The world’s sustainability agenda is at crisis point and the cleaning sector needs to play it’s part

UhUb and our clients are ensuring we are part of the solution

Here at UhUb we committed to being an ethical business from day 1 in all that we do and espouse a ‘sustainability by degrees’ philosophy. Why? because we love the planet we live on and believe we are simply custodians for the next generation. In 2018 we received our Planet Mark certification, the 1st App based business to do so, and our certification ensures we focus on reducing carbon emissions with a focus on being carbon positive, water consumption and wastage. However, in true UhUb style we decided we needed to go further and spread the word so last year we launched our Time For Action programme in association with the WWF and Planet Mark, an event we plan to run yearly. Last March we were joined by over 100 guests for a day of hubTalks and discussions on how we, as a sector can play our part in protecting our planet. As we had to cancel this year’s event, we were keen to understand and share how the guests that joined us last year were influenced by the day and how they moved forward with their sustainability agenda.

What was your key takeout from the UhUb Time For Action conference last year?

Ian Hookway (MD) City & Essex Ltd
The main thing we took was a validation that City & Essex was on the right track with our sustainability goals and initiatives. It gave us an added determination and focus to push forward with what we were doing, even during the struggles with the pandemic. We were aware of how humans are destroying our planet but not to the degree evidenced by the figures shared by the WWF on the day.

Adam Cowper-Smith (Owner) Soft Service Solutions
It highlighted the importance of working together and collaborating with likeminded people to promote sustainability and protect the environment. I was impressed by the diversity of the attendees and their enthusiasm to get involved.

Did the event inspire you to take action to improve your sustainability credentials?

Ian Hookway (MD) City & Essex Ltd
We were already exploring the Greenspeed range of probiotics and we found the passion and enthusiasm for sustainability and probiotics for our industry espoused in their hubTalks, by both Michel DeBruin, CEO of Greenspeed, and Gary Fage, MD of Janitorial Express Eco, very inspiring. As a consequence, we have changed our whole product range to Greenspeed and deployed product training on UhUb for our teams. This has been very well received by our clients as it fits with their own sustainability initiatives. We had also embarked on the journey to attaining the Planet Mark certification and we have followed this through. We were very proud to have our accreditation confirmed last year.

Jamie Bull (FD) DOC Ltd
The speech from Gary Fage was really interesting and it was great to hear what they are doing with regards to the circular economy, which in turn has allowed us to kick on and introduce certain improvements with our own supply chain. We have also gone through a thorough process to test and implement the ProBio cleaning range from Greenspeed. Coupled with our other ‘pure’ water cleaning systems, we have made a drastic reduction in the quantity of cleaning chemicals that are being used.

Elad Amir (MD) Design Cleaning Ltd
The event inspired us to go further and do more towards a sustainable service provision. Firstly, we only use either public transport or electric vehicles. Also, all of our paper products, which are sold to clients are made from 100% recycled drink cartoons, helping clients to save hundreds of trees and reduce thousands of Kilotons Co2 each year. We also changed 90% of our cleaning products to synbiotics (probiotics & prebiotics).

It has been incredibly rewarding hearing how the UhUb Time For Action event helped to push the sustainability agenda forward within the cleaning sector and we will return to WWF for another Time for Action event in 2022.

In the meantime at UhUb we will be continuing to create partnerships with other ethical organisations who can assist in our clients sustainability progress through learning and information, and on through their own supply chains and service users.

To find out more about the Time For Action event click the link to see last year’s speakers.

If you would like to get in touch, please call to chat on 0203 291 3439 or email info@uhub.co.com.

You can also find us at www.uhub.co.com and on LinkedIn.