CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
steps taken for a better world
CLEANOVATION = GREENOVATION
At Flash we bring the best disposable nonwoven cleaning products to the worldwide market. We can do this through the smart and constant innovation of our products as well as our way of working. At Flash we are convinced that the priority regarding Corporate Social Responsibility and green cleaning is always to be critical to the product and the steps in the supply chain in combination with its purpose and effectiveness. We are convinced that optimizing the performance of a product, production process – through innovation – has the largest positive CSR effect. This way we are able to design the best green cleaning products.
Therefore, we are convinced: Cleanovation = Greenovation.
With optimizing we mean optimizing performance of our products, our machines and our way of working while at the same time reducing the environmental impact. Not purely driven by our innovative objectives and technical expertise, taking cleaning performance as a priority, but also driven by our heartfelt goal to improve each and everyone’s living and work environment. At Flash we are setting a conscious policy in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Our logo
We enjoy putting our efforts into words to showcase them, however, we also like to make it visible with a logo that expresses our CSR strategy and implementation. All our products that contain our CSR logo are innovations developed by our PIT team which are developed with the purpose to optimize our living and working environment, while at the same time improving the cleaning performance.
We set the standard
We continuously strive to improve ourselves and our products to obtain the best performing cleaning products. However, we do this with the objective to optimize our living and working environment at the top of our minds. These two goals can only be achieved by uniting forces with all partners in our supply chain, in which we feel the responsibility to take the lead. From the choice of raw materials to the recycling of our products, and from our own factory to the logistic movements from and to our company. As a family-owned company, we believe it is our duty to apply ourselves to each manner of influence to do what is best for our environment in the long run. With a supply chain-wide Corporate Social Responsibility program, we set the tone. In Flash-terms: The standard.
Five focus areas
Everything starts with the choice of raw materials. We strive for cradle to cradle design: which means that we use reusable materials in our products. With the use of renewable materials such as PLA or previously used materials such as recycled PP or recycled paper, we strive to use as many eco-friendly ingredients as possible. Both in our products as well as our packaging.
We do this to reduce the environmental impact of our products. However, we do ensure that the raw material supports the effectiveness and quality of the product in which it is used. With our eco-friendly products, you can set the standard for your approach in CSR, without impacting the performance of the products. This way our sustainable and green cleaning products don’t lose any cleaning power.
Next to switching to reusable materials, the experts in our Product Innovation Team (PIT) are continuously trying to minimize the use of materials. We are very mindful of the use of materials versus its effectiveness. When the use of materials can be reduced without impacting the quality, we always aim to do this. This not only reduces our environmental impact, it also leads to a reduction in production costs. We truly believe that green cleaning can be combined with smart business moves.
A washable textile cloth that is used over 100 times: when analysed purely on its own has a lower impact than the average disposable cloth.
However, we would like to give you a complete overview of the environmental impact, not just the numbers on the product. We take into account factors such as water use, the washing process, release of nanoplastics in the washing machine, wastewater, use of laundry detergent, the logistics, energy consumption, and laundry detergent. Accumulating all these factors, it appears that our disposables are eco-friendlier for our living environment.
This conclusion encourages us to continue the development of our disposable products. The specialists in our Product Innovation Team are determined to challenge the status quo on a daily basis.
One step ahead
We prefer to think one step ahead. For example, the clever design of a product which makes the use of aggressive cleaning agents redundant. By adding splitted microfibers to our mops and cloths we facilitated a significant decline in the use of detergents and chemicals. Next to that, we have developed our melamine and diamond pads as alternatives for abrasive cleaning. These pads do not require cleaning agent, thus reducing the use of aggressive cleaning detergents to zero.
“Improve the world – Start with yourself” is a well-known phrase. We take this to heart when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, in every part of our chain-wide approach. Logistics is a crucial aspect of this approach. The bicycle is a popular vehicle for our home-work traffic. We have deliberately chosen to locate our office, production and warehouse under one roof, to prevent internal transport. Similarly, we prefer and opt to collaborate with local suppliers rather than partners abroad. On the long term, we want to make regional shipments fully electric and foreign shipments as efficient as possible. For example, by freight sharing; this prevents empty lorries.
Popularity disposables
Our lean philosophy creates a clear logistical advantage. Our production and the usage chain of our disposable products both have fewer steps than those of textile counterparts. The fact that the washing machines consume energy is something most people are aware of. What most people don’t know, is that the transport from cleaning objects to the laundromat also negatively impact the environment. More and more users are becoming aware of these hidden environmentally negative aspects, leading to the popularity of our disposable products rising even more.
Whether it’s our offices, our warehouse or our production facility, every day we are busy with improving our work environment and processes. From a safe working environment to energy-saving lighting, and lowering water usage; we are constantly looking to improve.
Recycling and reusing products are key factors in our work environment. Our waste is despatched separately for recycling. This doesn’t just entail our synthetic materials but all our waste streams. We are also working towards a paperless office by digitizing our processes such as our invoice process, making use of laptops and digitalised screens.
In order to support our sustainable employability, we have developed several initiatives.
A good example of this is our ‘feel-good movement’ which has been running for a few years. We stimulate our employees to write down a positive experience, either private or work-related. All these experiences are then shared company-wide, which encourages the positive culture that we wish to maintain in our family company.
Other initiatives:
- Stimulating our employees to take part in sports events such as running contests.
- We have several employees working for us with a distance to the labour market. We support these people intensively together with a job coach to ensure they have the same chances as everyone else does.
- We have regents working for us through our local municipality.
… our sustainable story
Our CSR story is based on a solid vision. We want to ensure that our next generations have a healthy working and living environment. To do this, we need to take the right steps now. As a family-owned company, we feel it’s in our company values to take the lead. Results require action, a chain-wide approach, and a collaboration with our partners. If you are interested to collaborate with us in becoming more sustainable, please contact info@flash.nl.
