When you maintain a commercial kitchen at your place of business, you owe it to yourself, your staff, and your customers to keep it clean. Whilst professional cleaning is a must, you also need to maintain the kitchen’s cleanliness between these professional deep cleans. For that, you need to choose cleaning products that will get the job done well. You need to be able to cut through tough grease, eliminate stains and odours, power through stuck-on food, and more.
When choosing professional cleaning products for your business, you may not initially see the benefits of using eco-friendly cleaning products. There is a pervasive myth that these products do not clean as well as other products. But this is not the case; eco-friendly products clean and disinfect just as well as other cleaning products.
There are numerous benefits to switching to eco-friendly cleaning products for business purposes. Here are the most impactful of these benefits.
Support The Environment
Using environmentally friendly cleaning products in your kitchen reduces the negative effects this cleaning could have on the environment. On a global scale, increased use of eco-friendly cleaning products helps your business do its part to combat pollution and climate change.
But this is also important on a local scale as well. When you clean your kitchen, where does that spent cleaning product go? Down the drain or into the trash can, where it can then leach into groundwater and impact the local environment. Using environmentally friendly cleaning products is a small but effective way to improve the environment.
Supporting the environment is often the primary reason that companies choose to switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products. While this is a good reason, it is not the only reason that a business would make the choice to switch.
Fewer Harsh Chemical Smells
There are several medical conditions that your employees may have that make the smell of scented cleaning products problematic for them. These include asthma, multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue, migraines, and more. The sharp, artificial odours of many cleaning products can trigger respiratory distress and other feelings of illness in people with these conditions.
But typically, environmentally friendly cleaning products are either unscented or do not use the same types of chemicals to produce artificial aromas. This reduction of scent can lead to a workplace where people feel more comfortable in their environment, improving productivity and company morale.
Safety
The residues from harsh chemical cleaning products can make people sick if there are any traces left on silverware, dishes, serving utensils, and the like. One of the benefits of using environmentally friendly cleaning products is that they are made with less irritating chemicals and evaporate faster.
Flammability may also be a concern with standard cleaning products. When you are responsible for maintaining a commercial or industrial kitchen, the products you buy are often in larger quantities or at higher concentrations than domestic cleaning products. These products may require special storage and handling to avoid accidents. Environmentally friendly cleaning products are made with fewer solvents, phosphates, and petroleum-based chemicals, which means that they are less risky to store.
A final major safety concern is the presence of volatile organic compounds or VOCs. VOCs are chemicals that evaporate at room temperature and are found in many cleaning products, including aerosols, detergents and dishwashing liquid, chlorine bleach, and oven cleaners. VOCs create air pollution that can make your employees sick. Eco-friendly cleaning products can cut down on VOC production in the workplace and maintain a cleaner, safer air.
Improve Employee Morale
Today’s employees have a heavy interest in the environmental sustainability of their workplaces. In one large US study, 51 percent of employees surveyed reported that they won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments.
Employees care greatly about the impact that their company makes, and one way to show that your company is committed to the environment is to use professional eco-friendly cleaning products.
Marketing
As mentioned before, one of the benefits of using eco-friendly cleaning products is that you can say that your company is making a difference in the local environment. If you mention that in your marketing, your customers will appreciate it. Public opinion strongly favours sustainability. People like it when companies take steps to mitigate environmental damage, and small changes like using environmentally friendly cleaning products to clean your kitchen will make people take notice of what your business is doing to protect them and their environment.
You can take advantage of this by adding information to your website, putting information about sustainability on your storefront, menu, or other documentation, and incorporating sustainability into your digital marketing practices. Let your customers know that you are making environmentally conscious choices, and watch how your customer base expands with this positive boost to your reputation.
Reduced Maintenance Costs
Over time, the chemical residues found in commercial cleaning products can take a toll on your kitchen and the appliances within. These products can cause paint to peel and damage wood surfaces. Eco-friendly kitchen cleaners do not have this potential side effect; the gentler chemicals used to create them do not pose a risk to the items in your environment.
Save Money
Every business wants to cut costs where it can, and one place you can easily do this is by switching to environmentally friendly cleaning products in your kitchen. While buying these products commercially might have a premium cost, the truth is that you can actually make a great anti-microbial, environmentally friendly cleaner right in your kitchen.
A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water can be used to clean kitchen surfaces; adding salt to the mix has been clinically proven to kill E. coli. Vinegar is a fantastic streak-free glass and stainless steel cleaner, and a paste made of vinegar and baking soda can dissolve tough stains and loosen cooked-on food without harming the underlying surface.
Here at Lotus Commercial, we know how important it is to maintain a clean kitchen. Contact us or give us a call at 1300 653 536 to talk with us about your kitchen’s deep cleaning needs.