Cert, simply put, is a young, dynamic Sussex business with a big idea. The Lock-down start-up is an everyday surface cleaner with a big dream, to change lazy, long-standing public perceptions regarding the needless hoarding of water.
Surface cleaners for the uninitiated was one of the unexpected success stories of Lockdown with countless stuck-at-home families opting to go the extra distance when it came to keeping their families safe from marauding viruses and bacteria. At the outset of Lockdown home cleaning grew by a staggering 35% (an extra 49m surface cleaners were purchased in 2020 as homecare became a synonym for ‘self-care)’and whilst volatile sales have for the most part returned to pre COVID levels, one can see how one all-encompassing epidemic resulted in ballooning volumes of single-use plastic and precious water entrapment (bottles, supermarket shelves, warehouses, vast container ships….
From our ‘tap abundant’ island, it’s never been easy to get a real handle on the devastating domino effect associated with the lack of fresh drinking water. Occasionally we witness harrowing drought related themes on the news but do these alarming images really affect how often we hose our cars or sprinkle our gardens?
A Few Alarming Stats Provided By WWF – World Water Day
- Water stress is a global problem that’s only getting worse!
- Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh water, 2/3rds of which is sealed within icebergs
- Of that 1/3rd -70% is snatched by agriculture, industry (19%) whilst domestic use is restricted to (11%).
- 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water whilst a staggering 2.7billion people find water scarce for at least one month of the year
- Inadequate sanitation is also a big problem for 2.4bn people, exposing them to all manner of water-borne diseases (cholera, typhoid…)
- Half the world’s wetlands have already disappeared and rivers, lakes and aquifers are either drying up or excessively polluted
So where in this swirling whirlpool does a small dot of a business like Cert make a meaningful difference? In actual physical terms very little, but in terms of potentially seeding a NEW planet responsible mindset, rather a lot! The archaic practice of holding precious water hostage in bottles, warehouses and super-tankers in every imaginable sector from soft drinks to car wash needs to be revisited. By creating products that happily co-exist with tap water you’re creating a ‘just-in-time’ watery mindset that not only prevents millions of gallons from being needlessly help hostage, but reduces the amount of plastic needed to keep this precious life necessity in limbo. Lighter, water-free products can be inexpensively shipped hither and thither with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.
In Cert’s instance, the Sussex team have created a single-use product (a small pack of effervescent tablets) that effortlessly negates the need for vast, snaking sub-ranges of cumbersome, single-use plastic bottles, whose primary focus is to commandeer shelf space that might otherwise be made available to set-in-their-ways rivals. Cert is a simple, transparent, tablet-based product that doesn’t dabble in colourings or synthetic scents that produce yet another needless layer of air pollution.
Clearly Cert is far from alone in its pioneering quest to stop precious water being abducted and held within planet-choking plastic. There are a number of plant-based alternatives with the very same idea. This is a good thing, we can only applaud any ‘use tap water’ peer, because the more brands that reject water entrapment, the closer we get to meaningful change. There’s also no escaping that Cert for its part uses chlorine in its tablets, but let’s not forget that surface cleaners above all else need to kill unwanted bacteria and viruses! Cert is trusted, hospital-grade thinking used by both trusted health institutions like the NHS and a number of the world’ leading charity institutions. There’s simply no point ticking loads of planet-saving boxes if one falls short regarding one’s primary function. Also Cert is a pre-dosed 2-in-1 disinfectant and detergent with a near neutral PH (6) so only 5 days after it has been activated with tap water, the chlorine strength will have dissipated to such an extent that it can be safely poured down the toilet, providing one final cleansing function as it goes.
Finally, for anyone yet to be convinced by Cert’s noble intentions, it should be pointed out that power behind the throne is the Sussex-based Hydrachem, a leading light in water purification and water disinfection, whose clean water expertise is employed throughout the globe by a number of the world’s most high-profile non-profit organisations.
‘Cert was born during the first lockdown,’ confirms Cert sales director, Michael Lawrence. ‘As we surveyed the needless water hijacking place taking place within home cleaning, we wondering if our global water-based expertise could be put to everyday use in UK households. We’ve even decided at launch (March 22) that 10% of all Cert’s bottom-line profits will be ploughed back into water poverty hot-spots where Hydrachem operates.’
In essence, Cert is a small, agitating underdog in a vast sprawling Homecare category, but if vocal challenger brands like Cert can have their voices heard, this could lead to a lot of positive ripples elsewhere, because today more than ever, dwindling fresh water supplies need to be addressed.
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