25: Why Green Cleaning is Good for Your Health

Narrator

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. healthy home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts. Now Baubiologists authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres.

Ron Beres

Hello, friends, and welcome to the show. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're spending a ton of time at home right now, making sure your surfaces are safe. But while you're focused on preventing COVID-19 Have you considered the price of all this super sanitization. And I'm not talking about the time and effort scrubbing sunscreen and scouring your house to a virus free perfection. I'm talking about the hidden costs of using toxic household cleansers.

Lisa Beres

That's right run and many name brand cleaning products contain harmful chemicals such as synthetic fragrance, ammonia, phthalates, triclosan, chlorine parabens and sodium hydroxide just to name a few extended exposures to these is linked to eye irritation and respiratory issues to allergies and even cancer. bleach base cleansers contain chlorine. Some air fresheners are made with formaldehyde or carcinogen, not to mention the combination of caustic chemicals, which can lead to dangerous and deadly fumes.

Ron Beres

Hold on to your scrubbing brushes, friends because our guest has a compassion for the planet, a passion for people and a commitment to creating household cleaning products that will protect you and your loved ones without posing any harm. As president and CEO, Kelly Vlahakis. Hanks leads the strategy and the production of environmentally friendly cleaning products at ECOS, an essential business in the fight against COVID.

Lisa Beres

Kelly has led ECOS to become the first company in the world to achieve the trifecta of sustainable manufacturing, carbon neutrality, water neutrality and true Platinum Zero Waste certification. Kudos to you guys. Her sustainable practices have made ECOS a model for green business in the US as a primary manufacturer ECOS has received many awards for its innovations in safer green chemistry, including the coveted US EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year four times

Ron Beres

As an African American woman and the daughter of a Greek immigrant. Kelly has made it environmental and social justice, a cornerstone of ECOS mission. She supports a green economy by creating sustainable manufacturing jobs across the US and offering strong employee benefits, including a living minimum wage of $17 per hour, one of the highest in the industry.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

A graduate of UCLA and the Chapman University School of Business and Economics. Kelly is also a graduate of the USC School of Business food industry executive program. She's been featured on numerous national television show, she's been featured on numerous national television shows, including CNN, ABC, Fox News and too many to mention here, so we'll include them all in the show notes. Kelly works to promote higher standards for product manufacturing, that promote consumer health and the environment. She resides like Ron and I right here in Southern California with her husband, beautiful teenage daughter and rescue dog, Nina.

Ron Beres

Kelly, welcome to the show.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Thank you so much, Ron, and Lisa. Thank you for that beautiful introduction. Thank you for all the wonderful work that each of you do every day to just let people know how to live a healthier life. I am really so honored to be here on this show with you both today.

Lisa Beres

Oh, we are so honored to have you kindred spirits indeed, working hard to make this world a healthier place for all and I know our listeners are so excited to hear from you. So, let's just dive right in. Now, Ron and I we got way back Kelly with you and Ron and I loved him seeing not too far. We're not battle right around it and I loved emceeing your 50th anniversary celebrations back in 2017. So, can you share with our audience a little bit about ECOS; the history and mission.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

That was such a wonderful day having you both there at our facilities here in Cypress, California to celebrate our 50th anniversary, you know, something I'm really proud of, is that we've been producing environmentally friendly cleaners for 53 years now, long before people had a deep understanding of the importance of greening your cleaning. It was our mission and our commitment. The company was founded by my father in 1967. So, he originally was from the island of Crete in Greece. And he came to this country there's actually a really fun Hollywood film about it called a green story. Yes, well, that Shannon, Elizabeth played me in the film, I got to look really good on screen. That was a guy. But he came to this country and, you know, worked for others realized early on the dangers in traditional cleaning products, was reading things like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and, and other things. And that really motivated him to think about growing up in Greece, how his mother utilized natural ingredients like lemon like vinegar to do these jobs. And so, you know, he has such an amazing story, because when he came here, he had $20, in his pocket, didn't speak English lived on the streets. We started our company in his garage in 1967, after studying chemistry at Roosevelt, because of the Greek root words and went on to become a chemist and started our company. And, you know, the mission was always to protect people in the planet to constantly green the process. I joined the family business full time, 17 years ago in 2003. Although I certainly grew up in the business. And when I joined, we were still a very small company at the time, servicing some of the natural co-ops and some of the independent retailers. And, you know, it's been really exciting to see that the consumers awareness and understanding of the importance of cleaning products, and their own journey for health and wellness has really got more retailers excited about carrying green brands. And we currently make 200 ECOS products as folio. So, to cover all aspects of grading your cleaning, as you pointed out, Lisa, you know, we're manufacturing and sustainable manufacturing facilities. I have four manufacturing facilities here in the United States, one in California, Washington, Illinois, in New Jersey, also a fifth sight in Europe, in Greece, after my father passed away seven years ago, we fulfilled that dream of his to also manufacturer in his homeland. So really working to create the greenest products in the most sustainable fashion.

