These days, “Eco” isn’t just a trending hashtag anymore, it’s a choice, and it is in the decisions we make every single day. When you walk down the supermarket aisle, can you hear Greta Thunberg’s fervent words reminding you that your choices matter, because “entire ecosystems are collapsing”?
Thankfully, we are not alone in this! More and more companies have stepped up and are becoming bastions for change. Here at Ecover, for example, we have been fighting the good fight for the last 40 years now, being synonymous with detergents, soaps and cleaning products made exclusively from naturally-derived, plant-based ingredients.
But wait, what exactly does “naturally-derived” and “plant-based” mean? Because the last time we tried cleaning with a leaf, well, let’s just say it didn’t work very well at all! As informed consumers and individual stewards of change, knowing where our products come from is definitely a good start towards effective, impactful change.
SOURCES
While we all know that the world is quickly running out of its crude oil resources, it’s easy to go, “But I don’t use any crude oil or natural gases in my life!” But did you know many everyday items we use are derived from petroleum? We’re talking things like polyester clothing, lipsticks, shampoo, even that DVD you watched last night! For a more sustainable future, Ecover sources only plant-based ingredients such as corn sugars, and oils from plants like coconut oil and rapeseed oil, that are gentle, biodegradable but also renewable.
SUSTAINABILITY
As a human race we’ve been kind of selfish, simply taking and taking from the Earth without a care as to what we destroy in the process. Ecover has made it our mission to reduce the deforestation involved in palm oil production by swapping out our use of palm oil with rapeseed oil that is sustainably grown in France. This has reduced our palm oil use by about 200 tons per year, a major leap for any cleaning products company.
SIMPLE
Ecover was started in 1979 in response to seeing the damage that the toxic ingredients in cleaning products were doing to aquatic life. Instead, we vowed to become champions for simple, biodegradable ingredients that get eaten up by little microbes in our water systems and decompose into simple compounds that do not contaminate our waters and ecosystems. If you could imagine a bunch of scientists in lab coats, constantly tweaking formulas and refining processes - that’s probably our top secret Ecover research lab hard at work!
SMART
Most detergents work on surfactants, which are generally petroleum-derived, so here at Ecover we basically asked ourselves, “What would nature do?” Turns out, in the 1960’s some far-out scientists discovered a unique type of yeast that grows naturally in beehives that has the same properties of surfactants. Running with this, our team went to town testing, experimenting, and working with the best universities and research institutions to successfully recreate a nature-simulated platform to grow this yeast (but bee-less, of course!). This was the birth of the eco-surfactants that now power Ecover’s effective cleaning products - inspired by nature, biologically created - and biodegradable!
SAFE
At the end of the day, it’s not scientists in gloves and safety glasses using these cleaning products, it’s everyday people like us. So we at Ecover make sure that all our products are safe and friendly. They are animal-friendly - all Ecover products are Leaping Bunny certified, which is an internationally recognised seal for brands that use no animal testing. They are eco-friendly - our Ecocert certification assures that our products are of at least 95% natural, or plant origins, that we use only environmentally-friendly practices throughout the entire product process, and only recyclable packaging. And they are people-friendly - our Ecover ZERO range of products is perfect even for people with sensitive skin, or even little ones starting out in the world.
With Mother Nature as our guide, we at Ecover have been able to create a truly green blueprint to sourcing, creating, producing, disposing and renewing materials inspired by nature and natural for everyone - for each and every one of us!
