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Category: Allgemein

20. May 2022

Werner & Mertz Professional at Interclean 2022: Crowds rush toward the circular economy

Tana-Chemie GmbH auf der Interclean 2022. Copyright: Tana-Chemie GmbH

Interest in sustainability and the circular economy is growing by leaps and bounds in the professional building cleaning sector. That’s the take-away for Tana-Chemie, the Professional Divison of Werner & Mertz, from this year’s Interclean trade show in Amsterdam. Several hundred companies presented their latest solutions and concepts for professional cleaning from 10 to 13 May in the Netherlands capital.

At the Werner & Mertz Professional booth at Interclean, visitors from all over the world got a good look at the newest products, services and digital tools from the eco pioneer. As usual, the company’s fair presence revolved around the key concept of a sustainable circular economy. “It was fantastic that after a purely digital interlude in 2020, we could finally talk face-to-face with customers,“ says Thomas Ulbricht, CEO of Werner & Mertz Professional. “The atmosphere among the fair visitors was very positive and the interest in our products and topics was enormous.” 

Compared to the last live fair in 2018, it was easy to see that sustainability has become the focus of all companies at Interclean, according to Mr. Ulbricht. “As a long-time pioneer of the circular economy and ecological product design, we obviously benefit from this new eco awareness. Which, not least of all, could be seen in the large crowds at our booth.” 

The transition to the circular economy

A highlight at the Werner & Mertz Professional booth was a three-dimensional installation that demonstrated the two recycling loops for Green Care Professional brand cleaning products. In one, plant-based raw materials that go into the cleaning products from Green Care are biologically degraded in nature and returned to the biological cycle. The packaging made of high-quality recycled plastic and designed for recycling is kept in a closed technical cycle.

“In this eye-catching model, our customers can see how our products support them in speeding up their transition to the circular economy,“ Mr. Ulbricht says. “It was quickly clear to many visitors that our cleaning solutions also raise customers‘ sustainable use to a whole new level. And that’s made possible without any extra effort from the user. Our Green Care portfolio is a sure way for our customers to become heroes of the circular economy.”

One of the products and digital tools available to users pushing the green transformation in their own companies is the Green Care Academy, an innovative continuing education program for cleaning professionals. On this newly developed eLearning platform, professional cleaning staff have access to practical instructional videos with easily understood information about daily work routines.

Using the free online tool Green Care Performance Calculator, visitors at the booth could find out how many tons of plastic waste, crude oil and greenhouse gases they could avoid by switching to sustainable cleaning products from Green Care Professional. With KLIKS – Pouch, the company introduced a sustainable innovation for its KLIKS dosing system. Now Green Care concentrated cleaners are available in space-saving plastic pouches whose design purposely eliminates all unnecessary packaging material.

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Guest speaker at INPACS GmbH

Werner & Mertz Professional went outside its own booth to share the message of the innovative power of a sustainable circular economy. Xiaoming Bai, International Marketing Director at Werner & Mertz Professional, was invited to speak at the INPACS GmbH booth. In his keynote address, Bai led the audience step by step through the transitional process to a successful circular economy and spoke about what the European Green Deal means for the professional cleaning sector.

8. July 2021

EcoVadis Platinum awarded to Tana-Chemie GmbH

Tana-Chemie GmbH receives highest award from EcoVadis

Founded in 1971 under the brand names Green Care Professional and Tana Professional, the Professional Division of the Werner & Mertz Group has since then offered high-performance hygiene solutions for use in professional cleaning in different sectors. Applications include building cleaning, healthcare facilities and food processing operations. With the focus on integrally sustainable cleaning, the company works toward establishing a functioning circular economy. Through the manufacturing of environmentally compatible and biologically degradable ingredients for cleaning products and the use of innovative, recyclable packaging, the Werner & Mertz Group pursues an approach that has earned it a pioneering position in resource conservation.

Tana-Chemie GmbH has received many awards in recent years for its sustainability efforts and accomplishments. They include certificates of compliance with criteria for EMAS, the world’s most demanding environmental management system;the sustainable building standard LEED Platinum for the Mainz administration building; and Gold certification of several professional products from the renowned Cradle to Cradle® NGO. In June of this year, Tana-Chemie lived up to its excellent reputation once again. The highly respected CSR rating agency EcoVadis recognized the company for the second time—this time with Platinum, the top rating for sustainable business and a special honor that goes to just one percent of all companies audited.  

Since 2007 EcoVadis has evaluated companies’ environmental protection and social practices. More than 75,000 businesses in 200 industries around the world have had themselves and their supply chains objectively assessed and placed into one of the four rating classes of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The demanding audit covers corporate performance in 21 categories, divided into the four areas of Labor and Human Rights, Ethics, Environment and Sustainable Procurement. The last two subjects were particularly  decisive for Tana-Chemie. Special mention was made of the company’s use of recyclable packaging and renewable energy, the reduction in water consumption for production through innovative methods such as the re-use of water from operational processes. With its elevation from the previous Silver status to Platinum, Tana-Chemie is recognized as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. 