Lisa Beres

Wow, your dad! I know, you guys had a very close relationship. And everybody when we emceed and have visited your plants, I mean, you never hear a bad word about him. People just love him so much. And what his daughter is when his daughter, yes, yeah, you filled those shoes. Well, you filled those green sustainable shoes. But I want to pivot a little and congratulations, by the way, I'm becoming a climate positive company. Kudos to you guys. So, let's dive in. And if you can let our listeners know, what does that mean, what is climate positive?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Absolutely. Well, thank you, Lisa, for bringing that app, we're really excited to share that with our consumers here in 2021. And, you know, for a long time, we've been talking about sustainability and the importance of sustainability. But now we're kind of moving the conversation a little bit to regeneration. So really, you know, giving back more than we take. And so, we look at being climate positive in three arenas, most companies defined it, define it by looking at carbon and carbon is very important. As you know, we had achieved carbon neutrality and water neutrality and zero waste. But now we want to be 110%.

Ron Beres

Over achiever, Kelly. High Achiever.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

We�re going to raise that bar, you know? That A is not enough, because they really have come to the tipping point where we have to regenerate what we've all taken from this beautiful planet of ours. So, when we look at energy, we first look at everything we can do to reduce rights. And then we look at how we can use solar and other things to replenish. And then in the very end, we offset by funding wind farms or, you know, when we look at what our will offset by funding, the restoration of wetlands, but first, it's all about reduction, and then implementing all sorts of, you know, ways in which we can give back.

Lisa Beres

Wow, I love it.

Ron Beres

That's really good. So, Kelly, during the days of Coronavirus that we're experiencing now people are spending so much time at home. Why are safer cleaning products so important this time?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Oh, Ron. I mean, I'm so glad you started the program really talking about you know, the pendulum not swinging too far, right, because we all want to protect ourselves from the virus, but we don't want to create long term negative effects. health affects for ourselves, for our families, for our pets for our planet. And so certainly, this 2020 is a year I'll never forget, you know, when COVID hit I can remember in March 13, as the world shut down, I mean, we had to really rev up, because cleaning products still remain the number one weapon in the war on COVID. So, I was really happy early on that when the CDC published their guidelines, they said it was a two-pronged approach. Step one is to clean Step two is to disinfect, right? I think a lot of people miss step one. And cleaning means the removal of these pathogens, these viruses, the bacteria. And when you remove these things in your cleaning, you want to use safer cleaning products. You really do. Because Lisa, as you pointed out, so many of the traditional cleaning products have so many carcinogenic ingredients. It's unbelievable as we sit here on this program today, and 2021 these things are not regulated. So, when you think about food, and the FDA and those things, they don't touch cleaning products, there's nobody policing the ingredients that go and cleaning products, yet we clearly understand that cleaning products affect human health, right? People used to think about what they put in them and on them, right? What is the food they're eating? What's the personal care, but people now realize it's also what's around us? What are we breathing in, right, the residue left on our clothes, what's the residue left on our dishes? And those are the things that complete that kind of holistic approach to our wellness journey. And you guys have devoted so much time to creating a healthy home, which I love because we spend so much time in our homes. 99 Well, it wasn't 90% of our time, Americans spent 90% of our time indoors and opposites even more now with COVID. And everybody's working from home. And so, yeah, making your home healthy could not be more important today than ever because, you know, we aren't getting out as much even just to go grab that cup of coffee or go grab some lunch. Everything's being done at home now. bowl here in California because we don't have our restaurants open. Apps. Absolutely. Lisa right. You know, home is now our favorite coffee shop home is now our best restaurant. It's our entertainment center.

