SUSTAINABILITY
The acid test
– does your sustainability strategy pass the test?
Sustainability is a buzz word that many cleaning and hygiene companies have embraced, but as an industry it is crucial that the claims around it can be backed up with substance Words Cameron Cooper
36 INCLEAN September / October 2022
S
teve Ashkin is pleased the days of blasting bathrooms with hydrochloric acid are no longer seen as best practice. The founder of The Ashkin Group, who is known as the father of green cleaning in the United States, draws comfort from the fact that many players in the cleaning and hygiene industry are now taking their environmental commitments to the next level and embracing sustainability. The challenge, however, is to limit “sustainability washing”, just as “greenwashing” has been an issue in the past. “There are lots of companies whose marketing
people want to differentiate their businesses and highlight their use of green chemicals, toilet paper with recycled content and that kind of stuff,” Ashkin says. “So, now they’re just slapping the word ‘sustainable’ on things and often times I don’t really think they understand what it means.” Whereas the term “green” typically refers to environmentally friendly products, “sustainability” has a far broader reach and takes in how an organisation acts and operates. Ashkin points out that a terrible company can make a green product. “They could be abusing workers, they could be polluting the air and water, but they have a green product,” he says.