As cleaning companies and building services contractors seek to transform their sustainable procurement strategies, artificial intelligence should be on their radar. Dr Ina Peukes, standards and technical manager at certification agency Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA), says AI is a tool of interest across multiple sectors as businesses try to create more sustainable global supply chains and better environmental and health outcomes.

She believes the cleaning and hygiene sector, which must manage complex chemical and biological hazards, can benefit from the transparency and efficiency that AI and data analytics bring to product information and tracking.

“Data analytics is becoming more and more important, especially with the emergence of AI,” Dr Peukes says. “It represents a great opportunity to use AI to track and analyse your supply chains so you can identify risks and opportunities and improve sustainability across the landscape.”

She adds that using digital twin analysis – whereby organisations use digital representations of products and processes to simulate real situations – can help companies calculate the impact of their products and services on people and the environment.

“This can really reduce upfront costs and wastage because they don’t have to go through all this testing multiple times.”

GECA runs one of Australia’s not-for-profit ecolabelling programs. Its standards follow ISO 14024 principles and are subject to independent assessment through third-party assurance providers. They include standards for cleaning products and cleaning services to ensure they meet a high level of environmental, human health and social responsibility.

Dr Peukes says more cleaning industry entities are seeking GECA certification. “A lot of businesses are seeing the advantages of becoming more sustainable. There are plenty of studies which show that you perform much better over the long run if you’re engaged in the sustainability field.”

A digital world

Bronwyn Capanna, executive director of Accord Australasia, the peak body representing the hygiene, personal care and specialty products industry, agrees that technology innovation will play a crucial role in organisations’ sustainable procurement outcomes.

“Digitalised supply chains can help businesses manage the complexity and risk of increasingly global supply chains – smart, autonomous information systems can analyse information quickly, adapt to changes and proactively develop a range of solutions,” Capanna says.

She is confident that AI technologies can drive efficiencies for businesses by assisting procurement professionals with “demand planning, optimisation of buying decisions and order tracking, as well as increasing transparency around procurement spending and reducing procurement costs”.

Doing the right thing

Stuart Nicol, director of professional cleaning products business Quipment and chair of the ISSA Oceania Advisory Council, says there is no doubt that sustainability and sustainable procurement are on the agenda for more players in the cleaning and hygiene industry.

This includes sourcing biodegradable and non-toxic cleaning products, minimising packaging waste and utilising energy and water-efficient equipment.

We want to reduce the impact of our products. You can’t reduce your impact if you don’t understand what your impact is.

He notes, for example, that supermarket giant Coles is committed to achieving massive reductions in its water usage, which puts providers of floor cleaning and other equipment on notice.

“At a corporate level, there’s a lot of pressure from boards to be seen to be doing something on the environmental front,” Nicol says.

That pressure translates into cleaning companies having to improve their own procurement practices, despite cost challenges. In the Australian market, Quipment represents United Kingdom cleaning products leader SYR, which supplies global brands such as McDonald’s, Burger King and other fastfood
chains.

Nicol says SYR is committed to a circular economy in which plastics for products such as buckets and safety signs, among others, must be recycled. Used products are picked up, crushed and blended back to a pulp that can be used for new products.

“But there’s much more take-up of sustainability in the European and UK markets than there is in Australia because the cost variations here are much higher as you’re adding on the freight logistics costs to those products,” Nicol says.

As a result, there are challenges around the sustainable procurement of some imported products.

“I think that’s changing, but it’s slow,” Nicol says. “Most organisations think it’s a good idea, but actually getting them to sign on the dotted line is another thing.”

Momentum for ethical sourcing
Several key factors are spurring the shift towards sustainable procurement in the cleaning industry. Environmental concerns, including climate change and resource depletion, have heightened awareness among businesses about the benefits of ethical sourcing.

Hygiene and health company Essity is one major player that is
embracing sustainable procurement.

Rochelle Lake, Essity Australasia’s head of Tork Professional Hygiene Marketing, says ethical sourcing is critical given the company’s focus on paper-based hygiene products. Essity has been conducting lifecycle analyses since the 1990s, and in 2016 started publishing environmental product declarations for its highest-volume locally made New Zealand products.

“We provide full transparency of the impact of products that people purchase from us,” Lake says. “We do it because we want to understand the impact of our products and we want to reduce the impact of our products. You can’t reduce your impact if you don’t understand what your impact is.”

In addition to providing transparency for customers, Lake notes that many organisations are now setting science-based targets to reduce their carbon footprint.

“It’s starting to come into regulatory requirements in both Australia and New Zealand, and consumable products fit into Scope 3 carbon emissions for customers. So, we’re trying to make that product information available for them to get a better quantification of their Scope 3 carbon footprint.”

Educating customers has been crucial for Essity through means such as a sustainable hygiene procurement guide and a podcast series on climate impacts, ethical sourcing and waste reduction.

“We also consider what it means for your employee value proposition to have sustainable products and purchases in your organisation,” Lake says.

Culture at the heart of ESG initiatives
Promoting a truly sustainable procurement policy and developing a credible environmental, social and governance framework should not be a “one and done” exercise, according to Accord’s Bronwyn Capanna.

“It’s something that should be embedded within a company’s culture and an area where companies should be striving for continual improvement.”

She adds that one key way to signal that sustainable procurement is a priority for a business is “to develop an organisational vision or mission statement that encompasses sustainable supply principles”.

Capanna says Accord research highlights the gap between companies wanting to embrace sustainability and their caution around implementing appropriate strategies. Its recent climate change survey revealed that, while 75 percent of members in the industrial and institutional cleaning and hygiene-products space consider that climate change poses a risk to their business, just 50 percent have a climate change strategy and only 17 percent rate climate change action as a high priority.

“As an industry body, that says to us there is a clear mandate for more targeted information, training, tools and to facilitate partnership opportunities and access to experts to help our members navigate and bolster their sustainability credentials – whether they’re just getting started or well on their journey.”

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