Cleaning contractor switches to eco cleaning products


23.08.2019

“While employers feel a sense of social responsibility towards their employees, nobody feels the same responsibility towards the environment. We have to change that.”

Cost-driven facility cleaning companies and ecological cleaning products – two things that might seem incompatible at first glance. Severin Gallo, CEO of cleaning contractors gammaRenax, has told us why this view is wrong and cleaning companies would benefit from investing in ecological cleaning. We talked to him about the recent conversion to environmental cleaning products, the importance of sustainability in the cleaning industry, and senior management helping out on toilet cleaning missions.

Mr. Gallo, do you think sustainability management has become a matter for senior management?
Definitely! Sustainability should be a priority for management. It is, after all, something you pursue out of conviction. The effect is similar to striking a match: The match burns intensely, but it cannot start to burn by itself. An initiating friction is needed to release the energy. Likewise, senior management must create the initial spark of sustainability development, but ultimately the employees are responsible for whether or a not a company is actually sustainable, as this is decided by all of the choices they make in their daily work and how they implement their work processes.

Could you give a brief introduction to the gammaRenax company.
My father founded the cleaning company Gamma Reinigungen AG in 1985. In 1994, he also acquired the facility services company Renax AG, founded in 1868, a subsidiary of the then Swissair. Finally, in 2001, a merger of the two companies took place, creating gammaRenax AG. Today, the company employs around 1,800 people from 63 different countries and offers integrated facility services throughout Switzerland.

How many customers does gammaRenax serve and in which sectors?
Currently we serve around 600 customers – but at over 1600 sites. From the KKL Culture and Convention Centre in Lucerne, to the airline catering company Gate Gourmet at Zurich Airport, to the Ovaverva water and sports centre in St. Moritz, we are trusted by customers from various sectors and from all parts of Switzerland.

You offer four service divisions to your customers. Which sector shows the strongest growth?
That’s right, we offer four divisions to our customers: Hygiene (Cleaning), Open Areas & Plants (e.g. Green Space Maintenance), Engineering & Buildings (e.g. Technical Facility Maintenance), and Infrastructure & Services (e.g. Postal Services). We have long observed a trend toward bundling building services and integrated management contracts. As a result, the number of mandates for exclusively maintenance cleaning services has decreased and general infrastructure services, e.g. operating a reception, have increased. In terms of infrastructure services, we have also made great progress internally – for example, we were recently able to plan and carry out the relocation of a biotechnology laboratory. However, I would like to point out that we do not strategically push or specifically promote a single area. We believe that the key for our customers is in finding the optimal combination. Only the best possible combination of our services can ensure that the customers will sustainably improve their added value. And that’s the point.

What could a potential employee expect from the corporate culture at gammaRenax?
Sharing common values is our top priority. We regard all our employees as entrepreneurs because they share in our values. The corollary to this is that, while potential employees may be highly skilled in their technical field, if they do not identify with our values, we will not hire them. That may sound a little harsh, but our credo is: skills can develop, values cannot. We are all about credibility, respect and pioneer thinking. Functions replace hierarchies. Supervisors must understand and master the craft of their employees – how else can they manage and support their employees? We take this seriously: for example, our CFO is in a position to participate in a discussion about the quality of cleaning products and I, as CEO, am well acquainted with the processes involved in sanitary cleaning. For example, if a new toilet cleaner is being considered, then I am the one who can put the product through its paces on a “toilet tour”. Incidentally, there is no punishment for mistakes made for the “right” reasons, but rewards are given for proposed solutions.

What does this strong value orientation mean for the customer?
Value orientation reaches far beyond the employees and can be experienced immediately by the customer. If something goes wrong, our first question is not “what are the consequences for our organisation?”, but “has the problem already been solved for the customer?”.

In September 2018, you switched from conventional cleaning products to high-concentrate cleaning products from the Wetrok Eco range. What was the reason for that?
Our goal is to become better and more efficient in what we do. It is also important to us that we do harm to no-one. A company is caught between different stakeholder groups, with customers being the central, but not the only stakeholder group. As a company we also have a responsibility towards society. About 15 years ago, the topic of occupational safety started being widely discussed. The result was that companies had to significantly improve working conditions for their employees, due to pressure from both insurance and the law. But unlike employees, the problem with the environment is that nobody feels responsible for it. We want to change that and play a pioneering role in how buildings are cleaned.

Commitment to sustainability and cost awareness – are these values compatible?
Contrary to the views of many facility cleaning contractors, these positions are not inconsistent. Quite the reverse: When we look at the long term implications, these two values actually promote each other. What is efficient is usually also ecological. When I use high-concentration eco cleaning agents, I not only save the environment, but also save on water and detergent costs by using fewer resources. In addition, the conversion to high concentrate and more environmentally friendly cleaning methods saves my employees from hauling heavy canisters. As an example: for surface cleaning, they only need one compact foam bottle. The ergonomic advantages are also a preventive measure against costly sick leave for work-related injuries and illnesses. What more could an entrepreneur want?

In addition to this, the concern is not solely about cost management, but also about the organisation taking responsibility for the external costs. External costs, such as the economic costs of wastewater pollution, are costs that are not borne by the business entitieswho are causally responsible, but rather are burdens shouldered by the whole society. We are initiating the conversion to ecological cleaners in two ways: On the one hand we are reducing the external costs, on the other hand we are trying to bear some of the external costs we cause and thus internalise them.

