ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Earlier this year, Dutch cleaning association VSR launched the pilot HotspotCleanLab, an online platform bringing together supply and demand in the area of cleaning sector innovation. Jacco Vonhof reports for ECJ.

Early this year we introduced the pilot project HotspotCleanLab, in collaboration with two enterprising cleaning professionals. This is an online platform that brings together supply and demand in the field of cleaning sector innovation. Cleaning professionals who have thought up an innovation (or already developed one) can draw attention to their idea or product via hotspotcleanlab.nl.

Then cleaning companies, facilities managers and purchasers can add their thoughts on them, naturally in the hope these innovations will solve one of their problems. Such as a drone that can clean solar panels or a trolley with a UV light that can kill bacteria as it moves along the aisle of an aircraft. Visitors to the site can rate these kinds of ideas in the form of a review.

Give innovation a chance

Our goal is to give innovations a chance and introduce the users of cleaning services to cleaning innovations. This will help us all clean better together. It is also important to us this reflects positively on the image of the cleaning sector. The microfibre cloth was the last true innovation it has been said. Yet this platform shows how inventive our field can be.

Furthermore, it is important for us as an association to investigate new ways of reaching out to our supporters and carrying them with us. I see it as eminently our task, as the VSR Association for Cleaning Research, to be both literally and figuratively a platform for new technologies, products and
solutions. VSR and HotspotCleanLab are facilitating this pilot from a belief that pooling our expertise will lead to a better offering from the sector and a better image.

‘And what about the competition?’ you might be thinking. They can see all these new ideas too, which they can then put in place for their clients in their own way. Indeed, we are seeing some degree of reluctance to share innovations. To my mind, this is the old thinking. We are living in a sharing economy. Clients and potential clients really do notice who is out in front, which lends those players an air of professionalism and expertise. This means it is in fact a way of standing out from other providers.

That is why we believe in bringing innovations together, sharing them with our community and improving their implementation. In this way, we can all contribute towards better contracts and cleaning improves for everyone. For the staff who enjoy their work more, the cleaning company and their clients who are better able to adopt innovations, and for the end users who enjoy a clean and pleasant environment.

We will shortly be evaluating whether to continue with HotspotCleanLab. But regardless of the outcome, VSR will remain a leader, following new developments and - even better - initiating them.