Ron Beres

You better like your coworkers too; I'll tell you that.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Yes, yes. Because these coworkers stay with you. 24/7. And so, the thing is, is, you know, COVID we know his effects, you know, our pulmonary health, how do we keep our lungs strong? How do we keep our immune system strong? How do we do the things you know, food is an important part of that right diet, the supplements vitamin D vitamin, a very important part of that. And her cleaning products are important part of that wellness regimen. So, we want to make sure that when you're washing your clothes, you're not washing your clothes that have ingredients like formaldehyde as a preservative that's linked to cancer, or they have optical brighteners. I mean, when I think about optical brighteners, they create a coating on your fabrics, right? They have this fluorescence in them. And so now your clothes aren't actually cleaner, they just look brighter, right? You're absorbing that through your skin. Yeah, well, your dishes, your washing your plates and glasses. And here the back of the ingredients is do not ingest with skulls and crossbones. Every day, people put their water in it, and they drink out of it and they ingest it. And the cumulative effect over a lifetime is all of these illnesses, cancer, asthma, nerve and organ damage. I mean, it's just unbelievable. You know, when the EPA was created in 1970, they grandfathered in 83,000 chemicals that were never checked for human health. And as we sit here more than 50 years later, you know, the TSCA reform says, hey, let's check 10 chemicals a year, right today. I know when they first released the first 10, they said okay, first 10 is best dose, like who doesn't know especially? It's not good for us. Exactly. It's really cleaning products are important. And yeah, just say to your audience, read the labels, just like you read food labels, read the ingredient, read the labels. And yeah, I mean, skull and crossbones should be a red flag, you know, are the words danger, right? What is it caution or danger? or the lack of ingredients being listed? You know, I would say to people, you know, there's no requirement for disclosure and most states. So fortunately, in 2020, California became the first state to require disclosure of ingredients and cleaning products, but they only required it online. Yeah, and now, now this year, they're going to start requiring it on pack. So fortunately, people will actually who live in California have access to the information and it's our great hope that that'll move the needle across the nation because I hopefully companies won't make it. certain products from California and not the rest of them. Yeah, like we see a lot in, like European products will be a lot of the times very different than the US products. Which brings me to the next question greenwashing and everyone listening, I know our listeners have been brainwashed in the past. And that makes purchasing products with third party independent certifications key. So, Kelly, what certifications should consumers look for, to identify that a green product walks the talk? Absolutely, also great point. So, without a regulatory body sort of policing cleaning, there's a need to have, you know, third party auditors who are setting standards. So, we've chosen to participate with the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice Program. So, if your consumers and your audience was in the store, they would look for the EPA logo. And it's a little family, a family of two, and a little house on the front. And they can clearly see that on pack. And what I love about the EPA program is they're looking at three things. Number one, they're looking at the safety profile. So, do you use the greenest ingredients available? Number two, they're looking at efficacy. And I love that because a product that doesn't work is also not a sustainable product. And I think that for a long time, people believe that green products were inferior in terms of efficacy. And that's certainly not the case anymore. Green science is fantastic and does just as good of a job as its toxic counterparts. So, they also certify the products are efficacious. And then they're also making sure that companies are innovating and breaking barriers in green science. And it's important to kind of stimulate our economy with lots of innovative thought leaders who are coming to the table with more natural ways to address some of the problems we face. So, we've partnered with them since 2006. So, we've been partnering with them for 14 years, it used to be called design for the environment. And then, about five years ago in 2015, they rebranded as Safer Choice. And honestly, I'm so glad they did that, Ron and Lisa, because, unfortunately, people often think that the environment is not connected to the human health. Yeah. So, when something is designed for the environment, it doesn't resonate with them the same way as telling people, it's a Safer Choice for your health and your family. And so, I'm really glad that that's what the logo features now.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, and for listeners who aren't familiar with ECOS, which I'd be shocked if our listeners have not no egos, but you know, you guys use a lot of essential oils. So, it's not just that you're cleaning and that the products really work. Because we can attest to pretty much everything, I think we use your whole line, most of your, not the Ice Melt, it's not a big seller in California. But when you clean with ECOS, your house smells incredible. You have the lemon, you have the parsley, you have all lavender, and you have all these beautiful smells. So, it's not just, you know, it's a sensory experience when you clean so your house looks good, but it smells good. And you're happy to be there. And I just wanted to point that out. It's not like traditional cleaning products where you're going to be Keeling over because you can't breathe. You know, I would talk about those caustic chemicals.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Absolutely. Thank you for mentioning that. Lisa, you know, we really believe in aroma therapy at the kitchen sink, right? There are all these additional benefits to essential oils. And you know, one of the beauties about being a primary manufacturer, meaning we make everything ourselves, we're still family owned and operated, obviously woman owned and operated. But controlling the manufacturing process means we get to control all of the inputs. So when you smell the lavender in our cleaning products, I've actually gone to the lavender fields, and I've met with the farmers that grow our lavender and I know those families and I've written the combine for the first cut of the season and follow the lavender from the fields through the steam distillation, you know, and so having that transparency in the supply chain, or our primary surfactant is coconut right and so I've gone to the coconut fields and you know, watch the harvest and all of these things. And, you know, these ingredients are renewable, they're replenishable You know, there's no reason to use petroleum derived surfactants and all of these things when these natural ingredients do a wonderful job as well. And the essential oils and the natural fragrances are key component of our commitment as well because as you pointed out, there are so many different you know, very dangerous chemicals. In synthetic fragrances. It's important to be aware of that, you know, people you know if you see fragrances that have names that don't exist in nature, like Christmas, you know, whatever. wintergreen pine doesn't matter. I know we all know this, but for anyone who's not aware if when you see them Word fragrance or perfume. That's just that's hiding potentially hundreds of ingredients behind that. So, you don't know. And like Kelly said, even now, even though you can go online, you know, are you really going to do that all the time, you're going to go on your computer and look up all the things behind fragrance. Right. Which is why I would say to people when you're in the stores, and you're reading the labels, support brands that are disclosing ingredients. So if you turn over a cleaning product, and there's no ingredients listed, or even a short disclaimer that says See our website, details, I would say those are brands that you really don't want to bring into your home, you want to bring brands that are proud of what's in the product that are prominently displaying it on their label, they want you to be able in the store to pick up the product, read the ingredients and feel good about what you bring into your home. And it's really about empowering the consumer bringing them, you know, if we're not going to regulate these dangerous ingredients, let's at least give consumers a choice and the knowledge to be able to look at it, you know, with a natural brand, right? Maybe someone's allergic to lavender, right? I want them to clearly be able to look at the label and say, Oh, this has lavender, I'm going to get this product, right? It's important. And we know that allergies are on the rise, we know that people are struggling with skin sensitivities. So, 30 to 40% of the population reports it and cleaning products are oftentimes the culprit. People are looking at foods and other things. But don't forget cleaning products, especially laundry, right? Because I mean, that's your skin is your largest organ, you're sleeping on your sheets every night, your pillow, you could be getting breakouts on your skin. And I we've had a lot of readers that had this issue. Oh, you know, I'm breaking out and like you said they think it's they think it's a dairy allergy or whatever. Oh, did you look at your laundry detergent? What? You know, my laundry detergent? I didn't even think about that. So yeah.

