Ecover - A Green Company

It’s the stories about overcoming obstacles that are the ones worth telling. Ecover’s first factory was one enormous obstacle - which is why it still receives thousands of visitors from all over the world year after year! It’s getting more and more difficult to decipher one company from the next these days. At Ecover, they let our factories do the talking.

The concept:

Outstanding cleansing effectiveness. In their in-house laboratory, they develop ecological products that are equal to conventional products in terms of effectiveness and user friendliness. To ensure the effectiveness of the products, they use test methods and measurement techniques such as are commonly used in the commercial detergent industry.

Sustainable quality

Ecover takes ecological, economic and social aspects into account from the origins of the raw materials to the biodegradation of the final products. Strict criteria are employed as guidelines for all business operations, from selecting raw materials, through production methods, to full decomposition of the end products.

The factory is oriented to follow the movement of the sun from east to west, ensuring maximum daylight and limiting the need for artificial light. The weight bearing construction (inside height 43 ft) consists solely of laminated European pine rafters treated with borax salts to increase fire resistance. Pine is a soft type of wood, but the technique of gluing it together under pressure gives the structure a strength and load bearing capacity that can normally only be achieved with harder, slow-growing timber.

The outside walls and inside partitions consist of masonry built with a separate type of brick, the Poro+, made from a mixture of clay, wood pulp and coal fines. The baking of this stone requires less energy and the outcome is a light, porous material with good thermal insulation. The stone nevertheless needs a protective coating, in our case a rendering of trass lime mixed with straw.

The flooring is made of concrete, which was necessary in view of heavy round-the-clock internal transport with forklift trucks carrying away all the finished products and delivering materials and packaging to the appropriate area in the factory. In 2004, approximately 21,000 tons of goods were produced in the factory. If they consider all the transport movements, they can assume that the total load transported internally amounted to approximately 60,000 tons.

The roof is a green roof, built from a layer of sealant, an insulation layer of mineral perlite and an external layer which is a substrate with plant cover comprising various types of Sedum. Sedum is a type of plant that is used to grow on most roofs (it used to be called 'Thunder beard'). Sedum is ideal for a roof because it is capable of surviving prolonged periods of drought or great heat.

Overall, the roof provides excellent thermal and acoustic insulation in all seasons. In the factory, which is without general heating or air conditioning, the temperature never drops below 39°F and never rises above 79°F. In the winter, any heating required in the factory is supplied locally by reflector heaters powered by natural gas.

When you choose an Ecover product, you make a conscious choice for the environment. they believe that every link in the social fabric must be related to that choice; which is why they also opt for a sustainable production method.

For more info on Ecover's ecological factories visit www.ecover.com/us/en