London’s Principle Cleaning Services has put sustainability at the top of its agenda, with an objective to become the most sustainable cleaning company in the UK.
As part of this drive, the company held an inaugural event on 4 February 2020 at Barings’ London office, attended by more than 80 leading FM professionals who heard how Principle, in conjunction with its strategic partners and clients, will achieve its audacious target.
Principle’s CEO, Peter Smith, opened the event before introducing the speakers who addressed many current topics. These included Mark Williams, Barings’ Head of Business Services, Cemal Ezel from Change Please, Thomas Parker, the City of London’s Senior Strategic Transportation Officer and Phillipa Roberts, a circular economy thought leader.
Principle is continually searching for new innovations that can make a meaningful difference to the environment and, as part of this event, they engaged with Canadian firm, Intuitive AI, to introduce OSCAR to the UK. OSCAR is a unique waste platform that uses AI and machine learning to ensure waste is disposed of correctly, avoiding contamination of waste, thereby increasing recycling rates and reducing costs.
Matt Kuwertz, Principle’s Sales and Marketing Director, said: “The purpose of this event was to highlight what can be achieved and how technology can help us deliver new initiatives for our clients and our own head office. Our goal is to lead the market in addressing environmental and social issues. Ultimately, we are striving to create a positive impact by behaving responsibly and creating a world that future generations can be proud of.”
On the topic of increasing recycling rates and making recycling easier, Kuwertz added: “We are keen to work with our partners to lobby government on signage standards so there are consistent colour codes for waste streams, rather than different colours in different buildings and public spaces, which leads to confusion and the potential for contamination.”
Principle has already introduced a number of initiatives, including eliminating single-use plastics, reducing overall plastic use through plastic-free packaging, chemical-free cleaning processes, water-saving and water-recycling systems and consumables from closed-loop recycling.