Thomas Ulbricht, Head of the Werner & Mertz Professional Division, is proud of the best rating award. The result, he says, reflects the company’s years of effort in sustainable management. The EcoVadis platinum award brings obvious benefits to the environment and, not least of all, to the business partners of Tana-Chemie. For one thing, the entire supply chain is made more transparent and for another, the envisioned continuous improvement of performance in key indicators is for the good of everyone involved. All of that creates lasting mutual trust.

3. August 2020

Vergabe-Insider: New online trade journal about green public procurement

There’s no doubt that public procurement must and will become more sustainable. The changes present great challenges to purchasing agents because, despite sustainability’s relevance, the issue has thus far been neglected in public procurement. Consequently, the agents lack clarification on one hand and concrete assistance with practical implementation on the other. In order to change that, the Professional Division of the Mainz-based cleaning products manufacturer Werner & Mertz, is working with the Forschungsgruppe für Recht und Management öffentlicher Beschaffung (FoRMöB) at the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich. Together they have founded the VERGABE INSIDER, an online trade journal for everyone who deals with green public procurement. Another important partner in the magazine is NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union).

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12. November 2019

Patented stand-up pouch of monomaterial: The ecological all-rounder

Within the scope of its Recyclate Initiative, Werner & Mertz has reached another milestone on the way to a genuine circular economy. The company has brought to market the world’s first completely recyclable pouch of a monomaterial (polyethylene) with removable label, whose development followed Cradle to Cradle® principles. The innovative and patented pouch concept is the result of a four-year joint development project conducted by Werner & Mertz and the global packaging and paper firm Mondi. The concept solves the problem of recycling printed plastic. About 85 percent of the packaging material is not printed and therefore can be recycled with no loss of quality as it is not contaminated by ink. The remaining 15 percent, the printed label, is completely recyclable and, because no adhesives or bonding agents are used, the material can flow back into new applications. Certification recently was conferred by the independent Institut cyclos-HTP and Interseroh, which stated that the stand-up pouch has “very good recyclability that cannot be optimized any further.”

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27. October 2019

German Environmental Award 2019 for Reinhard Schneider

Shared pleasure over the German Environmental Award (from left): Moderator Judith Rakers, DBU General Secretary Alexander Bonde, award winner Prof. Dr. Ingrid Kögel-Knabner, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, award winner Reinhard Schneider, DBU Chair of the Board of Trustees Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter and Baden-Wurttemberg Environment Minister Franz Untersteller © DBU/Peter Himsel

Make bold decisions today for positive interactions tomorrow

Mannheim. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on citizens to “make bold decisions today” in environmental and climate protection to trigger “positive interactions for tomorrow”. “The future is not predestined. It’s up to us what we make of it,” he said at the presentation of the German Environmental Award of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) in Mannheim. “The plastic bottle that is recycled today or not even produced will not end up in the oceans tomorrow. It will be back in the raw material cycle the day after tomorrow. The soil, which is protected from erosion today, binds carbon. And it can still be used tomorrow as farmland to feed people.” Steinmeier presented the highest endowed independent environmental award in Europe with a total of 500,000 EUR to the soil scientist Prof. Dr. Ingrid Kögel-Knabner from the Technical University of Munich and Werner & Mertz CEO Reinhard Schneider.

Ecological transformation presents opportunities to Germany

With an audience of around 1,200 guests, including Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Environment Minister Franz Untersteller, Steinmeier said that the award winners encouraged others by providing solutions and promoting ecological transformation as an opportunity for Germany. As inventors and engineers, as scientists or entrepreneurs, they would find new solutions. Award winner Kögel-Knabner is a role model for future generations of researchers. She adds the puzzle piece of soil use to a much larger picture of the global climate and its “truly alarming change”. Factories and power plants alone are not responsible for climate change; another contributor is how the world’s people manage soil, the planet’s major carbon sinks. Depending on its use, soil accelerates or slows down climate change. Months of droughts, torrential floods, and destructive storms can be observed in countries in the southern hemisphere. In Europe, too, heat waves are on the rise. The environmental award winner’s research is so important because soil science can help people adapt their agriculture to such extremes.

Products and production designed for sustainability

According to the Federal President, award winner Schneider was a responsible business leader before many others took any action at all. He showed with true pioneering achievements that environmental awareness and profitable business are not mutually exclusive and made the combination his recipe for success. Schneider “designed products and production for sustainability”. Examples include surfactants with a high degradation rate and packaging made of recycled plastic. If more people looked more critically at products on supermarket shelves, they might put pressure on manufacturers to be more environmentally friendly. Consumer activism, however, does not relieve politicians of their responsibility to intervene with regulations when the market does too little or nothing at all to benefit environmental and climate protection. Authorities can use instruments such as transparency, consumer protection with seals of quality, prices that reflect the true costs to the environment and, if necessary, bans on ingredients.

