In recent years, awareness has grown that the climate crisis is not a theoretical discussion, but a reality that already affects our lives, public health, and social and economic stability. As a company leading cleaning services on a national scale, Tavas views sustainability as an inseparable part of its organizational responsibility and is committed to translating values into action on the ground.
Below are the words of Ilan Shimoni, CEO and Founder of Tavas, on the turning point that led the company to deepen its sustainability efforts and transition to the use of ecological cleaning materials.
My ecological awakening began in February 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, I came to understand that viruses are most likely part of creation itself. They have always existed, and like insects and other airborne organisms, they play a role in nature and in the ecological systems of the planet.
While some argued that there was no connection between the pandemic and global warming, I maintained from the very beginning that the coronavirus was the first warning sign of viral threats expected to intensify during the current decade. Since then, we have learned, according to researchers’ estimates, that more than 10,000 different viruses still exist that are capable of infecting humans. Most of them currently reside among wild animals, deep within forests, but this barrier is gradually eroding. Global warming is bringing human habitats closer to those of wildlife, which transmit diseases to livestock and from there to humans. Even now, in hot regions of Asia and Africa, we are witnessing species of mammals fleeing extreme heat in search of cooler living environments.
The vivid and recent image of the COVID-19 pandemic, which claimed many lives and emptied the world of people, did not bypass our small country. It is an experience etched into the collective human consciousness, among us, our children, and even our grandchildren. It was a chaotic period in which a global state of emergency was declared, disrupting the daily lives of citizens worldwide and generating broad public and social support for unprecedented investment of governmental and scientific resources in the fight against the pandemic.
However, in 2023 it has become clear that the destabilization of the stable climate foundation upon which human society thrived for hundreds of years has reached a point of no return. Continued disregard for climate risk may lead to an uncontrolled rush toward a dark and scorched future, one in which natural, social, and economic systems could collapse on a global scale.
At the landmark global conference held in Glasgow, Scotland, in December 2021, the nations of the world recognized that we are dangerously close to a climatic tipping point. This point may trigger extreme scenarios that will disrupt the global social order and our way of life, and unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, may leave us without sufficient medical or research solutions. Today, there is broad consensus that the pace of climate change is the fastest in human history, and that it could lead to an environmental catastrophe that accelerates the collapse of states, destabilizes regimes, creates significant waves of migration, and severely undermines the functioning of human society.
An increase of just two additional degrees in global temperature is enough to expose us to existential threats we have never encountered before. From this stems the obligation to create clarity and determination regarding human behavior in relation to the use of polluting fuels, greenhouse gas emitting energy, and unchecked consumption that threatens the delicate fabric of the planet’s ecological systems.
Against the backdrop of global, cross-continental climate legislation, and on both a personal and organizational level, it is clear to me that in my role as CEO and Founder of Tavas, a company dedicated to providing cleaning services and ensuring clean, hygienic, and healthy work environments, we must move toward concrete and accelerated action in the daily and cultural struggle to protect the planet. Tavas adopts a culture and organizational way of life centered on sustainability among its employees and clients, and since its founding has chosen to stand on the right side of history.
These days, approximately 3,500 cleaning employees of Tavas, who clean tens of millions of square meters across the country every day and every hour, from Dan to Eilat, are ceasing the use of polluting cleaning agents and transitioning to ecological, environmentally friendly cleaning materials that do not emit greenhouse gases and do not harm ecological systems.
Tavas is crossing a business, social, and values-driven turning point, operating with the understanding that environmental responsibility, service quality, and public health are not conflicting goals, but complementary ones. Through action rather than declarations, we seek to contribute our part to strengthening environmental resilience in the spaces in which we operate, and to create long-term value for our clients, our employees, and future generations.
Clean Is Green.