Ron Beres

it is interesting. So read labels, they can be complicated. Are there just five ingredients you can give us that people should absolutely avoid. So, let's say there's no certification, but they want to know what ingredients these are known knows that you should never, you know, dirty list.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

The dirty list. Now, I will come up with 5. But I would tell you, we have a list of 500 nasties.

Ron Beres

You're showing off.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

If you go to ECOS.com you can read our 500 nasties and that's our commitment that these 500 ingredients are never in our products and my I would really encourage people to go to ECOS and see those 500 nasties but just kind of top of mine, right? There are some ingredients that I think are really well known, right. So, parabens for instance. You know, a lot of people are talking about parabens, the definitive link to cancer. And we hear that conversation which I'm thrilled about because parabens are oftentimes found in hand soaps and other products and we certainly would never use a paraben as a preservative, because it's an endocrine disruptor. It mimics estrogen, and it's a very problematic ingredient. But then there's a lot of things people aren't talking about. One of those key things is 1-4 dioxane is a known carcinogenic substance. What I mentioned before that Tosca came out with 10 things that would be the first 10 things they would look at and asbestos was number 114, dioxane was number two. So that's how important it is in terms of being a known carcinogenic substance. Yet it's in almost all cleaning products. And this is a little difficult for your audience because one four dioxane isn't listed as an ingredient on the label. Instead it's a byproduct of the manufacturing process. And one four dioxane is often generated from different sources from pegs and from ethoxylated surfactants this fossilized surfactants are surfactants that end with eth, right so like Laura, yeah, right. Sodium laureth. sulfates. Exactly. So, when you see the eth at the end, sodium laureth sulfate, then you want to avoid those things. Optical brighteners that I mentioned earlier, right? You want to avoid anything that that's got that iridescence or the fluorescence in it really toxic to human health and it's not even cleaning your clothes. You want to chlorine bleach you mentioned right I mean chlorine bleach is very important to avoid when you mix bleach you know when you have ammonia on these things. You see people are having fatalities, number one cause of household poisonings, children getting into cupboards and swallowing these things. extremely, extremely dangerous.

Lisa Beres

And you guys have a wonderful product. Is it OXO Brite.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

You are so right. Yes. All right. Our non-chlorine bleach which whitens things just as good.

Lisa Beres

I literally use it. I make a paste with just soap and make a paste and use it as like to clean we have a white kitchen sink so I use it to clean the sink and even if you have that mildew around the tub, you can use that on there. It's really great. Yeah, so thank you. I'm so glad you make a paste with it. That's such a great tip for me. All right, cuz we always say baking soda. But let's be honest, it doesn't always do the job like, like.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

OXO Brite does a wonderful job as a non-chlorine bleach and works so well, it's also color safe, so won't destroy fabrics. And the fifth thing I would say a really simple one, which is so unnecessary are dyes, synthetic dyes, right? Why in the world does a cleaning product need to be blue, or purple or some other color? It's not like it's sitting on your counter, it's under the sink isn't important, but yet, it's the psychology, right? People see that bright blue color and they think, oh, efficacy and strength. And I really want people to start seeing those dyes and think, oh, cancer, and all of these other issues that are linked to these things. So, it serves absolutely no purpose. And so, if you see our ECOS branded products, they're all clear, right? Because we're not adding dyes, it's just unnecessary, it adds to the carbon footprint of a product, it adds to its toxicity. And you know, people shouldn't be fooled by these gimmicks. Yeah. And you mentioned pegs, which for their listeners, that's polyethylene glycols. And which is very much in the news right now, because it is in some of the vaccines that are coming out for COVID. And there has been a lot of reports on people having allergies to those it's a really highly allergic substance. So that's I didn't know if you know, for you guys who were like, what's a pig? Not I wouldn't pay. Yes, no, I'm glad you clarified what the term means. You know, it's so many of these, these terms are so difficult. And that's why reading labels, I think, become challenging for the audience. So, they're like, I don't know, I guess it's okay. I just don't know what any of this stuff is, you know, yes. And that's why support brands that are really translating the science for you, right? If you look at the back of our label, right, we'll say, let's say we use as our surfactant sodium Coco sulfate, right? That comes from a coconut, right, so you have the hard-outer shell of the coconut, which protects it, it's a very clean fruit inside, we utilize the inside of it, the Copra, and then we distill the oils from the Copra to use for surfactant. But if you look at our label, it'll say sodium Coco sulfate. And then in parentheses, it'll say, you know, coconut derived surfactant, right? So, we're on our labels, even translating things so people understand what's the source? What does it do? What's the source? What is it do? They don't need a degree in chemistry to decipher when they look at our cleaning products. We tell them the ingredient, we tell them the source and what the function is right? Nothing to hide, nothing to hide. I believe in full transparency. And, you know, it's a I mean, you guys obviously have walked our manufacturing facilities, you've been to our California facility.

