How would you explain it in layman’s terms?
JT: It’s very easy. The last century of business practice has followed a linear path – we take ingredients, make something, and at the end of its lifecycle, dispose of it. This has created a double problem: depletion of resources at the beginning and waste at the end.
A circular economy is based on a cycle rather than a process. Also referred to as circularity, it is ‘a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible’. It aims to tackle global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution, and is defined in contradistinction to the traditional linear economy.
This definition has been interpreted by Greenspeed through the concept of circular cleaning. By this, I mean rather than starting with petrochemical-based commodities – depletion – we use plants that can be grown time and again.
At the end of the product lifecycle, when it’s poured down the drain, the fully biodegradable plant-based cleaning detergent is recognised by nature and may be utilised by plants again to aid growth. This is the biological cycle.
There’s also no technological waste such as plastic containers, for example. The bottles we make are designed in such a way that they can be upcycled. In other words, be recycled without losing quality and turned around endlessly in the technical cycle.
OPI: Companies frequently refer to Cradle to Cradle certification when talking about the circular economy.
JT: Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is a certificate that follows a vision of circularity and circular economy with an additional health aspect. When something is C2C certified, an independent organisation has approved that item. With the five pillars of sustainability performance, it’s easy to provide proof a product is both circular and healthy to the user, and it’s what we pursue.
OPI: There are quite a few certifications and labels on the market…
JT: Hundreds and hundreds.
OPI: How is anyone supposed to know the ones worth paying attention to?
JT: It is confusing. As a company, we have been discussing the fact there are so many certifications, and you can’t have them all. It makes no sense.
After much debate, we looked at the two formidable challenges already mentioned and believe the EU Ecolabel and Nordic Swan are
The Greenspeed team becoming the standards. The Ecolabel, for instance, has been developed in Europe, is a reliable label, generally well-recognised, and is demanded in public tenders.
In addition, because we believe in the circular economy, for the past decade, we’ve opted to have our detergents C2C certified. For Greenspeed, it is the one certification that comes closest to addressing the industry challenges and nearest to our mission and vision.
OPI: Your mission dovetails perfectly with a few of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Are you actively pursuing any?
JT: We have been thinking a lot about them during the past few years. You’re right, we focus on several of the goals and have defined SDG 3 and 6 as the foundation of our operations. SDG 3 is good health and well-being and is vital with respect to the problem revealed by Laura Van den Borre. SDG 6 is clean water and sanitation.
We’ve identified others that also represent key elements for our business. These are SDG 8 – decent work and economic growth; SDG 12 – responsible consumption and production; SDG 13 – climate action; and SDG 17 – partnerships for the goals. But, ultimately, 3 and 6 are the most important for us to work on.
Our actions were recently assessed in line with the SDGs, which I am proud to say have now been recognised – we received the Voka Charter for Sustainable Entrepreneurship from the Belgium Chambers of Commerce.
OPI: Congratulations! Sticking with the theme of overarching environmental goals, how does the new EU Green Deal affect Greenspeed?
JT: Greenspeed has been on the right path for some years as regards the three key points in the European Green Deal – reducing the net emission of CO2, economic growth without depletion, and making sure no one is left behind.
With respect to reducing CO2, for the past ten years we’ve solely used renewable energies in our factory operations and already discussed C2C. As a European company, it doesn’t make sense to ship products more than 1,200 km due to the resulting CO2 emissions.
Although we are present in 30 countries, around 80% of our sales are from Benelux, France, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. This means within 800-1,000 km from our centrally located ecological factory in the north of France.
There may be some instances where we use international shipping services. Sending a pallet of cleaning products to the Far East on a ship is probably more environmentally friendly than dispatching it from Brussels to Seville by road. If we exploit sea or rail freight transportation, then markets further afield are possible.
However, in the short term, we do not intend to cover the whole world because of the resulting CO2 impact. Our principal aim is to improve the cleaning market by introducing circular and healthy products, mainly in the aforementioned countries, but perhaps as far as Scandinavia.
OPI: Where do the remaining 20% come from? JT: There are some sales in emerging markets, and we have just entered Australia and the US.
OPI: What’s happening in the US market?
