Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 16th January 2025 Issue no. 1145
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Prioritising sustainability through innovative cleaning equipment design
The UK's cleaning sector is at a critical turning point - with sustainability and user experience now more important than ever. Ian Buckle, head of brand and design at Nilfisk, explores how a fresh approach to cleaning equipment design can help cleaning companies drive sustainability and efficiency, all the while keeping staff happy…
“According to IBM research, 55% of consumers view environmental responsibility as 'very/extremely' important when choosing a brand. Added to that, 71% of employees see an employer as being more attractive if they're environmentally sustainable. For the cleaning sector, where talent shortages are a recognised, long-standing challenge, getting sustainability right is all the more important.
As a result, like many in other sectors, ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles often underpin strategic and operational decisions cleaning companies are making. The cleaning sector must deliver on sustainability and its environmental commitments, without compromising efficiency. And having access to new, innovative cleaning equipment solutions, which put sustainability at the heart of their product development, is key.
At Nilfisk, we recognise the importance of this - putting sustainability ambitions at the core of our long-term strategic vision and day-to-day operations. Recently securing EcoVadis Gold for the third year in a row evidences this commitment. EcoVadis is a trusted global sustainability rating system, which assesses and monitors more than 100,000 companies' performance and progress on ESG subjects annually.
This gold-tier ranking certifies how we're prioritising sustainability across all aspects of the business, including how our product designs can make a proactive and sustained difference to cleaning operators, cleaning impact and client satisfaction.
The critical role of equipment design…
Cleaning sector businesses are increasingly experiencing the need to demonstrate ESG credentials to be able to tender for, secure and retain new business opportunities, as prospective clients look for assurance that the suppliers they partner with are committed to responsible performance.
As a result, modern cleaning equipment solutions need to put sustainability and efficiency at the heart of their design. This is essential to drive productivity, high-quality cleaning outcomes, cost-efficiency, staff satisfaction and - crucially - sustainability, through a more efficient use of resources.
Opting for cleaning equipment solutions that deliver tangible environmental benefits, such as reduced resource and energy consumption, as well as longer lifecycle performance, can deliver sustainability market differentiation against competitors when in the running for new contract cleaning agreements.
Sustainability managing resources…
Inevitably, high-quality cleaning outcomes are dependent on the effective use of critical cleaning materials, including water and a range of chemicals, such as detergents, acidic cleaners and ammonia.
Traditionally, the judgement of the necessary material consumption for a given job has been left to the operator, with them having to manually deploy the required amount of water and/or chemicals to complete the job successfully.
However, innovative cleaning equipment design can support operations in this critical area - taking pressure away from cleaning staff and, crucially, helping to minimise material consumption and resource waste. This can also help to minimise the need for harmful chemicals to achieve quality cleaning outcomes, further supporting sustainability ambitions, without compromising on cleaning performance.
By automatically managing cleaning material deployment through a digital interface, modern cleaning equipment design can guarantee that only the required type and amount of cleaning material is consumed.
Delivering longer lifecycle performance…
Cleaning equipment is often a high-value investment for businesses, and as a result, keeping it operational for the long-term is business critical. This is also important from a sustainability viewpoint, as it minimises the need for component replacement and waste. Simple maintenance and repair strategies, which focus on renewing rather than replacing components, ensure expensive equipment isn't discarded prematurely.
Additionally, on-machine training, tailored to a user's language and skill level, can ensure businesses keep on top of essential maintenance routines for valuable cleaning equipment. This can also enable users to check out any operating questions simply, without delays to cleaning task timescales. This simplifies day-to-day equipment operation for users.
Alongside this, new cleaning equipment design can also incorporate the use of recyclable and easily maintained parts to deliver an optimised lifetime contribution, with significant sustainability gains.
Enhancing user experience…
Alongside driving for sustainability and efficiency, new cleaning equipment design also needs to consider the user experience. It needs to be able to adapt for individual user heights, sizes, strength capacity and cleaning industry experience - maximising comfort and ease of use for cleaning staff.
This highly adaptable approach to product design helps to support and sustain an enhanced user experience. This reduces physical and mental strain and injury potential, enabling many operators to enjoy longer cleaning sector careers and helping to offset workforce retention challenges for cleaning businesses.
Achieving sustainability and efficiency…
Sustainability and efficiency aren't mutually exclusive. They can work together through smart, innovative and easy-to-use cleaning equipment designs that enhance day-to-day performance, all while building long-term, sustainable and efficient cleaning operations to help win business and deliver a better planet for all. “
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