ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Paul Evans, founder and director of Rumpus - a B Corp-certified PR agency - asks whether the certification, which has gained considerable traction around the world, can function as a practical and credible framework in the professional cleaning sector. 

ACROSS THE CLEANING and hygiene sector, ‘doing good business’ is no longer a secondary concern. It sits at the heart of how products are formulated, how people are employed, how services are delivered, and increasingly, how companies communicate their value.

The shift is not being driven by sentiment alone. Regulatory scrutiny is increasing, procurement criteria are evolving, and expectations from employees are changing just as quickly. The direction of travel is clear, even if the pace varies from one organisation to another. The challenge is that this is a sector shaped by cost pressure, operational complexity and tight margins, especially in the current climate, alongside a historically weak reputation in these areas.

As Louis Beaumont, managing director of Hive Cleaning, puts it: “The sector has often been a race to the bottom. Low cost, low wages, high chemical usage and very little transparency.”

Against that legacy, the B Corp movement has gained huge traction around the world. More cleaning and hygiene businesses are exploring the framework to show they do things differently, and as a way of demonstrating broader social and environmental responsibility.

B Lab UK recently told me there are now around 70 European B Corps connected to the hygiene sector. But the question now is not simply whether B Corp is well-intentioned. It is whether it can function as a credible and practical framework in a sector defined by those operational complexities and commercial pressures.

As a leader of a B Corp-certified PR agency, I believe strongly in the intent behind the framework. The key is making sure that it delivers meaningful change and positive action.

B Corp is designed to assess the whole of a business rather than individual components of performance. Governance, workers, community, environment and customers are all considered together, reflecting the idea that responsible business cannot be reduced to one metric or isolated issue.

Recent updates to the framework have reinforced that position. B Lab has introduced more explicit requirements across key impact areas, moving away from a system where strengths in one area could offset weaknesses in another. The expectation is now broader consistency, supported by clearer evidence.

For cleaning and hygiene businesses, this raises the bar significantly. It is no longer sufficient to demonstrate progress in product formulation or environmental impact if labour practices or supply chain oversight fall short. And it takes time. As Sam Greaves, managing director of Cleenol, explains: “It took around six months to complete the assessment, followed by just under 12 months in the verification queue before certification.”

The certification process requires discipline, documentation and internal alignment. It often exposes gaps that may previously have been overlooked or deprioritised. This level of scrutiny may be unfamiliar to many businesses. And for others, it may create operational friction that is difficult to ignore.

But this is also where the framework derives so much of its value. It encourages businesses to move beyond informal commitments and towards structured, verifiable practice.

B Corp works best when it’s treated as more than a certification exercise, and more as a mechanism for interrogating how a business actually operates.

The cleaning and hygiene industry is a particularly demanding environment in which to apply a framework like B Corp. I understand the challenges it can pose - it is highly operational, technically complex and often price-driven. Claims of responsibility must stand up to scrutiny across several fronts.

Product formulation requires companies to balance efficacy, safety and environmental impact, often under strict regulation. Packaging faces growing scrutiny around waste, recyclability and circularity. Labour brings its own pressures, from pay and retention to training and workforce wellbeing. Then there’s supply chain management and monitoring, one of the biggest ongoing challenges for the sector.

Overlay this with a cost-driven procurement landscape, and the scale of the challenge becomes clear. Improvements in one area can create pressure in another.

Broad framework

This is where a broad framework like B Corp becomes useful. It encourages companies to look across all of these dimensions simultaneously, rather than focusing on a single area of improvement that may have a limited overall impact. At the same time, it brings trade-offs into sharper focus. It requires businesses to make decisions with a wider set of stakeholders in mind, even when those decisions are commercially difficult.

Businesses that go through the process often find it pushes them further. Beaumont reflects that for Hive Cleaning, “it formalised what we were already doing and pushed us further, particularly in supply chain scrutiny, carbon measurement and reducing reliance on harsh chemicals”.

Similarly, at Cleenol, the process has been used to strengthen internal systems: “The process helped us review, structure and, in some areas, enhance our practices, creating greater accountability and transparency across the business.”

These are not headline-grabbing changes. But they are arguably more important. They point to a shift in how businesses are run, rather than how they are presented.

Responsible business is often presented as a straightforward win-win. But in cleaning and hygiene, it rarely is. We know the sector is price-sensitive. Introducing higher labour standards, more sustainable products or additional reporting requirements inevitably creates tension. It is where procurement must look beyond the black and white of a tender. Beaumont is direct about this: “There is definitely tension in a price-sensitive market: ethical labour, sustainable products and proper training all come at a cost.”

Progress and compromise

Businesses that engage seriously with frameworks like B Corp recognise responsible business practices cannot be adopted without trade-offs. Progress involves prioritisation and, sometimes, compromise.

