Diversey Gulf’s global objective of providing sustainable solutions that ‘protect lives, preserve the earth and transform the industry’ was up for discussion at a lively roundtable meeting with the Dubai’s Professional Housekeepers Group at The Palace, The Old Town hotel. Diversey’s managing director, Somer Gundogdu explained the objective, saying, “Diversey protects lives by delivering solutions that make food, drink and facilities safer and more hygienic, transforms the industry by creating more sustainable enterprises that contribute to the well-being of communities. “We help preserve the earth by continually reducing the environmental impact of our solutions and operations for ourselves and our customers,” said Gundogdu.

Diversey’s GCC marketing manager, Marc Robitzkat presented the company’s sustainable line of products and its corporate strategy on sustainability to the clique of ladies who represent Dubai’s burgeoning hospitality business. Robitzkat said that hotels would be able to reap the full benefits of Diversey’s sustainable product line if they had the mindset to go green and bring about internal changes to adopt sustainability in totality. He pointed out how the use of the Jonmaster Microfibre system can achieve environmental objectives while reducing costs. Citing the example of the Hilton Dubai Jumeirah, he said, “The Hilton hotel was able to save 11,000 manhours in a year by adopting the Jonmaster system for it cleans more surface area in less time using damp cloth only.

The hotel saw a reduction in water and chemical usage by almost 6 percent (approximately 1.995 million litres) and 60 percent, respectively. While the strategy to achieve sustainability concerning energy reduction and carbon emission is mostly taken at the corporate level, one aspect which stood out during the discussion was that the choice of selecting environmentally friendly cleaning products was mostly left to the housekeepers’ discretion. “We learn from suppliers about the products available in the market to be able to make the right choice,” said Tatjana Ahmed, housekeeping manager of Grand Hyatt Dubai and chairlady of the housekeepers’ association.

All the participants were mostly aware of the green products and chemicals that are available in the market today to maintain washroom hygiene and cleanliness. The availability of other green products such as marble preparation pads was also discussed wherein the floor does not need to be stripped with chemical strippers anymore. Recycling of waste was seen as a way of achieving environmental sustainability with waste segregation, collection and recycling as the core areas of discussion.

While Laetitia Lasry, executive housekeeper of The Palace, The Old Town, the only regional hotel with the distinction of having been awarded with the Green Globe Certification, lauded the Dubai Municipality’s move on issuing green directives to hotels, which is being seen as a starting point for self-education towards sustainability by most hotels, other housekeepers said that they would like to see more incentives from the municipality to support waste collection and recycling.

Tahera Sultana, executive housekeeper of Movenpick Hotel, Bur Dubai said that the municipality should come forward to support hotels that want to adopt sustainability projects, for instance, through the installation of solar paneling. Nadine O’ Connor, executive housekeeper of Media One Hotel, who also said that it would help if hotels had a ready reference list of preferred suppliers of green products. Taking the discussion further, Jeanette Clift, secretary of the association and area director of housekeeping, Al Bustan Rotana, said that the municipality could provide a green check list for waste management and housekeeping departments to help hotels achieve sustainability in these areas, as this was also in the best interests of the country.

Dilki Cooray, director of housekeeping, Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek, seconded this view. Answering a query on the expense of using green chemicals, Robitzkat said, “Diversey’s Pur-Eco products which are awarded with the EU Ecolabel and Nordic Swan certifications are a little more expensive than regular chemicals because the ingredients used are not commodity ingredients and tend to be more costly. The products also undergo rigorous testing and the suppliers need to pay a fee for certification, adding to the extra costs to the products.” He added, “The cost of chemicals is a very small fraction of the entire cleaning process, where staff costs are responsible for 92 -97 percent of the cleaning budget.

Hence, differences in product prices have a minimal impact on overall cleaning budgets. The additional cost, however minimal, pays back easily with savings on water, time and environmental benefits, which can be achieved with training and proper use. It all depends on how the operator uses green chemicals, understands the applications and trains the staff.” The green drive in Dubai picked up 3 – 4 years ago and the market is now awash with queries for green products, said Robitzkat. “People have overcome their reluctance to using green chemicals and the current situation is very promising.”

Dorothy Stein, general manager, Cleaning and Trolley Services Division, Engineering Services Unit, Dubai Airports, however, said that she had started implementing the use of microfibre cleaning technology nearly eight years ago and added, “Suppliers are the ones who drive the industry and we learn from them and implement solutions if we find them to be good.” The discussion moved towards sustainable products that could be available in the future. Responding to Tatjana Ahmed’s query regarding cleaning solutions that could be applied to any surface in the bathroom with long-lasting action, Robitzkat said, ”Enzyme-based cleaners with long-lasting action are being used to clean kitchen drains since a long time, but they cannot be used on food surfaces and in washrooms.

However, Diversey’s silver-peroxide based Oxytech sanitiser has these long-term cleaning applications. The product is a natural combination of hydrogen peroxide and silver particles, both of which are known to be safe and non-toxic. Silver in particular is proven to have an effective, long lasting effect that has been used by many cultures in history.”