Delphis Eco – cleaning up but no greenwashing

For the founder and CEO of Delphis Eco, which supplies UK made, green and sustainable cleaning products, eliminating ‘greenwashing’ is key in not only to saving the planet but helping people to genuinely make a difference.

This London-based company, established in 2007 by former banker Mark Jankovich and has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development because it is both driving sustainable innovation in the supply chain and is directly influencing stakeholders.

He said: “Our journey is all about sustainability, we don’t sell cleaning products, we sell the ability to be more sustainable. Most people don’t trust that you can buy something that isn’t nasty and that will actually do the job. 

“So it’s incredibly important for consumers to know that there can be trust in good brands and their accredited products, especially at the moment when there is so much greenwashing with many who are liberal in their claims about how their products are better for the planet. 

“These are very high profile awards, therefore, can generate consumer confidence that there are good brands doing the right thing and we are absolutely delighted to receive one because this is really important.”

Delphis Eco has long been championed as an excellent sustainable brand by the Royal Family and has had HRH The Prince of Wales’ warranty since 2014 and HM The Queen’s since 2016.
He said: “I’m a big believer in businesses that are both for profit and purpose. I learned in banking that macroeconomics is important and gives you a good guide to the future and cleaning is something that everyone does, but it had never been disrupted. 

“The vast majority of cleaning products were pretty nasty and needed someone to shake it up and we helped with that and through winning this award we have probably managed to achieve it.”
Yet, the disruption didn’t happen overnight. Many sustainable products may now be made from recycled plastics, but when Mark tried to enact his vision of being the first to use plastic milk bottles he was met with scepticism: “I was surprised that it took so long to happen and just how painful the process was and the push back from people telling me it could and would never happen. It ended up being a six-year grind and I’m delighted that the rest of the world is now beginning to catch up.”

Mark and his team of 20 approach every day by ‘thinking differently’ and are driven by the need to find solutions that are going to be less polluting and damaging to the world.
Delphis Eco consequently is in a permanent cycle of improvement. Last year Mark published a supply chain charter and a journey to net zero charter to influence, cajole and spark debate. He said: “We don’t think of ourselves as manufacturers but as consultants; we are trying to make the world a better place and our medium is cleaning products.” 

The company’s collaborative work is particularly commendable. For Mark that is also about encouraging better lines of communication and he regularly interviews and publishes articles on other leading eco-entrepreneurs.

He said: “In the world of sustainability there’s a lack of communication and that’s a frustration because we need to reduce our carbon in the next two years by 48 per cent and be on a negative trajectory by the end of the decade. 

“There’s no chance if we don’t work together and collaborate at scale, so I thought about interviewing inspirational people so that entrepreneurs like me end up down fewer rabbit holes and hit fewer speed bumps on our journeys.” 

Since March 2021 Delphis Eco’s household products have been stocked in 260 Waitrose stores and Waitrose.com and are available through Ocado, as well as smaller shops nationwide and through Amazon. 
Buoyed by such support and growth the plan now is to push the export button in coming months and to push its new two-litre range of home.

This company has people listening and its impact is growing.