This year An Extra Pair of Hands was one of 10 business selected to complete a sustainability program by the City Council.

By looking at all the tasks we complete and products we use we have made some good changes for you, our clients, but also our team, the business and the environment.

1. Cleaning products

Cleaning products have been introduced that have all natural ingredients. These products are made exclusively for AN EXTRA PAIR OF HANDS so we know exactly what the ingredients are in each product. All ingredients are chosen with our goal to be sustainable. In addition to this we have found that they are much healthier for our team to use, and leave a lovely smell in your home.

2. Waste reduction

All packaging, incoming mail and outgoing mail has been reduced. Our administration team is working towards receiving all incoming mail electronically. This has reduced our waste paper considerably.

3. Ideas from our team

Our team members are always coming up with new ideas. One idea is to introduce a service for composting green waste. One of our senior gardeners, Joyce, thought it would be a great idea to offer a service where we set up a composting system in our clients gardens and maintain that for them. Then once our team have completed the garden maintenance at their property the green waste from their garden it recycled at your home. We would love to hear your sustainable ideas-

From the Tribune - 01/06/2011

'Just like cooking'

JUDITH LACY

Indra Ruffell is a good cook and now she is helping to cook up cleaning products for ticking environmentally friendly and point-of-difference boxes.

Miss Ruffell, who has been deaf since she was young, has worked for AN EXTRA PAIR OF HANDS cleaning and gardening for three years.

She is now making the company's cleaning products and dispatching orders to teams in five other lower North Island locations.

A cleaning paste has been trialled and the recipe refined. Staff now use it every day.

A shower cleaner is being trialled and the next to be developed is a furniture oil.

Miss Ruffell said making the products was just like cooking, following a step-by-step process she was getting down to a fine art.

The company completing a year-long Sustainable Business Programme through Otago Polytechnic. That prompted owner Jane Richardson to review the sustainability of her business practices. Customers were asking what cleaning products were used and staff were keen to use gentler products.

Miss Ruffell was born in Latvia and first came to New Zealand in 1989 as a table tennis player for the Deaflympics.

Three years later she returned to New Zealand and married an Englishman living here.

Her three children communicate with their mother using New Zealand Sign Language.

Miss Ruffell said as a baby she had ear infections and her family noticed she was very quiet. Doctors discovered she had lost her hearing.