AISE Charter for Sustainable Cleaning

1. Assess eligibility: Confirm your company manufactures or markets soap, detergent, or household maintenance products in Europe and is either an A.I.S.E. member or eligible to join the Charter as a participant.

1. Review Charter requirements: Download and study the Charter's company-level sustainability standards and product category-specific criteria from the A.I.S.E. (now Detergents Europe) website to understand the KPI framework and reporting obligations.

1. Conduct an internal gap analysis: Map your current sustainability performance against the Charter's defined KPIs across the full product lifecycle — raw material sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and end-of-life.

1. Register and apply: Submit a formal application to join the Charter through A.I.S.E./Detergents Europe, including payment of applicable membership or participation fees.

1. Implement data collection systems: Set up internal processes to collect, track, and document performance data for all required KPIs on an ongoing basis throughout the reporting year.

1. Submit your annual sustainability report: At the end of each reporting cycle, compile and submit your KPI data via the Charter's reporting platform, covering both company-level and product category-specific standards.

1. Undergo independent third-party verification: Your submitted data will be reviewed by an accredited auditing body (Deloitte Bedrijfsrevisoren BV has been engaged for this role). Respond promptly to any observations or requests for clarification.

1. Receive Charter status and use the mark: Upon successful verification, you are entitled to display the Charter product mark and participate in collective consumer communication campaigns.

The Charter evaluates participating companies against a structured set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that span the full product lifecycle. Assessment operates at two levels: company-level sustainability standards, which apply to all Charter participants, and product category-specific standards, which apply additional criteria relevant to particular product types (e.g., laundry detergents, dishwashing products, household cleaners).

Company-level KPIs typically cover: environmental management systems and policies; energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing; water use and wastewater management; waste generation and recycling rates; occupational health and safety performance; and supply chain sustainability practices including raw material sourcing.

Product category-specific KPIs assess: ingredient safety and environmental profile (including biodegradability and aquatic toxicity); packaging sustainability (use of recycled content, packaging weight reduction, recyclability); product concentration and compaction (reducing resource use per wash/clean); and consumer use guidance (e.g., dosage instructions, low-temperature washing recommendations).

Consumer engagement is also evaluated: companies are assessed on their efforts to communicate sustainable use practices to consumers, including labelling, on-pack guidance, and participation in collective campaigns such as Cleanright. The Charter's KPI framework has been tracked and publicly reported since 2005, with an annual KPI performance report published covering aggregate industry progress across all participating companies.

The A.I.S.E. Charter for Sustainable Cleaning is the primary voluntary sustainability initiative for the European soap, detergent, and household maintenance products industry, and has been operating continuously since 2005. With approximately 180 participating companies — including major multinationals such as Henkel, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Reckitt, SC Johnson, and Colgate-Palmolive — it represents a significant share of the European market by volume and value. The Charter is widely regarded within the industry as the baseline credibility standard for sustainability claims in this sector, particularly given its independently verified annual reporting and publicly available KPI performance data going back two decades.

The Charter's relevance has grown considerably in the context of the EU Green Deal, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, and increasing retailer and consumer scrutiny of environmental claims. As the EU tightens rules on greenwashing (notably through the Green Claims Directive), the Charter's third-party verification model positions it well as a defensible, substantiated sustainability framework. The rebranding of A.I.S.E. to "Detergents Europe" in 2026 signals an evolution of the association's positioning, though the Charter itself remains the core sustainability scheme.

Compared to alternatives such as the EU Ecolabel or Nordic Swan, the Charter is not a product-level eco-label but rather a company and product category performance framework — making it complementary rather than directly competing. Companies often hold both Charter membership and product-level eco-labels. ISO 14001 addresses environmental management systems more broadly and lacks the sector-specific KPI depth of the Charter. The Charter's main limitation is its geographic and sectoral specificity: it is essentially only relevant to companies active in the European cleaning products market.

The Charter for Sustainable Cleaning was launched in 2005 by A.I.S.E. (the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products), the Brussels-based trade association representing the European cleaning products industry. It was created in response to growing regulatory and consumer pressure for the industry to demonstrate measurable progress on environmental and social sustainability, and to provide a credible, sector-specific framework that went beyond generic management system certifications. The Charter was designed from the outset to be a continuous improvement programme rather than a pass/fail certification, with annual KPI reporting and public disclosure of aggregate industry performance.

Since its launch, the Charter has published annual KPI performance reports tracking progress across participating companies from 2005 onwards, providing one of the longest-running longitudinal sustainability datasets in the consumer goods sector. The framework has been periodically updated to reflect advances in sustainability science, evolving EU regulatory requirements, and new product categories. In 2026, A.I.S.E. rebranded as "Detergents Europe," reflecting a broader repositioning of the association, though the Charter continues to operate as the industry's flagship voluntary sustainability initiative. Deloitte Bedrijfsrevisoren BV has been engaged as the independent verifier for Charter KPI data, adding a layer of external assurance to the self-reported data submitted by member companies.