Ron Beres

You could eat off the floors there. Your place is so clean and everyone is so happy there.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Thank you, you know, but you see, like, if you go into our conference room, you have Windows looking at the manufacturing floor is like, we believe in transparency and everything we do we want people to see how do we do it? How do we make it? We want to gain the trust of our consumers. And we always want to deliver on our egos promise, we saw you talk about how cleaning products are the number one weapon in the fight against COVID. Tell us a little about tell us a little bit about ECOS during the pandemic? Absolutely. You know, I can only describe my team as exhibiting the highest levels of patriotism. I mean, you know, Lisa, it almost brings tears to my eyes. When I think about, you know, the very beginning of the pandemic before we had a deep understanding, you know, of things. And those initial days when the world shut down, we had to really step it up. Hospitals needed cleaning products, homes, needed cleaning products, all of our grocery partners. And so, we couldn't close for a day. And I'm just so proud of the work that my team did, how we all came together, the company culture that was in place really, really showed in those moments, March 13, any team member that was considered non-essential, and I don't even like the word is not essential, because every team member is essential. But anyone that could work remotely went remote. So if you worked in sales, marketing, innovation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, you know, finance, sustainability, all of those teams move to a remote workspace, and then myself, my CEO, and my chief engineer, we stayed on site with all of our manufacturing teams in all four facilities. And, and we serviced our nation and I'm just so proud of the work that my team did during those days and continues to do and it was just about, you know, making sure that people had access everyone has access to cleaning products that were safe enough to shelves. I mean, remember it was I made as a as a leader like the march if it hadn't been for a global pandemic, I would have been celebrating the orders coming in right away. know, a lot of our larger retail partners like Costco and Sam's and Walmart and Target and Whole Foods that I mean, the orders were really coming in. And we were happy to have the opportunity to fill those. But number one was to keep my team safe. And I'm just really proud of the fact that, you know, we kept everyone safe and that everyone's doing really well. And I also, you know, just wanted to make sure that, you know, our retail partners stayed obviously in stock and full and that people had the products in their homes, and I wanted to continue the education as you guys are doing today around, you know, the need for safer products, we did a lot of things we launched things that are COVID response. So, you know, like our one step ECOS disinfectant, we added to our portfolio. So, when I talked before about the CDC, first and foremost thing to clean Step two is to disinfect. And so, there are safer ways to disinfect, we're using hydrogen peroxide and our disinfectant does a wonderful job. And disinfectant should be used, you know, for heavily trafficked areas raised over a lot of people are touching something, those types of arenas and so we launched products, like our disinfectant, as part of the pandemic, you'd Wow, that's a that's an actually, you know, I ironically, Lisa, we, we showed our ECOS disinfectant at the International sanitary supply show in October of 2019. So, we had just added it to our portfolio, understanding that, you know, hospitals and some of the institutions needed a greener disinfectant. Some of the institutions and a disinfectant shouldn't be used, you know, every day, right? Something that, you know, you have a blood spill, you have a COVID case, you have something like that. And then you want to have a disinfectant, we always wanted to make sure that all of our collaborators had an entirely green portfolio, because I don't believe that you have not, you know, you have these healthy brands, and then a really toxic disinfectant. And so, we wanted to, to really bring that.

Ron Beres

You guys are unsung heroes, you absolutely are. That during that time period to do that and be there when everyone was hiding away, you were in the middle of working.

Lisa Beres

Yes, and supporting your community with employment too, which is really great.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Because we know, people and I, and I'm really, you know, we we've added, we've expanded our workforce by almost 20% in 2018. So, started hiring people and creating jobs. I mean, our goal has always been to create green jobs in the local communities. And we were happy to be able to bring on new team members to really work with us on our mission. Because, you know, this year, our mission of protecting people on the planet, you know, really, really was so important, more important than it's been in my years of leadership.

Ron Beres

Kelly, we indirectly heard that your 16-year-old daughter, unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19. But thankfully, she's fully recovered. But you and your husband you stayed negative during that whole experience, despite the fact that you all live together under the same roof. Now, I know there's many people listening, that have this experience are going through something similar. Can you share how you protected your family, while someone in your home was tested positive for COVID? And how did you realize right off the bat that you should take your daughter into be tested?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

You know, thank you, Ron, it's a great question and something that I definitely like to discuss with your audience because I think so many people are worried about how to protect themselves. And I really replaced the worrying with immediate planning. And I started implementing all of the things that we have in our ECOS facilities, so my daughter immediately quarantined in her room. And then, you know, the rest of us in the house wore masks stay distance, and over those 10 days until she tested negative. We were very vigilant. But I can attest to the fact that we only utilized our ECOS products, I did not bring any, you know toxic cleaners into our home to combat the virus. our egos, disinfectant or ECOS cleaners were all that we utilized. We focused on a healthy diet, taking our supplements increasing our vitamin D, or vitamin C or vitamin A, and just really staying vigilant and mindful and considerate of one another. And in terms of determining that she might have COVID she had a very slight runny nose, not even something significant that I would have mentioned during any other timeframe, but really just being attuned to her health. I saw it and I immediately just wanted her to get tested because of the slight runny nose and was certainly shocked and saddened when the result came back as we had been so vigilant about our activities, and we certainly wondered that it happened that a well visit to the pediatrician or, or a visit to a grocery store. Not really sure but in the end of the day, the most important thing was to act and to make sure that she stayed healthy. And that she recovered and I'm so grateful that she, she did. She was fortunate being a younger person that, you know, she did lose her taste and smell. But after four days, we covered it. But the rest of us were able to stay healthy and COVID free by just making sure that we cleaned as the CDC recommends step one clean step to disinfect and really focused on our immune systems during that time.

