With a big order in from an eco-camp in the Maasai Mara, cleaning products distributor Suzie Sardelli is out selling the green credentials of Geo Neo-Life Diamites (GNLD), an eco-range that spans from window cleaning to bug killing.

Unlike other household cleaners, GNLD offers a near suds-free environmentally friendly range. For Sardelli, a committed environmentalist, it’s the only real way to start limiting the pollution caused by commercial cleaners in Kenya.

People are not aware of how stuff is made…there is this mentality in Africa is that if it has bubbles it will clean, and they do not know the destruction it does, she says pointing to examples of contaminated rivers and even the piles of browned froth at the base of the Thika waterfalls.

Going against the tide, GNLD cleaners are concentrates made from natural ingredients that are 100% biodegradable. One bottle of GNLDs Super 10 all-purpose cleaner is the equivalent of 20 bottles of normal, chemical-based cleaning products, and can wash surfaces, ovens and even car engines, says Sardelli. I even wash my hair with it.

LDC Light Duty Cleaner also provides a plant friendly means of killing dudus. Sardelli has often used the light duty cleaner to put an end to ant infestations in her gardens.

The pay-off in eradicating chemicals from the home, with all the associated risks of childhood asthma, polluted water tables and struggling wildlife, has seen Sardelli operate as a part-time distributor for the range from her home in Runda for the past 12 years.

Most of GNLDs distributors work across small networks, running household events and promotions all across Kenya. The network now has regional offices in both Nairobi and Mombasa, and on 6th June is running a conference at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

For GNLD cannot be bought in stores. Like other home-based product distribution networks, it 

delivers by taking orders from distributors who get a commission on their sales.

The product range, which spans nutritional supplements and beauty products too, was originally the brainchild of American pharmacologist and toxicologist, Dr Arthur Furst. Some 30 years ago, Dr Furst turned to formulating the range after his own close run with cancer saw him turn to the mission of eradicating chemicals from the home.

Since then, GNLD has become an international phenomenon.

The products are more expensive than leading store brands. One litre of general household cleaner costs around Ksh1,100. But it is very hard to compare these products to the ones you get in the shops as they do 101 jobs,”says Sardelli, pointing to a carpet cleaning product she has not replaced in five years, which can also be used to clean windows.

The amount you need to use is “so little, it’s so economical and so environmentally friendly…it does not burn your skin and is not made with chemicals.

The products have also been taking off among agriculturalists and lower-income households in Kenya, in a cheaper diluted form, or in lower batched quantities.

In particular the Super Gro, which Sardelli says helps you make the most of water by making it wetter, has been used by agriculturalists who mix it into their irrigation systems around four times a harvest to provide bumper crops and booming shambas.

As a product range that does not create froth, does biodegrade, and is built upon the enthusiasm of hundreds of home-based distributors, GNLD has certainly arrived in Kenya.

The zeal of its distributors can, at times, approach the evangelical. But then that is probably what it takes to create and drive a range that bypasses the mainstream, from formula through packaging and even the store shelf. GNLD distributors really believe in what they are selling.

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