The Journey to a Rebirth - Grounded
Meet Grounded, a women-run manufacturer of non-toxic cleaning products powered by Kenyan ingredients. A few years ago, Greenspoon branched out to include homeware items and Grounded came to mind as a brand that fits with our values. Their effective, eco-friendly, and safe products are a great addition to our product portfolio.
Over the past year, they’ve been up to some exciting new developments which are now launching with GreenSpoon. Product improvements! New packaging! New colors! More info about their rebranding journey is below.
What is Grounded?
Grounded is a family business started over 5 years ago. After seeing the lack of affordable, available, and locally-tailored non-toxic cleaning products, they decided to make them themselves!
Now, with over 30 products developed by Kenyan engineers and made using Kenyan ingredients, they’re proudly in support of the #BuyKenyaBuildKenya movement.
Their plant-based cleaning products cover every category of home care, including:
- Personal Care (baby, body, hands)
- Laundry
- Floors/Surfaces
- Bathrooms
- Dishes
- Pets
- Air
They are also committed to listing all ingredients, something that conventional cleaning products are not required to do. Using international bodies like MadeSafe and EWG, they verify all ingredients used for human and environmental safety. This means:
- No Carcinogens
- No Palm Oil
- No Petroleum Products
- No Synthetic Fragrances
- No Hormone Disruptors
- No Parabens
- No Phthalates
- No Sulfates
And all products are made using green manufacturing principles, sourced from farmers locally! No smokestacks, or nasty production processes.
Why Rebrand?
According to Grounded, “After many years of product formulation, we realized the look/feel of the products didn’t match the values and story of what is inside them. And honestly, we aren’t artists!”
Grounded has been on a 12-month journey to rebrand their products with a few goals in mind:
- More premium look that matches the quality of the products
- More distinctive and eco-friendly packaging
- More alignment in the product names, shelf stability, and formulation
And voila! As they launch the new look, you’ll see a few differences. We’ve noted just a few important ones:
- Beautiful colors and illustrations inspired by Kenya
Working with the super talented Lulu Kitulolo studio, all Grounded products have botanicals and colors that remind us of the nature inside each bottle. All of the inspiration is from Kenya:
- Colors: Coastal blue skies, Maasai Mara red dirt, palm tree & forest green, jacaranda and lavender purple
- Botanicals: Represent our main ingredients to make soap, or add fragrance from essential oils. Canola, coconut, sunflower, baobab, avocado, tea tree, lemongrass, and lavender, to name a few.
2. Distinctive, functional, and eco-friendly packaging
According to Grounded, this was the hardest part! After scouring what packaging was available locally, Grounded decided to create its own unique bottle shape – one that is both trendy and functional with an improved quality spray nozzle on their sprays.
Next stop, plastic! Because their products are liquid, plastic is still the most durable and customer-preferred option for transport and functionality. Rather than using new plastic made from petrochemicals, they teamed up with Dentex and Mr. Green Africa.
Grounded’s new charcoal gray packaging is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic – sourced from Kenya. This means that existing plastic in Kenya is collected, washed, and chipped down, waiting to be given new life in a bottle. No fresh-petrochemical plastic!
Also, keep in mind Grounded’s products are super concentrated & sold in refill sizes – meaning you don’t need to purchase as frequently. Their 2kg of laundry powder will last you 66 washes!
Greenspoon collects any empty packaging for Grounded to sterilize and reuse. Any damaged packaging can go to Mr. Green Africa to be put back into the circular economy.
3. Simplified and improved products
Previously, Grounded products looked quite similar to each other, leading to mixups at home!
Now, products have a variety of colors to help distinguish them, and they’ve re-named some for clarity:
- Spray Deep is now Surface Cleaner: Extra Strength
- Spray Daily is now Surface Cleaner: Everyday
- Daily Concentrate/Floors Daily is now Citrus Concentrate (because it’s made with citrus peels!)
- Other products have engineering improvements like:
- The improved thickness of Hand Sanitizer
- Longer shelf life for Fabric Brightener, and more!
- Working with the super talented Lulu Kitulolo studio, all Grounded products have botanicals and colors that remind us of the nature inside each bottle. All of the inspiration is from Kenya:
Shop Grounded products here!