Ron Beres

Okay, you're not only a great CEO, you are a great mother. Well done.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Thank you, Ron. Thank you. Did her symptoms stay pretty much mild besides this loss of taste? And that, did they stay? Yeah, yeah. You know, very fortunate obviously, she's 16. So, I know she had a probably an easier road than so many others, but the mild runny nose, three days later, the loss of taste and smell, which was frightening for her that loss of that sensory experience. Hi, I had to laugh because at one point she said, Well, Mom, now I can eat every healthy food you want me to eat because it doesn't even matter. Bring on the broccoli and asparagus. Mom, all those things they want me to eat, I can eat it all. All she did was regain her taste and smell after four days, she experienced what she described as an intense burning in her nose before her taste and smell resumed. And you know, we obviously I had everybody increase their vitamin D and A their vitamin C. You know? Yeah, boost that immunity. Yeah, you talked about you know that that is such an important part. And I loved how you said earlier, like our immune our immune system is not just food and exercise. It's everything around you and everything that you bring into your home and put on your skin and all of that. Yes.

Lisa Beres

So, Kelly, I saw your Instagram story at your account, Kelly from ECOS that asks people to take a healthy cleaning New Year's resolution, which I think is so great music to our ears. So, what are some of the steps that listeners can take right now to add to their wellness journey?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Thanks, Lisa. Well, you know, I think a lot of people take all sorts of resolutions around weight loss and diet and exercise. And so, I just wanted to bring to the forefront of the discussion, healthy cleaning, and get people to take that resolution as well. So, at ECOS, we've kicked off our six week detox your home campaign. So, if people go to my platform is at Kelly from ECOS, the company platform will have the detox your home campaign is at ECOS cleans. And over the next six weeks, we're going to give people a lot of tips about detoxing their home things that they should be doing. And really asking them to look at their everyday routines, how they wash their dishes, how they wash their clothes, how they wash the surfaces in their homes, providing information, tips, advice on how to read labels, advice on what to look for, and really try and over the next six weeks. Take them with us on a detox your home wellness journey. We're going to do lots of fun giveaways and prizes for your audience. I hope that they'll go to ECOS clean and sign up. That starts on the 13th of January and runs through the 13th of February, we will be giving out you know these detox your home kits. You guys started off on the right foot as well. I love that man that's ECOSclean, right? He goes clean cleans, and I'll put that in the show notes, guys. So, if you're don't want to write that down, don't worry. It'll be in the show notes.

Ron Beres

Well, I have to say move over Oprah. Hello, Kelly! Entrepreneur Magazine named you one of their 100 most Powerful Women of 2020 in October, which is beyond impressive. Can you tell us a little bit about being one of the only women to run an international cleaning products company and how your focus on diversity in the workplace has benefited ECOS which is your company?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Well, it was really an honor to be named by Entrepreneur as one of the top 100 women this last year. And you know, I'm a huge proponent of more women in leadership roles. more diversity, we know that diverse companies perform better financially diverse companies better serve their customer�s needs. And so, we're a consumer products company, and our customer base, you know, half of our population is comprised of women. And so, I'm really proud of the fact that 52% of my executive team is comprised of women as well as we internally want to reflect the external population that we are here to serve. Additionally, you know, we've got a lot of women in science 75% of our chemists are also women. And I know in STEM for a long time we're talking about trying to level those playing fields and have more women there my vice president of innovation, my VP of sustainability, you know, there's A lot of wonderful women leaders throughout all the ranks of our company. And this is something that is very important to me is very near and dear to my heart. You know, it's funny, I was at a trade show two years ago, in Greece, and there was a reporter who said, you know, I read this press release that 50% of your company is comprised of women. Are you trying to get rid of men? Oh, absolutely not. I want to build a company that reflects our population. And I want to make you can't win, you can't win. No, I want to make sure that everyone's voices at the table. We're stronger when we stand together. Yeah, so we have so many talented men and women in our company. Yeah. And we've met many of them. And you're right, they, they're, they're all there. It's not just, but also women, you know, tend to be the shoppers and tend to make these decisions, right for the home, the cleaning products, and jacket, you know, at least it's so interesting, because when I joined full time, 17 years ago, it was kind of a 9010 split, but 90% of our consumers were women and 10% were men. And interestingly enough, over the last 17 years, it's now a 6040 split. So, 60% of our consumers are women and 40% are men. So, you can see, you know, as the generations are changing, and the roles are changing, that a lot of our shoppers are now men as well. I love it. Great. Men talk about those essential oils in the grocery store. I'll compare it. Yeah, yeah. I know. And, and it's interesting, like, what is it that motivates the purchasing behavior. And you know, as a company, we're trying to address all of those things. But affordability is also one of the things that's important to us.

