Earth Friendly Products makes more than 200 items and lives the mission

As Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks toured Earth Friendly Products’ new headquarters in Cypress, the company president and chief executive couldn’t help but think of her father, Van Vlahakis, who died two years ago.

Vlahakis, a Greek chemist who launched the family business out of his garage in Chicago in 1967, would have been proud of the platinum-rated Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification of the building, which features low VOC (volatile organic compound) paint, bamboo flooring, solar carports where electric vehicles can be recharged, energy-efficient appliances and the diversion of 95% of its waste.

“I feel him in this facility,” she said of the modern building that the company moved into in October. “He would have loved this facility.”

For nearly 50 years, Earth Friendly Products has been pushing the conversation about what it means to be green by offering eco-friendly products ranging from an all-purpose cleaner made with parsley to a hypoallergenic dish soap made with grapefruit.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks is the CEO of Earth Friendly Products in Cypress.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

Today, the family-owned and -operated Earth Friendly Products makes more than 200 products at its five facilities and employs 350 workers, including 91 in the new Cypress headquarters — the only Orange County presence — which will hold a grand opening on Thursday, the day before Earth Day.

ECOS, its top selling detergent, is sold in more than 62 countries.

“We’ve been around for five decades,” said Vlahakis-Hanks, who joined the company full time in 2003 before helming the company in 2014. “Other people are jumping on the bandwagon, but we have a strong history here.”

But starting the business wasn’t always easy.

Vlahakis, who immigrated to the U.S. at 18 with $22 in his pocket, lived in homeless shelters and worked odd jobs to support himself while in college. Those early jobs exposed him to harsh cleaning products that gave him headaches, so he decided to launch a business offering a more natural alternative.

“Van was a bright, hard-working, hard-grinding gentleman and a great chemist,” said Rich Kraft, technical director at Kraft Chemical Co., a supplier for Earth Friendly.

He came to Huntington Beach to visit a customer in 1977 and fell in love with the weather, his daughter said.

“It reminded him so much of Greece,” said Vlahakis-Hanks, a Huntington Beach resident. “He grew up with an affinity for the ocean.”

Vlahakis was constantly greening the process, reviewing the latest science and looking for the greenest ingredients available. Recently, Earth Friendly Products earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award for its innovations in safer chemistry.

But some at the time thought that green products were a passing trend.

“A lot of people didn’t believe in green,” Vlahakis-Hanks said. “They didn’t believe it would work. Fifteen years ago, mainstream media wasn’t interested in green. Now people realize that we all have to do something, and consumers are looking for what to do in their everyday lives. Our products provide a safe and healthy alternative.”

Plant-derived cleaning products are on display, including the Dishmate almond at the Earth Friendly Products headquarters in Cypress.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

That demand has translated into big profits for the company, with sales quadrupling in the last seven years as business has expanded overseas, Vlahakis-Hanks said.

Since 2003, the company has grown its manufacturing capacity in California from 8,000 square feet to 125,000 square feet.

In 2012, the company scored a partnership with Disney. The entertainment behemoth is lending its brand, enabling the Earth Friendly to feature characters like Winnie the Pooh and Tigger on its ECOS baby products in the U.S., Canada and China.

And with international sales making up 13% of its business, the company in 2013 opened a global sales office in Athens, Greece.

The company also hopes to build a manufacturing facility in Europe and Asia, Vlahakis-Hanks said.

“It’s no longer something on the fringe,” she said, adding that their products are available at Whole Foods, Sprouts, Costco, Walmart and Target. “It’s a trend that’s here to stay.”

The company also attributes its success to employing a local workforce and sourcing local materials to lower costs.

“Green products are more expensive because a lot of them aren’t manufactured here,” Vlahakis-Hanks said. “We are a primary manufacturer so we’re able to keep costs down. We believe everyone has the right to a healthy home. So we want to bring costs down so people are not trying to choose between food and our products.”

The company also instituted a higher minimum wage — $17 an hour — one of Vlahakis’ final wishes before he died in 2014.

“He worked the production lines; he knew the hard work that it took,” Vlahakis-Hanks said. “He knew how valuable the work was that our employees do.”

An employee puts tops on bottles of laundry detergent at Earth Friendly Products in Cypress.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

The decision has yielded ethical and financial benefits, including reduced turnover costs, the retention of corporate memory and better quality control.

“I think people often times overlook the costs embedded in a system where you’re paying such a low minimum wage,” she said. “Everything that we’re doing here in California is local. That’s how we grow our economy and keep it locally strong.”

The company also offers incentives to encourage employees to be eco-friendly, whether it’s $2,000 for solar panel installation or $2,500 for green vehicle purchase.

“For us, it’s very important not only to create the greenest product, but to do it in the most sustainable fashion,” she said.

Debbie Levin, president of the Environmental Media Assn. — a nonprofit co-founded by director Norman Lear to work with the entertainment industry to encourage green production — has partnered with Earth Friendly Projects on several projects.

“I went to their warehouse for an amazing tour, and I was so impressed,” Levin said. “To go to a cleaning products company and have it smell like flowers, it was amazing.”

Levin said her association promotes companies such as Earth Friendly Products to offer supporters alternative products to lead a sustainable lifestyle.

“We find companies we feel support our mission, and Earth Friendly is great and we love that it’s a family-owned company,” she said.

Vlahakis-Hanks said she was fortunate to grow up with a father who was a visionary, a person who was passionate about the work he did.

“He loved his job because we were doing something so socially and environmentally responsible,” she said.

Vlahakis-Hanks said she hopes to follow in his footsteps.

“My father’s big advice was to run an ethical business and to stay true to those values,” she said. “He wanted a better earth for our children and I want to leave that for the next generation.”