Bio-D's story
Bio D is determined to give a new meaning to 'green washing'. Since the company was established in Hull in 1989, its focus has been on creating sustainable cleaning products using ethically-sourced, entirely plant-based ingredients, distributed thoughtfully with an eye to the planet. Apart from its dishwasher tablets, all Bio-D's cleaning products are manufactured in the UK.
The company has an exhaustive vetting process for suppliers of the ingredients in its plant-based raw materials. That includes where they are sourced from, what the harvesting process is, making sure workers are treated well, no GMOs are used, no testing on animals, and much more.
Bio-D has an in-house Sustainability Team, vets all of its carbon emissions, continually seeking further reductions. In 2021, the company stopped using gas and has been manufacturing its products using electricity, including from its own solar panels. It has also switched to electric vehicles. After the relatively straightforward challenge of reducing such Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Bio-D is now looking across Scope 3.
The Sustainability Team is constantly seeking to increase the number of items which can be distributed in plastic-free packaging. Where plastic is essential (e.g. for liquid cleaners), it uses Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastic containers rather than non-recyclable plastic pouches, across its entire product range - with one exception. For bigger-volumes of liquid cleaners, Bio-D has recently developed its Closed Loop system, receiving back empty 20-litre plastic containers from its customers via Royal Mail. These are carefully sanitised for reuse, avoiding recycling entirely. Increasing numbers of Bio-D's stockists are also offering refill stations, using Closed Loop containers.
Useful learnings from Bio-D
Bio-D found it relatively easy to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions, for example by changing electricity supplier, installing solar panels and switching to electric vehicles. Reducing scope 3 emissions is more of a challenge, as it requires close collaboration with all the partners in their supply chain. The company is also looking at water usage, staff commuting to site, business travel, transportation and recycling.
All employees are urged to think laterally, eg, giving away waste which can be used by others.
Bio-D's metrics
The proprietary CO2e calculator developed for Bio-D by the University of Hull covers a wide range of internal sustainability measures, which are also used to provide detailed responses to customer enquiries.
In its regular customer surveys, Bio-D's ethics, product quality and product range are the top three purchase reasons cited by its customers.
B Corp rating: in 2021, Bio-D passed with a score of 80.2%, then pushed that up to 86.4% in 2022, and this year is aiming for a further 5% increase.
Hours staff spend on training courses.