JT: Greenspeed has excellent partners in the consumer market that are developing very fast, and there are some good initiatives. But the go-to-market strategy is altogether different, and we are not fully experienced in this yet. Plus, the CO2 implications are constantly being examined – how do we ship goods? What is reasonable?
OPI: This leads nicely to my question about the current supply chain situation. What’s been your experience?
JT: In the office supplies industry, Greenspeed is mainly known for sustainable detergents, but we also have innovative microfibre cleaning tools for the professional market, which is in fact around half of our business.
As such, there have been various supply chain constraints with materials originating from Asia; this has meant dealing with the rise of container prices.
Over the past few months, outbound transport from our central European warehouse in Antwerp to the UK has also run into some trouble. This is primarily due to Brexit-related issues such as the doubling of transportation times and costs.
OPI: What has been the net effect of the pandemic on Greenspeed’s business?
JT: Foremost, I would say COVID has been traumatic for the world; so many died and suffered, and a lot of people are still recovering. It’s a dreadful thing.
That said, with the increased attention on hygiene, business-wise, it’s been good for Greenspeed and the entire industry.
People are more aware of the importance of hygiene, which was often not the case pre-COVID, so that’s at least a beneficial side effect.
As a company, we had to change a lot because the sales of some categories declined rapidly last year, while others, such as hand soaps, doubled. It was fortunate timing that our plant-based disinfectant Lacto Des had just launched before the pandemic hit. It was a runaway hit as everyone wanted disinfectant, and we sold a lot of it.
However, there was a minor issue from the end of March 2020 for a few months in terms of securing the hand soap pumps as there was a global shortage.
Fortunately, the market was accommodating at that time in acknowledging the exceptional circumstances we all found ourselves in. We were able to substitute most of this business with five-litre refills instead.
On balance, the decline in some product groups was offset by others, and 2020 was profitable for us. In fact, we enjoyed low double-digit growth, which is in line with previous years. We essentially kept up the pace.
This year has been slightly more difficult, as our hand soap sales have declined due to the number of products currently available in the market. Again, it’s swings and roundabouts as other categories are recovering to take up the slack.
OPI: You talk about hand soaps rather than hand sanitisers.
JT: Alcogel is not part of our range because you can’t really make it more ecological, unlike hand soap that we create out of plant-based surfactants.
OPI: I believe during the first wave of the pandemic last year, you developed work-from-home (WFH) packages? What did that involve, and do they still exist?
JT: We moved with the big shift when employees were told to work from home and created some packs with cleaning items. They were introduced to the market just to help our resellers and we thought it was worthwhile at the time.
We still have them, but individual items do much better than the packs. They weren’t really a growth driver and were offered more as a service than anything else.
Having said that, with the onset of hybrid working, there is definitely the potential to distribute lots of products for the WFH sector.
OPI: Post-COVID and the current handwashing obsession, will sustainability be a core focus in the broad cleaning context?
JT: Undoubtedly. We see trends like ‘build back better’ whereby companies are rethinking their cleaning and hygiene requirements and protocols to make them more sustainable. Sales are recovering and the past few months have unquestionably been good with higher demand from both dealers and end customers.
Europe is really pushing hard on sustainability. Where it used to be a trend, it’s now becoming the norm. We witness this with new businesses, especially those started by the younger generation where sustainability is the only way to go.
In the office supplies sector, the growth will come from circular and healthy cleaning and hygiene products. Every reseller and dealer should have them in their assortment.
OPI: Do you think it’s ultimately going to be the younger generations that propel us towards more sustainable cleaning in the workplace?
JT: Absolutely. They are creating market demand before they even step into the workplace. If they stay in a hotel, one is chosen based on its sustainability credentials. If they’re attending a festival, the expectation is that it will be organised in an environmentally friendly manner.
It filters through to the decision-making stage in the workplace, and it’s certainly the personal experience I have when I visit bigger end customers in facilities management.
The younger they are, the easier it is for us as we don’t need to convince them about green cleaning. For young people, it’s obvious, logical, and the norm to select the most sustainable solution possible.
OPI: This probably doesn’t apply as much to the younger demographic, but do you still have to overcome the perception that ‘green’ products are more expensive?
JT: It’s sadly something still frequently heard. I can only speak for Greenspeed when I say this, but thanks to the skill and experience we have in this business, as well as lower overheads, our prices are equivalent to the street price of brands.
