Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Werner & Mertz Professional receives international award for exemplary sustainable product design
Congratulations to Werner & Mertz Professional for winning the 'Cradle to Cradle Products Innovator Award', for its well-known brands Frosch and Green Care Professional.
Winners of this respected international award are selected by a jury of internal and external experts affiliated with the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, a non-profit organisation with headquarters in San Francisco.
The Innovator Award recognises companies that manage their production in closed loops according to the Cradle to Cradle principle, in order to achieve maximum sustainability. Companies so honoured are considered pioneers in their industries.
"The international recognition that comes with the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovator Award validates once again the demands we make of ourselves and our self-imposed quality standards," said Werner & Mertz CEO Reinhard Schneider (pictured) at the awards ceremony at the Conrad Hotel in New York City.
"We will continue following the Cradle to Cradle product design path with full engagement and practice genuine eco-effectiveness with our brands and products.
"Nowadays it is technically possible to develop highly effective products - in our case that means strong cleaning products - which also meet the highest environmental standards along the entire value chain. Decades of experience as a sustainability pioneer have brought us to this point."
Since 2013 Werner & Mertz has had its Frosch and Green Care Professional brands certified by the demanding Cradle to Cradle process. It was the first company in the cleaning industry in Europe to receive Cradle to Cradle Certified Gold for the Frosch Citrus Shower & Bath Cleaner. In the same year, 11 Green Care Professional products also received Gold certification. Today a total of 18 products bear the highly coveted distinction.
Cradle to Cradle stands in contrast to the widespread linear product principle 'cradle to grave' in which materials often flow from their sources to their disposal without conscious consideration given to long-term protection of natural resources. Cradle to Cradle is based on designing products for smooth integration into biological or technical cycles.
"The challenge is in planning the product's progress through a closed material cycle and in choosing product materials that are suitable for a safe and complete return to the biosphere or for recovery and high-quality reuse," explains Reinhard. "The jury of the Innovator Products award confirmed the positive impression Werner & Mertz made in the category 'material health'.
"New products from Werner & Mertz will be designed in such a way that the quality of recovered recycling fractions increases and the efficacy of recycling improves or, at the very least, remains constant. Ingredients, including pigments and additives, are selected to preclude toxic effects during use or in other phases of manufacturing, recycling and reuse.
In keeping with the Cradle to Cradle principle, crude oil, for instance, used one time to make plastic, remains in the cycle and is not irretrievably burned. The energy for recycling, as for other production processes, should be drawn whenever possible from renewable sources in an environmentally and climate-friendly fashion. A good example of this is the production of a new PET bottle from an old PET bottle.
"Integrally sustainable is the Werner & Mertz credo. "I know that credible eco products like Frosch or Green Care Professional can come only from a company that consistently pursues sustainability in everything it does."
E: [email protected]
T: +49 (0) 6131-964-20 28
W: www.wmprof.com
26th November 2015