Sustainability is a journey...

At the CMS in Berlin from September 19th to 22nd, 2023, the trade fair for cleaning systems, building management and services in Germany and Europe, the topic of sustainability, alongside the shortage of skilled workers and innovations, will again take on significant importance.

My view on this and how we at Cleanfix approach this journey are below.

Sustainability – a hot word that is not only just recently on everyone’s lips at the moment. People want it, customers demand it, some lie about it or at least stretch the term very far, and very few actually take it. Fortunately, more and more.

Sustainability affects each and every one of us and the world in which we live. It should be common sense to try to improve the world - or at least reduce our harmful impact - but there are so few things that are "common" these days.

But what is sustainability anyway? Is it a goal, a tool, an expense, a box that needs to be checked in order to successfully market your products to the world?

Sustainability is not a destination, but a journey. For this journey to be successful, we all need to truly embrace sustainability (at its core) and take all possible steps (big or small) towards it. We have to be aware of sustainability, it can (doesn't necessarily) cost a little more money or time or commitment.

Sustainability starts with raw material suppliers, extends to product manufacturers and ends with end customers. The latter is important because the responsibility lies not only with the manufacturer, but also with every user, especially how they handle devices.

Sustainability affects the entire chain and also the sustainable use of machines or things. Sustainability is not primarily about cutting corners or taking the easy way out. Implementing sustainability is about constantly taking a very close look at your products or services, your raw materials and your supply chain and always re-evaluating whether you can, for example, move the production location closer to the place of sale or consider how you can/could efficiently produce a plastic part on site or, if possible, replace it, which can, not necessarily, save natural resources.

Be clear, transparent and specific. Never just say “This product is sustainable” – what does that even mean ?

Sustainability should NEVER be just a marketing or PR tool. Consumers are growing weary of sustainability claims and are increasingly wary of companies that use buzzwords like green, sustainable, organic, eco without any clear evidence to back them up - question claims.

Sustainability is no longer just a "nice to have", but a "need-to-have" and even more importantly a "need-to-do" and you should not create products based solely on the idea of sustainability in order to be able to do nice marketing.

Most companies think that sustainability is about being 100% sustainable from the start. Nothing could be more wrong.

Sustainability is a journey, not a destination.

To come back to us at Cleanfix in this article, we are a cleaning machine manufacturer. We and our buildings have been around for almost 50 years, modernized, but not everything in our production can be implemented here immediately.

But we have a sustainable philosophy, in India, for example, where we planned and built a production building from the scatcht, we are completely energy independent and even climate neutral thanks to solar power (on the roof). Rainwater is collected and used internally through an integrated system, so that we use resources sparingly. 40% of the Mysuru campus also has forests and plants to counteract soil erosion. Cleanfix-Schevaran Systems is one of the most environmentally friendly production facilities in the entire region and in the long term we will no longer have to transport machines to India and neighboring regions, but this can only happen gradually.

In Switzerland, due to the conditions of the existing factory structure, we are now using around 90 - 95% of our own solar power; this will be increased to almost 100% during the next renovations in the near future. Through our water treatment in production and at the tank test sites, we can use water as a resource more consciously, but here too we are only on a journey that has only just begun.

The first rotary tank manufacturing machines were converted from gas to electricity (solar energy) and the plastic injection molding plant uses state-of-the-art computer-controlled and automated equipment.

Speaking of which, the heat generated by these tank and plastic manufacturing parts is used internally in an energy-efficient manner.

An important topic - through a very large proportion of in-house production in our processes, especially voluminous parts, we can save significant emissions, because transporting these volume parts over hundreds/or thousands of kilometers causes significant emissions.

Of course, there is also the precision and quality of these parts, which means they are robust over the years, which also contributes to sustainability.

In the course of our own tank and plastic production, we use recycled plastic from our mill (old machines and plastic parts returns), we make new machines as we can not do this from bamboo or paper (although cutting down more trees would not be the solution either), at least as of today. Depending on the machine type, our share is up to 50% and we can also manufacture some machines with up to 90% recycled material upon customer request. One must not forget that the recyclate market can not yet cover the volumes that will certainly soon be required by some consumer manufacturers, which would result in a dangerous dependency, which could trigger significant price drops or even delivery problems. You have to remain realistic in everything you do.

Lifespan/Lifecycle is finally becoming a new and important focus in assessing sustainability. We can guarantee this through the robust, solid quality production on site in Switzerland. Furthermore, pretty much all parts in our machines are interchangeable, with a huge spare parts warehouse and strong delivery capability, you can use our machines for years and replace every single part.

I always meet customers who have been using our machines for almost decades and apologize that they don't need new machines yet, but "only" need spare parts and consumables.

We consciously only use digital control units to a limited extent and if they are very simple to use (which By The Way serves the shortage of skilled workers), because if you have to replace a "completely large operator pad" this is not only expensive, but also not very sustainable in comparison a small, efficient digital display and buttons. Example of our new RA 435 IBC automatic scrubber dryer.

Water and energy also play a role here when using machines, but you always have to question the meaning and benefit when I use so little water or energy with machines that have to do the work 2-3 times for the same result.

Does that really make sense, do I really save water and energy and what about hygiene?

We also question this internally and look for efficient and effective solutions, not just marketing.

By the way, we have also just taken an important step in our cooperation and included the CAS battery system, which leads to a more sustainable use of batteries and chargers. The Cordless Alliance System (CAS) now includes over 37 international companies across manufacturers that use one battery for over 300 different machines.

We now have the first backpack vacuum cleaner (RS05 CAS) in our range and a "normal vacuum cleaner" (S10 Plus model), a single-disc machine (Floormac), an extraction machine (TW 411) and the scrubby will follow in 2023/2024.

So I hope I was perhaps able to get something moving in the way we approach and view sustainability, there is a lot more to find out, but if you are interested just come and see me at CMS Berlin, Hall 1.2 Stand 207, and look at how we at Cleanfix deal with the issue of sustainability, shortage of skilled workers and many other challenges, today for tomorrow.

Should you not be able to see us at the CMS in Berlin, come and visit us on the next Interclean from 14th to 17th May 2024 in Amsterdam.

Cleanfix - Sustainability is a journey, not a destination.

Thank you for your time and interest in reading my article.

Kind regards, your Cleanfix Key Account Export & Germany

Derek Warner