Alan Miller

This week we held our 2nd annual event with a focus on how we’re pushing the sustainability agenda within our operations and organisation culture.

A key part of this for us is how we can lead by example working together with clients and partners to improve livelihoods and decrease environmental harm.

Event headlines

During our event we looked at the following focus areas with key announcements as follows:

Carbon emission data by site now available for clients

• As part of our Planet Mark certification we’ve been generating and collating large amounts of data, often not previously considered within our business. e.g. how much carbon is associated with us buying a flat mop or our employee commute to work? With this data we now have more knowledge and power than ever before and we are starting to use this to support our clients to make better choices around cleaning services, and products
• From next month we’ll be sharing carbon site level emission data with our clients. This means they can better understand the value and drivers of building emissions and plug that into their wider carbon reporting, helping them better shape their NetZero journey and buying decisions accordingly

Putting people first delivers increased colleague satisfaction scores for us

Looking after our people means they’re better equipped to look after those they interact with at work – colleagues and customers alike. Their physical, financial and mental health are all drivers of their wellbeing, and we support each of these areas through our Uhub training platform and Regular Rewards, our colleague benefits portal.

• Our recent colleague satisfaction survey yielded positive results. It told us
  • 95% of colleagues believe we demonstrate our values (+8% yoy)
  • 90% can be their self at work (+3% yoy)
  • 92% feel supported by their line manager (+12% yoy)
• Our benefits package includes
  • a Virtual GP – providing 24/7 access to doctor services for all colleagues
  • access to a pay as you earn platform, to help our colleagues to avoid pay day loans
• We continue to be a Recognised Service Provider for the Living Wage Foundation and are looking further into industry solutions with them to enhance colleague conditions around hours, pension and pay
  • Collaboration with clients has meant we’re able to support 85% of colleagues by paying them the Real Living Wage – currently £13.15/hour

We will launch ‘Better Choices’ in the coming months, a new programme to allow choice on a sustainable basis, not just a cost basis, for our clients

• As part of our drive to be Net Zero, we are collating carbon emission data including that of our product range
• Based on this data we can understand the emissions attached to the products we stock and are starting to analyze and present our product range based on ethical metrics – the cost to the planet, as well as financial ones – the cost to a budget
• Our ‘Better Choices’ programme will use and pass this information on to our clients so they can make informed decisions about their business driven by their sustainability ambitions

Creating Social Impact in a way that matters locally to our clients

• We want making a difference to peoples lives to be our lasting legacy, and we know it positively affects our colleagues, our clients and our partners too. Together, we have generated over £1million of social value in the last four years
• We are going to work with our clients to find solutions to the problems that face people right in the heart of where we all live and work
• We were inspired by how our relationship with St Mungo’s first began, through collaboration to solve a homelessness issue on our client’s doorstep

To find out more about our sustainability agenda and progress, you can email better.places@regularcleaning.com

Setting the benchmark in supply chain engagement

Three years ago, we launched our sustainable business strategy ‘Better Places’. The intention was to drive sustainability through every facet of the business, and we developed a set of strategic objectives under four main pillars.

1. Operations – delivering chemical free cleaning products that reduce plastic waste
2. Colleague training and wellbeing – ensuring a happy, healthy and sustainable workforce
3. Procurement – collaborating with our supply chain for mutual benefit

Our Net Zero journey has not been a straight road and we cannot travel it alone. Our destiny and success are tied to that of our service partners and clients up and down the supply chain.
We quickly realised that we had to adopt a ‘one team approach’ to influence and lead effectively with the help of Planet Mark (our certification partner).

As our data is verified by Planet Mark it aligns to important globally recognised initiatives:

• Science Based Targets Initiative Net Zero Standard
• UN backed Race to Zero

Engaging our supply chain effectively

Only with the support of our service partners could we achieve our Net Zero ambitions – and they theirs. The currency required in our exchanges was data, and data of the correct format, type and quality. 

We also began to see ourselves as the conduit for the exchange of this ESG data up and down our supply chain. Amongst other things, this:

– supported certification

– improved sustainable decision making

– helps move us to NetZero more effectively

The challenge was getting the data from a range of different shaped and sized service partners, some of whom did not have the systems in place to measure and extract the data required. Others had no idea of the importance of Net Zero and implications of not starting a journey or having a plan for achieving this goal.

Creating a supply chain engagement programme

The concept was to create a supplier engagement programme with a requirement to educate, mutually support and ultimately deliver reliable data which is so valuable in supporting sustainable business growth. Our programme is designed to continually evolve, meeting new technological challenges, mitigating risks, and grasping opportunities to be better as we travel towards our 2030 Net Zero objectives. Our Service Partner Data Capture Roadmap began in July 2022, structured to develop our ‘one team approach’, by being transparent and supportive.

To drive the programme forward, we had to achieve buy-in and understanding. In some situations, this meant assisting those smaller service partners by supporting the building of frameworks to ensure their effective data-capture. All this was done in collaboration with Planet Mark. This ensured that what was collected could be effectively used in certification measurement.

The success of the programme has meant that:

• We now have in place a robust process to collect and share data from our supply chain
• We’ve gained client trust through collaboration
• Our Service Partners are more knowledgeable and confident talking about emissions and challenging their suppliers to deliver
• Two service partners (Mayflower and Wessex) joined Planet Mark through this collaborative approach
• We can now provide emissions data for our clients down to a specific building, and for the products we offer

We’re pleased our effort has resulted in winning Best Supply Chain Engagement at the Planet Mark Awards. We continue to set benchmarks with Planet Mark of how and what can be done with a challenging supply chain.

⚽ Charity football tournament hosted by Regular Cleaning ⚽

Raising money for our corporate partner, St Mungo’s.

We’d love to see you and your colleagues be part of our charity football tournament, on 15 September.

We’re putting together a fun Friday evening built around a 5 a side tournament, consisting of teams from our service partners, colleagues and clients.

It’s all in aid of fundraising for our corporate partner St Mungo’s to support the work they do in helping eradicate homelessness in the UK.

And of course you’ll add to your own company’s social value contributions as well.

Want to keep up with the Lionesses? Great!

Here’s how to take part:

1 Confirm your team of no more than 7 players and choose a suitable name OR enter as an individual player and we’ll team you up

2 Sign up for the tournament by registering the relevant donation below on our Just Giving page

            ⚽ Team entry donation of £50

          ⚽ Individual entry donation of £10 pp

          ⚽ Non playing guests entry donation of £5 pp

3 Register your entry once sign up donation has been made on Just Giving by emailing Rebecca Elliott at Regular Cleaning

If you have any questions please email Rebecca.

Player registration deadline is 1 September.

Full event details

•          Regular Cleaning Charity Football Tournament

•          Friday 15th September 2023 / 6:30pm – 11.00pm

•          Goals Beckenham, Elmers End Road, Beckenham, BR3 4EJ

•          Parking available /  Train station next door

•          Bar available and hot & cold buffet supplied

Congratulations to all our Regular Ramblers who took part in the Upbeats Walk over the weekend.

Some much needed lovely weather welcomed the walkers on Saturday morning, as they joined others walking the 9 miles route, raising money for the Upbeats. We’re pleased to say that we beat our fundraising target, collecting £1185.

Thanks to all those who have donated and took part, including our colleagues, and Rob and John from our service partner Mayflower Washroom Solutions. Great work.