This is achieved even though we are not a multinational company, and our plant-based ingredients are on average 20% more expensive.
OPI: Talking specifically about the office supplies industry, is it a battle to persuade dealers to opt for environmentally friendly products and solutions?
JT: The business supplies sector has been a tremendous growth driver for us. Admittedly starting from a small base, we’ve enjoyed double-digit growth rates for the past ten years, and it continues to grow. If you look at our range, it can be divided into easily understandable items such as toilet cleaner or dishwashing tablets. These represent the typical fast-moving items that sell really well.
Next are the technical products where there is often a requirement for some kind of field sales support. For these specialised jan/san items, we are helping to educate and train sales people to enable them to become more knowledgeable about cleaning, health and hygiene. After all, cleaning is a profession.
OPI: Which is your largest market now for our sector, geographically speaking?
JT: Interestingly, people are often under the impression that Scandinavia would be the correct answer, but it’s not. For us, it is equally Benelux, France and the UK, and then the DACH countries – they all possess a similar level of focus on sustainability in the office supplies industry.
OPI: How difficult is it to ensure the rest of your supply chain is compliant with your own rules and regulations, or at least as regards participating in sustainable practices?
JT: We need to inspire people, like through this interview, rather than point the finger and say: “You can’t do this, or can’t do that.” That’s not our goal or how we work. Preferably, we should be educating everyone on the circular economy and healthy and ecological cleaning, explaining why it is the way forward for the planet, businesses and people. It’s also spreading the word via social media and our sales teams.
OPI: Sometimes it feels hard to be inspired when the latest IPCC report, for example, is quite frankly terrifying, and COP26 may be our last chance to really alter things for the better.
JT: Well, I want to be positive. The climate report says we’ve got a window of ten years to implement a lot of changes and it’s what almost 200 countries have agreed to do within the Paris Agreement framework – stay below the 1.5ºC or 2ºC temperature increase. I remain optimistic.
OPI: Can it be done? The first major deadline to improve the situation is 2030.
JT: On the one hand, yes, it is scary, but on the other, there are many initiatives underway. Let’s stay positive. Hopefully, the European Green Deal and the corresponding billions in investment will inspire the world.
In the next decade or so, we’ll see huge technological innovation and there will be a modification in behaviour towards sustainability, driven by young people who really do think and act differently.
In the face of massive upheaval, businesses must ensure they are – if they are not already – ahead of the curve, and do everything possible to reach climate change goals.
OPI: One recent initiative is the new plastic packaging tax. Let’s face it, we all hate taxes of any kind.
JT: Exactly. It will absolutely force companies to innovate. Everyone should be reducing, reusing and recycling as much as possible anyhow. It’s really important manufacturers reduce the amount of plastic from the offset. Where this cannot be achieved, offer reuse options, such as in our case, with our refillable bottles.
It is possible that, in ten years, we might have cleaning products without any plastic packaging at all. Our detergent bottles are already made from sugar cane (75%), with recycled plastic making up the remainder. In other words, the containers are 75% renewable, 100% recyclable, and reusable.
OPI: What can you use instead of plastic?
JT: If we don’t make liquid cleaning solutions anymore, then there are plenty of options. Think about dishwashing tablets. You don’t need plastic packaging for those.
If a dishwashing tablet can be made without water, it begs the question why the same process cannot be applied to dishwashing liquid or toilet cleaner? They could then be packed in cardboard which is easy to recycle.
We have to think differently. Maybe the future of jan/san products lies in the form of a powder or a tablet, a pot or other non-liquid. Then we can be plastic-free.
OPI: Are you giving away trade secrets?
JT: (laughs) No, just thinking big.
OPI: One final question. What is the most pressing message would you like to convey to the business supplies industry?
JT: In 2009, I watched a documentary on the principles of C2C and it was incredibly inspiring. I understood what a transition from a linear to a circular economy would mean for the business and the planet. For weeks afterwards, all I thought about was how we could make the switch – and we did.
Accordingly, my message would be this. Start thinking about how to transform your business from a linear to a circular economy, by what method products are manufactured and sold, and in what way operations can be made healthier for employees and customers.
If everybody does that, I believe there is a bright future. Ultimately, it will pay off because we will all soon be left with no other choice but to think and act sustainably.
