Product Stewardship
One of the foremost criteria of the company’s customer service approach has been to ensure that its services, often undertaken on our customers’ premises, meet every regulatory requirement.
This is particularly important in the Rentokil Pest Control division where it is required to respond to regulatory changes on behalf of customers.
RADAR Mouse Unit Achieves Product Registration
In 2009 Rentokil Initial became the first company in Europe to achieve a Product Registration under the new Biocidal Products Directive for its RADAR mouse control device. This directive has been a major piece of European Legislation and it will have a very significant impact on the availability of the products used in the delivery of pest control services in the future.
Rentokil Pest Control's regulatory team has worked on the RADAR application for over 5 years. This opens up the way for Rentokil to make RADAR (which uses CO2 rather than traditional poisons) available to whichever of our operating units in the European marketplace which wish to deploy it.
Non-Anticoagulant Rodenticide Achieves Annex 1 Listing
A vote in 2008 by the European Commission, resulted in the company’s co-owned non-anticoagulant rodenticide, Alphachloralose, achieving Annex 1 Listing under the Biocidal Products Directive.
This decision was of particular significance since it ensures that this product continues to be available for domestic users, at a time when similar products, based on other compounds, are being closely scrutinised because of their environmental impact and toxicity profile.
In some markets domestic use has already been stopped for some classes of compounds due to these concerns. The result was achieved after six years of extensive efforts by the Rentokil technical team and means that domestic customers continue to have a safe and effective product to tackle rodent infestations.
Innovative Hospital Cleaning Systems
A similar example of product stewardship, addressing customers’ changing needs, was the approach adopted by the Initial Hospital Services team at Mayday Hospital in Croydon, near London. The team recognised that achieving effective cleaning standards in hospitals in the UK has been a high profile one for several years.
One of the challenges is that of the human factor involved in cleaning hospital wards. Even though Initial’s mops are colour coded for use in different areas, the company wanted to overcome the issue of dirty water inadvertently being used in different parts of the hospital.
To reduce the likelihood of human error, Initial Hospital Services 
researched the most innovative cleaning systems available and selected one that offered a microfiber cleaning system. This offers the cleaner pre-impregnated mop pads, 20 of which can be stored on a trolley at a time. After use in one room, the pads are removed from the mop head and replaced with a clean one. The used mop heads are sent to be washed and prepared for future use.
The system offers many benefits. Not only does it significantly reduce the risk of cross contamination, it uses less chemicals and water. Because less water is used, the system reduces the risk of slips as well as reducing cleaner fatigue, because all the materials are available on the trolley.
SilverSafe Clinical Waste Unit
Similarly, focusing on cutting the risks of infection, Initial Medical Services has introduced two new products.
The first, InSafe, is targeted at dental practices, over 50% of which suffer at least one needle “stick” injury a year. InSafe offers comprehensive protection from the beginning of the procedure to the disposal of the needle. The specially designed syringe protects the needle at all times and its partnering sharps container removes needles safely.
The second is their SilverSafe clinical waste unit uses antimicrobial silver to kill bacteria – reducing the risk of cross infection illnesses such as MRSA. It is also based on the NHS colour coding guidance on waste.
Healthy Schools Meals
The issue of healthy eating is regularly in the news and none less so for school meals. When it comes to providing healthy meals, one solution is to ask the recipients what healthy food they would enjoy the most.
Eden Foodservice
Eden Foodservice (part of Initial Facilities Services) held a national competition for school children to create their own healthy eating recipes. The four winners came from schools in Bristol, Bedfordshire, Kent and Portsmouth. The winning dishes support the company’s focus on offering tasty food which is also nutritious. Eden is now featuring these dishes as part of the school meals menus throughout the country.
Encouraging children to eat healthily is, however, only part of the equation. It is equally important to get parents involved – advising their children on nutrition and even giving them the opportunity of selecting meals together. To facilitate this, Eden has introduced an internet site which allows parents to view daily menus and pay for them in advance by card either directly on the web on by phone. More than a quarter of school meals supplied by Eden Foodservice in Kent are now paid for on line. As a result of this innovative approach, Kent Council and Eden, were announced winners of a local e-Government excellence award.
Autograph
In line with this focus on healthy eating, Eden’s sister company, Autograph , operating in the commercial sector, has signed a commitment with the Food Standards Agency to provide nutritious workplace meals. This commitment includes developing new recipes with ingredients lower in fat, salt and sugar, increased training for chefs on healthy cooking techniques and providing customers with more nutritional information.
Both Eden and Autograph provide customers with vending services, and these companies have been migrating to more energy efficient vending machines. The benefit to customers using these machines is significant electricity savings.