What begins to shift is the basis of competition. Instead of focusing exclusively on price, companies can reposition themselves around reliability, accountability and broader value. As Beaumont puts it: “We don’t try to be the cheapest, we aim to be the most responsible and the most reliable. That’s a different conversation.”

This also prompts a wider question. If B Corp is not adopted, what alternative framework provides a comparable level of structure and accountability? No framework eliminates complexity, and no business operates without constraint. As Beaumont points out: “B Corp is a great benchmark, but it’s not the only indicator of doing the right thing.”

Organisations such as EcoVadis and Planet Mark offer credible approaches, particularly in areas such as supply chain assessment and carbon measurement. But the broader shift encouraged by B Corp – moving from competing purely on cost to competing on value and responsibility – may ultimately be one of its most significant advantages.

It’s also important to note that for many businesses, the most practical route may not be immediate certification, but gradual adoption. Applying elements of the framework can provide direction without the immediate pressure of meeting every requirement. This is where the conversation around B Corp becomes more useful.

Rather than treating certification as a binary choice, it can be approached as a framework for decision making. It can offer a structure for assessing how a business performs across multiple dimensions. Even businesses that aren’t ready for certification can benefit from understanding where they currently stand.

This matters because it allows firms to start embedding the principles of the framework without immediately committing to certification. Ultimately, that’s the real value here: measurable change. And with B Corp, that can take many forms, be it environmental, social or operational.

At Hive Cleaning, one of the most visible shifts has been in workforce conditions. “We pay 100 per cent London Living Wage across all employees as a non-negotiable standard,” says Beaumont, “which has improved retention, engagement and service consistency.” This is a clear example of how a principle, the fair treatment of workers, translates into a practical business decision, with measurable outcomes.

At Cleenol, the impact has been more focused on community engagement. “We’ve moved from one-off activity to long-term community partnerships,” Greaves explains, “including launching The Sun Fund to deliver 5,000 hours of work experience and 500 hours of mentoring for young people.”

Again, it’s a move away from one-off activity towards something more structured and accountable. These are examples from certified businesses. But for those that might be earlier in their journey, implementing initiatives like these doesn’t have to be part of the formal certification process.

Instead, it shows intent and a willingness to engage with the questions that the framework raises. 
Over time, changes like these will accumulate and can create a foundation that makes certification more achievable in the future. And they begin to shift how decisions are made on a day-to-day basis.

The communications challenge

Communication is where many businesses still fall short. The mistake is treating the logo as the story. But in a sector as practical and performance-driven as cleaning and hygiene, a tick-box approach will never be enough for a discerning stakeholder. And the rigour of the new standards means that this will no longer be possible anyway.

Customers, procurement teams and employees want to know the specifics of what has actually changed. They want to understand how labour conditions have improved, how products have evolved and how environmental impact is being reduced. They want evidence. Without evidence, certification becomes little more than a badge with no deeper meaning.

There is also a regulatory dimension to consider. Across Europe, scrutiny of environmental and sustainability claims is increasing. Companies are expected to be more precise in how they describe their impact, and to avoid broad, unsubstantiated statements. Communication is no longer just about branding. It’s about evidence, credibility and compliance. Responsible businesses shift the conversation from cost alone to cost versus value, risk and long-term reliability.

Cleenol’s approach points in this direction. As Sam Greaves notes: “We track metrics such as volunteering hours, community engagement and participant progress, and are developing a formal Impact Report to strengthen transparency.”

This kind of structured reporting is likely to become more important. Impact reporting remains optional for smaller businesses, but for me, it should be a fundamental requirement. It supports transparency while helping businesses identify where further improvement is needed. For many businesses, the hard part is gathering the evidence in the first place. But perhaps the biggest challenge is to accept that trade-offs will remain: perfection is not possible.

What matters is the direction of travel and the extent to which responsibility is embedded in decision-making.

From intent to credibility

B Corp represents one of the most ambitious attempts to redefine what good business looks like and how performance is measured. For the cleaning and hygiene sector, it offers a framework that aligns well with many of the challenges the industry faces. Its credibility ultimately depends on the rigour of the standard and how honestly businesses apply and communicate what it means in practice.

In a sector where performance, safety and cost remain critical, the presence of a logo will never be enough. What matters is the evidence behind it. It provides a point of reference, a way of structuring conversations, setting expectations and measuring progress over time.

For some businesses, certification will be a natural next step. But for others, it will remain a catalyst - an internal guide, helping to shape practice and guide meaningful change. Once again, it’s about progress, not perfection.

The companies that will stand out are not those that simply achieve certification, but those that embrace the principles of B Corp and translate them into tangible action, and explain that action in a way that is clear, specific and credible.

In cleaning and hygiene, responsible businesses will not be judged by what companies claim. It will be judged by what they can prove. If you’re considering B Corp, the best place to start is with a simple question: where would your business struggle under scrutiny today?

The answer to that question is often far more valuable than the certification itself.

rumpuspr.com