Greenwashed and overlooked: Why cleaning deserves a closer look in your ESG strategy

By Georgia Jordan, Content Writer at Biological Preparations 

Ethical consumerism is now influencing B2B purchasing, with buyers expecting genuine action not only in a business’ own operations but also across its value chain. ESG reporting (Environmental, Social and Governance) has become the go-to framework for communicating those efforts. In fact, 88 per cent of publicly traded companies had ESG initiatives in 2020.

But while attention often falls on energy use, carbon offsetting, or community investment, one critical area is still largely overlooked: cleaning.

Cleaning is too often a tick box exercise yet touches every area of a business, including reputational, regulatory, operational and financial. Even where ESG and cleaning are aligned internally, supply chain decisions can still pose risks through greenwashing.

That leaves modern cleaning operations facing a dual challenge: how to make cleaning a genuine strategic asset, and how to protect your progress from being undermined by greenwashing.

First, let’s establish how cleaning links to each ESG criteria:

Environment: Plenty of cleaning products claim to be sustainable but still come packed in single-use plastic, contain petroleum-based ingredients, or get overused due to poor training and outdated systems. When you look across the full lifecycle, from ingredient selection and transport to energy use and end-of-life breakdown, the environmental impact can be high. Understanding exactly what you’re using, how it works, and its long-term effects is key to linking cleaning to environmental objectives.

Social: More research is revealing how cleaning chemicals impact health, not only of the cleaning team but of anyone using the space. For example, QUATs (quaternary ammonium compounds) are known to trigger asthma and skin issues, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) can cause respiratory problems. Social impact also stretches beyond your site, with ethical labour practices across your supply chain another consideration.

Governance: Governance is about more than leadership; it’s about transparency and trust. In the cleaning industry, many manufacturers are reluctant to share full lifecycle data or disclose key product information. That lack of visibility makes it difficult to track ESG progress or verify claims, opening the door to greenwashing. Greenwashing, the practice of exaggerating or fabricating environmental benefits, undermines genuine ESG progress.

So how can businesses move beyond box-ticking and build confidence in their cleaning-related ESG performance?

One common greenwashing tactic is selective disclosure. For example, promoting PCR packaging or concentrated formats while ignoring the product’s actual environmental impact or ingredients. To avoid being misled, start by investigating the formulation:

• Petrochemical-based: Derived from crude oil with high CO₂e emissions.
• Partially “eco” or bio-based: A step forward, but often still reliant on synthetics.
• Fully biotech or biosurfactant-based: Fermentation-derived ingredients like rhamnolipids or sophorolipids are the gold standard. They’re biodegradable and support a circular carbon economy. Removing carbon from the air via plant growth and returning it upon degradation.
  

Ingredient lists alone don’t always tell the full story. Reviewing the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) can offer deeper insight into a product’s safety and environmental profile.

You should also expect transparency around ingredients (without compromising IP) and evidence of biodegradability and low toxicity. Trustworthy third-party certifications such as Global GreenTag, EU Ecolabel or EcoCert, can provide another level of assurance.

Beyond formulation, investigate other factors that impact ESG performance:

• Are the products manufactured using cold water or renewable energy?
• Do they use concentrates or sachets to reduce plastic and transport impact?
• Are they water and energy efficient in use?
• What waste and recycling policies are in place at manufacturing sites?

From supply chain transparency to real-world health impacts, cleaning intersects with every part of ESG and leaving cleaning out of the equation creates gaps that cannot be ignored. Taking extra steps to guard against greenwashing is no longer optional, it’s a necessary layer of defence for any credible ESG strategy.