Hundreds of thousands of young people have already made a difference

The head of state went on to say that protection of the environment, climate and biodiversity has rarely been as important to society as it is today. The remarkable civil commitment of hundreds of thousands of young people has had a decisive impact and has “given a tremendous push” to climate and environmental policy. It has reminded Germans of the vigor and ambition that can be found in this country, the social and technological forces that have been built up in the area of environment and climate, and “the contribution that Germany owes the world”. We also are reminded of the ambitious goals the international community has committed to under international law. Young people are justified in saying that what counts now is courage and political will to achieve the goals that have been set. Steinmeier: “Climate policy has to be measured against that yardstick.” Public awareness of this extraordinary social movement has created previously unimagined opportunities that politicians are now called on to utilize.

Trust in democracy’s ability to act should not be underestimated

Federal President Steinmeier said he was aware of the criticism of the climate package. Nevertheless, he added, there is no reason to lose confidence in democracy’s ability to act just because the challenges are so great. Above all, he warned against playing off the participants in this debate against each other: the passion and determination of the young people on the street against the supposed sobriety and sluggishness of political procedure. The democratic process, which is now entering a decisive phase of negotiation, requires passion and determination, a willingness to communicate and fervent rationalism.

“No self-proclaimed strong man will ever be able to match the strength of democracy.”

Steinmeier challenged those who want to sow doubts about democracy to name another form of government that possesses such power of renewal. He stated, “No lone warrior, no autocrat, no self-proclaimed strong man will ever be able to match the strength of democracy!” No cabinet of experts and scientists, no group of climate researchers – despite all their irrefutable findings – can free society from having to deal with the conflicting goals, painful considerations and negotiations it now faces. An ecological transformation that is based on accepted climate science is, of course, necessary. As with every far-reaching structural change, some people will be affected more than others. They might be people who are worried about losing their jobs or about their children not finding jobs if their homes are in regions touched by the changes. Those in power should neither ignore their concerns nor use them as an excuse for not taking required action to protect the climate. Protection of the environment and the climate should not lead to a split between auto industry laborers and blockers of road building, between farmers and nature conservationists, between those who can afford to pay extra and those who cannot. After all, climate protection is an ecological and social issue that concerns everyone and climate policy is much more effective when a lot of people get involved.

Jury praises award winners’ commitment

As members of the jury of the German Environmental Award, on whose recommendation the Board of Trustees selects the winner of the year, Prof. Dr. med. Heidi Foth, Director of the Institute for Environmental Toxicology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, and Katharina Reuter, founder and managing director of UnternehmensGrün, spoke about the achievements of the 2019 winners. Foth paid tribute to the outstanding research work of the award winner Kögel-Knabner. With new research methods and unquestionably solid data, the soil scientist, she said, showed how important soil protection is. Reuter praised Schneider for his consistent focus on the topic of sustainable management. The jury was impressed specifically by his Recyclate Initiative, the creation of environmentally friendly products for the mass market, early European Union EMAS certification of his company, the steadily increasing proportion of used plastics in product packaging, and the company’s early entry to the “”Entrepreneurs for Future”” initiative.

Kögel-Knabner: the organisms in a handful of soil outnumber the world’s population

The award winners made their positions clear once again in films that were screened during the ceremony and in conversations with moderator Judith Rakers. Kögel-Knabner said that one way soils counteract climate change is by storing carbon. Moreover, she said, soils have to be fertile in order to meet global food requirements of a growing world population. The general public has not yet grasped how important soils are for climate protection, Kögel-Knabner said. The organisms found in a handful of soil outnumber the people on Earth. Climate-related problems that look regional – like the thawing of permafrost soils in Siberia – are in fact global because they result from the release of greenhouse gases.

Schneider: Plastic could be one of the most ecological materials of our time

Award winner Schneider said that companies should commit themselves to sustainability and accept the responsibility for making attractive offers to consumers without pushing them to do without expected quality and features. That cannot yet be reasonably expected of many, but it is possible to do so without compromising on ecology. Schneider said it is important in the development phase to make sure products will be recyclable. Different types of plastics should not be bonded in such a way that they cannot be separated. The paradox is that plastic could be one of the most ecological materials of our time “if we learn to handle it properly,” he said. With a minimum of energy and practically no material loss, plastic can be put into a closed cycle. Then no more waste is produced.

10. September 2018

Expansion of the KLIKS System: KLIKS Pouch for Building Cleaning and Kitchen Hygiene

Kliks was the first professional Cradle-to-Cradle® certified assortment launched for machine dishwashing and laundry processes. The highly concentrated products offer compact efficiency and top cleaning performance. Now we have expanded the Kliks System with Kliks-Pouch, a closed dosing system that offers a controlled and precise dose of cleaning products for kitchen hygiene and building cleaning.

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25. April 2018

Quick & Easy conversion to 100% rHDPE cartridges

Our popular “Quick & Easy” system offers several advantages. The extensive range of products combines mobile and exact dosing with simple and safe use. On top of that, the system has an innovative packaging design that makes economical dosages possible. In 2020 we made “Quick & Easy” even more sustainable by converting the packaging material for the cartridges from 50% recyclable plastic (rHDPE) to 100% rHDPE. In the interests of a circular economy, the used packaging material can be recycled completely with household waste and the material cycle remains closed. Because the cartridges are produced on the Werner & Mertz premises, we also reduce transportation costs and related emissions.

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