Ron Beres

That�s where the man comes in, very stingy.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

That's right, man. But you know, it's having a product at an affordable price point. So, when you shop our brand in the stores, you don't pay a premium, because it's a green offering. You know, we believe that everyone has the right to a healthy home. And we want to create products at affordable price points. And so, when you're a primary manufacturer, I can make them I can sell them directly to my retail partners, no third-party middleman, no arbitrary markups. And I just want to make sure to get them into people's hands. And so, when you when you go into, you know, the stores that we're at, you'll oftentimes see that we're opening price points, and we're opening price point, even competing against toxic conventional brands. Yeah. And that's because we're really looking to create a different model out there. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, because they are very affordable. Very, you know, and consumers do want to use their dollars to vote for brands that reflect their values. And you guys obviously do that in so many ways that we've talked about, can you share with our listeners, your high road employment practices, and because we are so impressed with the incentives that you guys offer your employees, and I know some of them, I'll let you elaborate, but, you know, purchasing low emission vehicles or solar panels, you guys actually incentivize your employees for doing things like that, which is incredible. You know, we want our team members to live our mission and their lives and to truly serve as ECOS ambassadors, whether they're in the workplace, or they're at their kid�s school event, or they're out in their communities. And so, anything that we can do to really help support them having a greener lifestyle is important to us. And so you're right, so if they live within 10 miles of our facility, they get a relocation bonus, because they're reducing their carbon emissions by commuting, if they put solar panels on their roof top, they get, you know, several $1,000, because oftentimes, the barrier to entry is that initial deposit, if they get a green vehicle, if they get a green vehicle, they get $2,000. So that we can make sure to put down the deposit that they might need to get into that more fuel efficient vehicle or electric vehicle, or, you know, we just want to make sure to do everything that we can to really take our entire team on this journey. We brought in, you know, chefs, so that when we're on site, healthy foods are being prepared. Lots of introductions to more plant-based offerings, sharing plant-based recipes and other things so that we inspire people to go back home and, and to create those things, a lot of health and wellness education. And then you know, Ron, as you mentioned earlier, deciding to pay a fair living wage of $17 an hour back in 2014.

Ron Beres

So impressive, by the way. First Class, first class.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Thank you, thank you, we believe wholeheartedly that, you know, a fair living wage is important. And a lot of companies, you know, who are fighting higher wages are saying oh, what it's going to do to the bottom line, but I would encourage those companies to look at the cost of not taking care of your team members. You've got higher rates of turnover, you've got lower productivity, you've got less of a commitment to quality. I mean, there's all sorts of things, transactional costs that hit the bottom lines for companies that are really focused on short term care. Capitalism. But, you know, that's the beauty about big family owned and operated. I mean, I'm in it for the long run. And so, when I make decisions, I'm making decisions for the future and for generations in the future. And, you know, a lot of our competitors and our green competitors have been bought by, you know, larger conglomerates that are driven by short term capitalism. And so, I'm proud of the fact that as we stand here today, we're really the only nationally distributed green brand. That's still a smaller woman owned, you know, privately held family brand. Yeah, it's amazing. Kelly, you're such a, you're such an inspiration. Every time I hear you talk, I'm just so inspired. And I like you're just making foraging, and being the example for raising the green bar for so many to rise up to I just think it's incredible. You know, when we've toured your facilities, because we've toured a couple, you know, the employees that we meet, they've been there for such a long time. And there is that family dynamic. And I'm not just saying that, like Ron, and I have felt that every time we've been there, and people are smiling, and they're happy, and you know, you can feel that family dynamic.

Ron Beres

In fact, you were celebrating someone's either 40th or 45th anniversary, something extraordinary was in the Chicago facility or Illinois.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hands

You're right, you�re right.

Ron Beres

That�s a huge testament. That's incredible. And your turnover rate is so low, I forgot the percentage, but I mean, it's astronomically low for your industry.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Yeah, well, I can tell you in 2014, when we went to $17 an hour, we went from 3%, voluntary turnover to 1.5%. You know, the manufacturing industry averages about 53% turnover. So, when you think about it, I mean, it's there's so many hiring, recruiting, retraining costs, I just don't know what people are thinking, you know, take care of your team, and they'll take care of you. I mean, yeah, everything in life is about reciprocity and working together and eating one another's needs. And I think that business leaders should really champion fair practices across the board. Yeah, it'll pay off. it'll pay off in the in so many other ways.

Ron Beres

Actually, early on the show, you had mentioned some new products that ECOS has, can you elaborate on some newer brands or new products that you have for 2021? Or maybe in 2020 that just came out?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Sure, sure. So, I did a lot of great new things, you know, so we listen to our consumers, we're looking at what's going on in the world. And one of the things that we wanted to address was the plastic crisis. And so, we addressed it through several different ways. One of the ways that we did it was with our eco snack, our producer, our producer, just gave a thumbs up. He's, this is a topic that's very passionate to our producer. Funny, I just like I'm looking behind me to see where is my next but anyways, I had a video component. So, we launched our ECOS. Next liquid less laundry detergent, and basically what it is detergent to date. So, it works beautifully. It's lightweight, so easy to ship, a lot of people especially during the pandemic has moved to a lot of online purchasing. And so, our ECOS liquid laundry detergent was one of the great solutions for that. The other thing that we launched last year, and you can find that in every Whole Foods Market in the nation. The other thing you can find every Whole Foods Market in the nation that we launched last year is our mother and child refill system. So, it was actually the last project that I was working on with my father before he passed away in 2014. And so beautiful to see it hit the shelves this year. And basically it's a patented system, where you have the mother which is the larger refill format and the child that locks into the mother, no shrink wrap or additional packaging, the child sits on your countertop your sink, and is refilled by the mother that would sit under your sink. So whether it's a dish product or an all-purpose cleaner, we wanted to reduce the use of plastic by getting rid of having to have five trigger sprayers now it's a five in one product so I would encourage people you know to look at those two offerings in in whole foods you know it's really important that consumers support those initiatives because retailers will carry things that consumers Yeah, you guys our everybody listening you have the power of the purchase your you vote with your dollar you literally do by making those choices. Yeah, no is bad mother, mother, child mother, I thought you said Mother and you have a daughter is that what which products have that. So, our entire offering comes in that format but at Whole Foods right now you would find our dish products. Okay, so our ECOS grapefruit dish mate, and with a mom that can refill it. So, it's five bottles of dish made in one bottle, and you'd also find our all-purpose cleaner, which is in parsley plus, and then our orange plus our two signature cents, and that's also a five and one. So really kind of two ways to address the plastic problem. We also introduced refill systems with many of our retailers. And then we launched our disinfectant so you know One step disinfected with the hydrogen peroxide, and also our disinfectant wipes so that we could give our consumers a greener offering through and through. Now does that disinfectant is there as far as the efficacy? Does it kill X number of germs or bacteria?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Yeah, absolutely. So, when you look when you look on pack, it says right up front here kills more than 99.9% of germs.

