Stewardship Principle
One concept that is generally agreed upon is the principle of stewardship. One definition from Wikipedia suggests that it “is an ethical value that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources.” We will apply the concepts of stewardship to environmental health, human health, soft and hard surface preservation, and resources such as water, energy and equipment. Paying attention to the core value of stewardship involves purpose, research, and clear decisions to make it a priority in any business. We will discuss how our industry can apply pertinent principles to your business reflecting your commitment to stewardship. Stewardship can be a universal value beyond politics as we make common sense decisions on how professional cleaning lengthens the use of furnishings and slows down land fill accumulations. We will not agree on every application, but we can agree on the direction we want to pursue. It starts and ends with the pursuit of stewardship.
Environment
We are members of a global society that relies on the earth for our very lives. Maintaining the balance between using resources and managing resources at the same time can be difficult. However, generally we agree that it is important to plan and manage the resources of the earth for the generations that inherit our stewardship. For professional cleaners it is important to pay attention to the cleaning solutions that we use every day to limit the impact on the environment.
Over the last two decades we have purposely selected safer ingredients for our concentrated cleaning solutions. We have worked hard to ensure our products always use top-performing cleaning chemistry, while also adhering to the latest safety and environmental standards. It does not benefit the environment if we use more resources to accomplish the task of indoor health. Inadequate chemistry requires using more cleaning solutions and more time to meet the necessary cleaning results. Cleaning solutions are not safer if it does not result in a safer indoor environment.
We have pursued the task of making safer cleaning solutions throughout our manufacturing process. Our last review resulted in 2022 with 70% of our purchases meeting green standards (environmental and health) and 17% considered “generally regarded as safe” for human exposure without harm. This growth was only possible through our association with leading manufacturers of chemical solutions in Canada and the United States.
Over the years we have worked with third party organizations who provide product certifications. We have modeled these organizations and expanded our list of products which meet basic environmental standards with our manufacturing Green Balance standard. Third party organizations remain important in establishing standards to follow.
However, we developed Green Balance for a few reasons. First, there are many online resources for us to evaluate chemical raw materials. Second, fragrance is an essential element in the long-term success of any chemical solution. Fragrances, which meet 3rd party standards, in most cases, fail to pass the olfactory test. If a fragrance does not meet this standard, then its use does not bring value to any product. Third, the cost of time and money in getting formulas approved by a 3rd party organization are burdensome to a niche professional cleaning industry. In short, we currently manufacture 49 Green Balance formulas, which are 99.5% green in the bottle. Most of our Green Balance formulas are in concentrates intended to be diluted to the point that most are 99.9% green in ready to use solutions.
It is important to examine the impact of cleaning solutions at both the macro and micro level. Environmental health is often subject to intense micro scrutiny. However, in the world of promoting environment health, is the difference between a 99.5% and 100.0% standard all that significant? Fifty years ago, when school grades over 95% were difficult to achieve, the difference between 99.5% and 100.0% seems inconsequential. In short, we are committed to green and have made significant progress over the last two decades. We will continue this pursuit in future decades.
