An increasing amount of consumers feel uncomfortable cleaning their homes with fluorescent coloured, chemical-laden products. They want effective products, but they also want to be assured that the products they use don’t harm the environment or their health. Ecover, the pioneer of environmentally-friendly household cleaning products, has proved that it is possible to be a highly successful company and still put the environment at the forefront of its business. By integrating its philosophy into the way it does business and involving its customers in its practices, Ecover has grown to be a very well respected sustainable company – and the world’s largest producer of ecological detergents and cleaning products.
Saving plastic resources together
One of the company’s business approaches is to involve customers and give them the chance to use Ecover to do something for the environment, not only by buying Ecover products, but also by saving plastic resources. Ecover operates a refilling system, where customers can bring their empty bottles to specific health food stores, which are listed on Ecover’s website, and get them refilled for less than the normal retail price. Ecover’s marketing manager, Clare Allman says, “The refill system was an obvious choice for us as it allows us to minimise on packaging and provide a more sustainable service. It’s important for us to offer choice to our consumers and refill allows us to do this.”
The Ecover bottles can be used around 50 times before they need to be replaced. Both on the company’s website and on the back of the bottles customers are encouraged to refill the bottles and recycle them afterwards. If customers prefer, they can also buy Ecover products in 5 litre containers directly from the company, allowing them to refill their smaller bottles at home.
In fact, Ecover’s system normally manages to achieve a ‘double refilling’. When the 5 litre drums used for refilling are empty, Ecover will take them back to the factory, clean them in only 2.5 litres of water, refill them again (up to 8 times) and send them back to the health food stores and individuals.
The refill system has been so popular that Ecover is constantly asked to extend the programme and Clare says that one of the most frequently asked consumer questions is, ‘Where can I refill?’. In response to demand, Ecover is now launching a 25 litre refill for toilet cleaner and a 5 litre refill for the all-purpose cleaner, Squirteco.
It may not be an ultra convenient way of buying cleaning products, but Clare reckons that refilling is effective in encouraging consumers to think about their ecological choices in general. She says, “We hope by converting customers to refill, it will drive them to think more carefully about ecological choices in other areas of their purchasing.”
Clare believes that sustainable businesses should do more than just sell products. “It is extremely important to engage customers, too,” she says, “we don’t just want to sell to our customers, we want them to understand why we are doing what we’re doing. By engaging with them we can raise awareness of Ecover as a sustainable business as well as the products we produce.”
Ecover engages with their customers in more traditional ways too. “This year we have been out and about meeting our customers at a number of events including County shows, Fruitstock and Grand Designs. We bought this fantastic old airstream caravan and adapted it so it looked like a huge washing up bottle on wheels. We kept the original kitchen and used it as an educational tool to show the different ways you can be ecological in the kitchen,” says Clare.
Employees as well as customers
The company also aims to engage its employees and inspire them. Giving its factory staff an uber-environmentally friendly workplace is one example of Ecover extending its green efforts to go beyond the actual products and customer involvement. Ecover’s production facility was the world’s first truly ecological factory; it was built in 1992 and has a 6,000m² grass roof and the company’s green policies are practiced in every single department, from production to marketing. Clare explains, “As pioneers in this field, we developed a blueprint when Ecover launched, that we would operate as an ethical sustainable business and this penetrates right through the business to the core. We aren’t perfect, we know that there are things we can improve, but we are striving to get there. The team at Ecover are all passionate about sustainable living and all decisions are made on this basis.”
Inspiring other companies
As a true pioneer, Ecover does not exclusively concern itself with its own business; it also strives to be a company that inspires other companies to be more ethical. Clare says, “We already encourage all the suppliers and distributors that we work with to look at their environmental and ethical policies as part of our supplier-chain network. We have found this highly effective and it means that we have been able to positively influence a large number of organisations.” Ecover’s environmental criteria are much stricter than those required by the EU legislation and one of the company’s promises is to continue to improve their ecological practices, which, it hopes, will make other companies follow suit. Clare highlights this saying, “Ecover would always be interested in providing support and suggestions to companies that approached us for advice, but we would hope that their reasons for improving their sustainability were more substantial than just a marketing ploy.”
© Ecover
I love the fact that they welcome the opportunity to increase their competitors' sustainability too - it demonstrates real confidence in how far ahead of the game they are. I think Chris Hacker took a similar line when we was at Aveda too. Very enlightened - and (perversely) good for business at the same time.
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Mike Betts
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