Lisa Beres

Nice, that�s what you want. Yep. Skip the Lysol. Sorry. Yeah, I don�t want to throw out names, but.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

No need for it. Right. I mean, and that's the beauty of green science that, you know, people really do need to understand that green science is just as effective. And at the same time, it'll preserve your health and the health of our planet for future generations, we cannot continue to operate as we've operated. You know, in recent years, we must make these changes. And we want to make it easy on people. You know, our products are available at stores, they shop in at affordable prices. So, you don't need to really make any sacrifices, you're actually just going to improve the quality of your life. Right. Now. I have a personal question. Because Ron, and I have a high efficiency washer, which they basically all are now but yeah, we were late to that game. We liked our old one. So, we waited till the last moment when that thing really fell apart.

Ron Beres

Our dirty little secret in the back. Yeah.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

When you're when you're repairing and fixing things, that's the very greatest thing you can do.

Lisa Beres

That machine we got it repaired so many times. And it was it just lasted forever. We actually loved it anyway. So, we didn't know when we first got the high efficiency, we were putting way too much detergent in, you know, and like oh my god, the clothes are coming out with like soap stains and stuff. And so, what those little squares that you talked about, like what would you do in high efficiencies at one square per load?

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

That's exactly right. So, it's literally one square goes into your load. And that would be for a full load. If you have a full load that you're reading, you'd have one square, if you're running half a load, you would just tear it in half, and you would throw half in there. If you were just for some reason washing a few garments, you might put it in quarters and throw that in there. Okay, so you can open it, it looks like a little just you absolutely can. And you know, I this year for the first time I spent a lot of time doing road trips, when I would I haven't flown since February 21. So, I drove a lot of places. And I drove up to our Washington facility this summer. And I took my little squares with me and I wash things in the sink, right? Because all of our products are safe for your hands to touch. And so, I took my little squares and I wash things in the sink and it also works so great for travel. Nice.

Lisa Beres

That's a great tip. Are you guys going to come out? Do you think ever with that? I don't think you have this like a Swiffer type product for sweeping and mopping.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Although we don't make the actual appliance or tool to do the job, we absolutely make a wonderful array of floor cleaners. So, you can see our ECOS plant powered floor cleaner right here. And so, we have that we also have the furniture polish line that actually I love that. Yeah, we use that that's the best you guys don't be using those toxic furniture polishes. Oh, you know, you don't have to these works amazing. So important. We actually there was a study done on our stainless-steel cleaner went up against all the conventional brands at Harvard, we outperformed all the conventional brands without any of the toxic residue left behind.

Lisa Beres

Congratulations and now, so many people have stainless steel, everything. Everything's stainless steel. You guys are always so cutting edge. So, one step more than 110 steps ahead, guys, if you're still using toxic cleaning products, then it's time to offer your condolences to these bad boys that are up to dirty tricks inside your home posing as do-gooders while spreading nasty chemicals into the air you breathe like we talked about on the show on your floors, wall surfaces. It's criminal. Instead look for egos cleaners next time you go shopping and you can learn more@egos.com and I will put links to this in the show notes as well as to the detox challenge for the new year. And Kelly, is there anything you want to leave the listeners with? Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

You know, I mean so much. I want to say thank you so much, Lisa. Thank you, Ron, for all the work that you do to bring knowledge, education and awareness to so many of these important issues and really empowering people to live their best and their healthiest lives. And so, I just really thank you for serving as just a wonderful conduit of this important information. And I would just say to all of your listeners, you know, please just make sure that when you're thinking about your cleaning products and the products you bring into your home, make sure you have a deep understanding of those products and you make choices that protect your health and the health of your family and extend your thoughts for health and wellness, from food and personal care to cleaning as well.

Lisa Beres

I love it, well said! We can attest we are ECOS consumers and Kelly did not pay us to say this. This is not a commercial. We use the products and yes, what Kelly said earlier, the old paradigm of you have to sacrifice performance. No, that's just that doesn't exist anymore. It didn't one time. But, you know, with green chemistry, like you said, and modern technologies, I mean, you're going to get just as good if not better, I think better of a clean, and you're going to feel better and you're going to protect your family.

Ron Beres

Thank you, Kelly. Thank you ECOS. Stay tuned next week friends to find out what the hack is going on in your home. Bye.

Lisa Beres

Bye, everyone.

Narrator

Thank you so much for having me. This episode of the healthy home hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.