Toronto’s First Eco Manufacturer – A really Love-ly Canadian!

This morning, I attended a Green Enterprise Toronto sponsored event high atop the 35th floor of the Toronto Board of Trade and Investment. As I grabbed a cup of cinnamon spiced tea to take the chill of the 7:30 am start I glanced down to the streets below and beheld a labyrinth in the heart of Toronto. I have never seen it at street level and made a mental note to locate it and walk it one day soon...

The labyrinth serves as a good visual metaphor for where we are historically with respect to green investing, eco-manufacturing and local trade. Are we lost in a maze or are we about to find the centre filled with LOVE and peace? All of these topics and more were touched upon by Bernie Ross, the founder and CEO of F.T. Ross in his talk to an audience of about 25 member’s of Toronto’s Green Business Community.
Bernie was introduced as one of the “faces of Ontario’s New Economy” -and this time we ain’t talking technology... we is talking green. F.T. Ross is a 3rd Generation, family owned, Canadian Natural Cleaning products business started in 1928. It was in the 1960’s that they began to focus on making environmental products. The birth of the brand began when Bernie’s father decided to make cleaning products that would help his wife’s allergies. Nature Clean is a brand build on LOVE! Naturally, this meant eliminating chemicals as much as possible. Not until Bernie took over in 1985 and made improvements to product formulation did sales become significant. First, however he had to do research on various ingredients. He worked on formulations while living in a shared house with fellow college students. Almost daily he would “borrowed” his roommates state of the art blender and make up new mixes and then have, whoever happened to be in the show that morning, “test” them.
http://www.naturecleanliving.com
For the past five years Nature Clean has experienced 20% + growth. This is consistent with the findings of the Deloitte/GMA Survey of Green Shoppers in 09. They cite 28% of green purchases being in the green cleaning/household category.
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/US_CP_GMADeloitteGreenShopperStudy_2009.pdf

F.T Ross has expanded their product offering to a line of glues and adhesives called Weld bond. They also have an impressive partnership with the Smithsonian for a line of products to care for all the historic wood artefacts and interior décor housed in their museums. Glad to hear that Washington’s museum is being well taken care of! Consumers will be glad to know that a line of Hardwood and Laminate floor Cleaners will be out soon… gotta tell my friends in the flooring industry about this..
What is the key business success lesson that Bernie learnt over these past twenty+ years? Remain in a state of constant innovation. FYI they have 35 new products this year, could be 50 by year end! Wow that’s a lot of blending… One new product is a natural Calcium Lime and Rust Remover! Awesome, now I can finally get rid of that one last toxic product in my home. I just used the last of a bottle a few days ago and felt so BAD. I have this super cool quantum spa device that requires cleaning every 6 months or it goes on the blink. My investment of 5K can now be cleaned with Nature Clean’s CLR! The Q2 God will thank you, Bernie; my energy field will be so much cleaner now thanks to you!
The key problem in the retail market right now is Packaging, says Bernie. The target is to reduce plastic by 80%. The F.T. Ross strategy is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and then Rejoice that consumers can now refill by buying “three in a box”. According to Bernie it has never been a focus on the environment per say, that created their success it was instead, a dedication to health and well being. I gotta agree - being a long time advocate of Health is the Greatest Wealth. LOHAS knows this too! Bernie, are you attending the LOHOS forum in Boulder June 17th to 19th? www.lohas.com Life Styles of HEALTH and Sustainability is where is at, people. These are the folks that masterminded the green revolution for they know, in the course of healing ourselves we heal the planet. We are not separate. The Earth and I are one, we share one mind and it is called the NOOSPHERE.
Bernie says that the “tipping point” for his business came from the release of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. Overnight sales went from flat to massive. He closed by saying that as a result of the recession we will buy more hand crafted local products and finally make the connection between local products and jobs. All F.T. Ross products are manufactured locally. “Think Global, live Local”. McLuhan and his cohorts at the University of Toronto coach house will be proud to know that will soon come to pass.