We are delighted to announce our partnership with Janitorial Express.
Janitorial Express is a sustainability-focused, award-winning, janitorial supplies company.
Here’s why Janitorial Express is involved in The Camden Clean Air Initiative, why we’re proud to have them support us, and a little more about them.
Why did you decide to get involved with The Camden Clean Air Initiative?
We believe that petrochemical based cleaning products are not only bad for the environment but can seriously harm the health of people that come in to contact with them. A report recently produced by the University of Bergen in Norway suggests that using these products on a daily basis can be the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
We believe removing fossil fuel based components from cleaning products is a must. Furthermore we are on a campaign to highlight the dangers of these products and most importantly in schools, where we believe children are particularly at risk from inhaling VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds). We have obtained funding to run free trials of Probiotic Cleaning Agents in all Schools in Camden. The products contain food grade bacteria just like those in Probiotic Yoghurts and long lasting cleaning properties which outperform conventional products and are no more expensive.
These products also benefit from having C2C or Cradle to Cradle product accreditation which is the highest environmental accreditation available.
We strongly believe that conversion will positively impact the air quality in schools and all commercial buildings and there is a clear synergy between what The Camden Clean Air Initiative is trying to achieve and our own goals as a business.
What are your plans for being involved?
We plan to support Camden Clean Air in as many of their initiatives as possible and feel that by highlighting such support we will raise awareness not only with our own clients but other businesses in the locality. Sir David Attenborough recently said “we’re running out of time to save the planet”, “Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change”. We believe we all need to do our bit in our own way and we will pursue our mission to eradicate VOC’s from cleaning products.
What do you love most about Camden?
Our Founder and Managing Director, Gary Fage was born in Camden in the nineteen fifties and came from a long line of costa mongers (street sellers of fruit and vegetables) with links back to the 7 dials area in the early Victorian era. Gary says “although I have moved a round a bit during my adult life, my spiritual home has always been Camden. My family originally come from immigrant Huguenots who were persecuted for their beliefs, they were welcomed by this borough and we eventually prospered. I care about what the borough stands for and the health of its citizens. I love the fact that the borough has welcomed immigrants for hundreds of years and has helped them prosper and that the support continues today.
A little more about Janitorial Express
Janitorial Express are winners of the Camden & Islington Sustainability Award for Green Procurement.
At Janitorial Express we have been supplying conventional cleaning products to business customers in the area for over 30 years, we are currently on a journey to convert all those customers to environmentally sustainable products that do less harm to both people and the environment. In the 18 months before lockdown we converted about 30% of our clients and whilst conversion slowed during covid we are now seeing a big swing again to environmental alternatives.
We also collect all our probiotic bottles from customer sites and use iRecycle to transport via the canal system to a specialist recycling centre.