You were looking for a supplier of high quality eco cleaning products. What did the evaluation process entail and why did you decide on Wetrok?
In total, twelve providers participated in the tender. In order to find the right partner, we evaluated their products according to the following criteria: ecological impact, user safety, user-friendliness, effectiveness and metered dispensing. In addition, it was important to us to find a reliable partner who operates throughout Switzerland and can provide us with product documentation in three national languages. However, when it comes to the criterion of ecology, it’s not just about having eco-labels, such as Nordic Swan, but also how seriously the company deals with the issue along the entire supply chain. Although some vendors had various ecological high-concentrate cleaners on offer, these fell short on other parameters. That made us reconsider. We ultimately decided on Wetrok, not only because they clearly fulfilled all the criteria, but also because we, as a prominent cleaning services contractor, we have the opportunity to help design products and packaging.

In what way did you make use of this opportunity to participate in this process?
A consistent colour system is, in our opinion, the best preventative measure against incorrect use of cleaning agents. That is why we have worked with Wetrok to implement and label the colour system even more stringently along the entire supply chain. For example, in this industry it is common practice that a different fabric colour is used for each type of cleaning cloth. This means that blue cloths, for instance, are used for surfaces and general furniture. Wetrok has already been supporting this methodology for years: Wetrok cleaning agents are labelled with colour stripes, which correspond to the colour system of the cleaning cloths and demarcate their area of use. But that was not enough for us. Fortunately, we were able to convince Wetrok to also colour the head of the bottle with the colour corresponding to the area of application. This means that we have bottles for surface cleaning with a blue colour stripe on the label, but also with a blue head on the bottle. Furthermore, it was important to us to overcome the problem of the overuse of cleaning products. Wetrok has now found a creative solution to make metered dosing clearer. The eco-cleaner Ecosal is coloured blue, but the colour was not intense enough to make it obvious when a double dose of cleaning solution had been used. The new solution to this problem is to use a slightly higher dye content. This means that an overuse of the concentrate is immediately visible to any user, as the colour changes to a darker blue when a double dose is used. This means that the colour system is a tool for our employees to self-regulate their working methods. Incidentally, the dye used is environmentally friendly and even suitable for use in the food industry. Our suggestions were taken into account for colouring, but also for labelling. For example, the dosing bottles were labelled continuously on all sides. This makes it virtually impossible for our employees to make mistakes. We were also able to assist with the design of the spray bottles so that we are now using a spray bottle designed exclusively for gammaRenax. I am convinced that co-creation helps both customers and manufacturers to improve. On the customer side: by receiving tailor-made solutions to specific problems, and for the manufacturer: by receiving valuable customer insights.

What are the practical implications of this conversion to ecological cleaning agents? Do you only use ecological cleaning products?
We clean “ecologically” as much as possible. This applies, for example, to all sanitary cleaning. As part of the changeover, we have put together a special cleaning kit for our employees with cleaning agents and microfibre cloths. The staff will find everything they need for maintenance cleaning in a single case. There are four polyvalent cleaning agents. Three of them are certified with a sustainability label. The fourth is the Wetrok Powersurf spot cleaner. We had to compromise on that product because none of the certified products were so efficient in removing soiling caused by shoe soles. What we are proud of is the fact that the cleaning bottles are internally refilled and reused. This way we don’t just recycle, we reuse. It is easy to forget that reuse is preferable to recycling, as it reduces the resources used in the first place.

Was training required for the employees, in terms of the changeover?
Regardless of whether we change our products or not, we provide regular training to ensure that our employees stay up-to-date with cleaning technology. For this purpose, we have converted part of the basement at our headquarters into a training room. In the case of eco-cleaning, however, we have chosen a different approach. We have trained the cleaners inside the object, which they clean regularly. This allowed us to familiarise our employees with the use of eco-cleaners in a real-world environment. The fundamentals of application are virtually self-explanatory and the colour system prevents misuse. After the training, we received only positive feedback. Our employees saw the conversion as an opportunity to learn something new. I am particularly pleased that the employees’ reactions show that they have identified with our values and incorporated pioneer thinking into their mindsets.

You are already well on the way to becoming a sustainable business, yet you are very circumspect about communicating your commitment to this goal. A maxim in PR is “do good and talk about it”. Do you not agree with the second part of this principle?
Yes, we are already doing a lot and our ecological awareness goes further than cleaning agents. For example, we are ISO 14001 and 50001 certified and from 2019 on we will be operating solar panels on our office buildings and switching the interior lighting at the headquarters to LED lights. In addition, our employees wear workwear that is guaranteed to be “Fair Made” and produced without the use of child labour. Instead of aggressively marketing our achievements, we prefer to use our internal resources to further develop our sustainability efforts. Doing something is more important than talking about it. Even if I am making an exception to that right now. (smiles)

And finally, a personal question: How do you clean your home?
Well, what do you think (laughs)? You will find all the Wetrok eco cleaning products neatly lined up in my private cleaning cabinet. And I am not just saying that because the Eco range was the main topic of this interview. Because: if I am satisfied with a product professionally, I am also convinced of it personally.