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Chief Executive Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks maintains a keen focus on sustainable manufacturing at ECOS, the company her father founded 60 years ago, building upon his initial idea to create non-toxic alternatives for cleaning.
Van Vlahakis, a chemist, founded the manufacturer of green cleaning products at a time when no one was paying attention to ingredients.
“He wanted to develop a line of cleaning products that were free of so many of the toxic chemicals that were currently being used in cleaning products, and I think he had a very innovative approach because at that time — imagine 1967 — nobody talked about green ingredients, clean ingredients, toxin-free cleaning,” she told the Business Journal.
The conversation hadn’t changed much by the time Vlahakis-Hanks joined the company in 2003. ECOS, formerly known as Earth Friendly Products, developed mostly private label products called Nature’s Miracle. More than 50% of its portfolio belonged to this category.
After her father lost the rights to the name, she decided to expand the company’s
distribution network beyond natural stores and co-ops by calling larger retailers about its own Earth Friendly brand.
“The first four or five years, I just got no,” Vlahakis-Hanks recalled.
Top-Selling Brand
After entering conventional stores such as Costco and Walmart, ECOS has become the No. 1 selling green laundry detergent brand in the U.S. It ranks No. 9 among all laundry detergent brands, according to Circana and Nielsen data. Now, only 20% of ECOS products are private label.
Vlahakis-Hanks has since seen ECOS grow from an 8,000-square-foot office in Huntington Beach to 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space across four facilities in the U.S. to meet production demand of more than 200 environmentally friendly cleaning products. The company’s footprint is still growing as it moves to larger manufacturing facilities in New Jersey, and Illinois.
Vlahakis-Hanks also led the effort to not only minimize the manufacturer’s environmental impact but to also ensure that its production practices replenish natural resources.
“After my father passed away in 2014, I really wanted to double down on his commitment to green chemistry,” she said, “but I also wanted to build at first a sustainable
manufacturing facility, and ultimately a regenerative manufacturing facility.”
ECOS is carbon and water neutral, secured certifications to be net zero energy, net zero carbon and net zero waste and is a 110% climate positive manufacturer.
In a ceremony earlier this month, Vlahakis-Hanks was among five winners of a Business Journal Innovator of the Year Award.
Maintaining Sustainability
From containers to chemistry, Vlahakis-Hanks, Chief Innovation Officer Jenna Arkin and the team have looked at the life cycle of every single product to meet sustainability goals.
Bana-Tech is the newest development at ECOS, where bananas are used as a preservative in its line of all-purpose cleaners.
Vlahakis-Hanks’ mother, who was a cancer survivor, also motivated her ongoing
innovations in green chemistry from a health and wellness perspective. The company even has a list of more than 500 ingredients it would “never, ever” use in its products such as synthetic preservatives, chlorine bleach or dyes, which it calls “The Nasties.”
ECOS aims to maintain the 40% market share its green laundry products now have in the U.S. The company in September launched the first green scent boosters on the market, a laundry accessory that has recently grown popular among consumers, using rock salts and essential oils instead of the typical microplastics and synthetic fragrances.
In 2027, Vlahakis-Hanks said ECOS will focus on boosting its hypoallergenic ingredients.
“Green science has improved so much through the years.” she said. We’re constantly looking for ways in order to have all our products perform at par or outperform conventional products without any of those toxic ingredients.”
