The man behind the revolutionary home cleaning method

Method co-founder Adam Lowry Photo / supplied

A squalid flat along a busy thoroughfare of San Francisco, seems an unlikely setting for a cleaning revolution.

But that's exactly what happened when Adam Lowry and his flatmate and university friend Eric Ryan began running small-scale tests from their home in 2000, and ambushing supermarket owners with their ideas.

"We would literally walk into a grocery store, corner the store manager and start pitching to them," Lowry told the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise summit Better By Design in Auckland this week.

Better by Design is a guidance programme for large-scale exporters which works to create a clear vision for a firm's future, as well as a passionate and integrated culture within a business.

Lowry is the co-founder of US environmentally friendly cleaning products company Method, which in 2006 commanded the number seven spot on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately owned companies in the States.

His backgound as a climate scientist and Ryan's expertise in brand marketing (Ryan, he says, has one of the most brilliant brand marketing minds around) proved to be a winning combination.

From the beginning Lowry said the pair wanted to create products that people wouldn't have to hide under their kitchen sink.

He knew the company couldn't rely on conventional thinking to succeed - the home cleaning products sector in the States was so closely aligned.

"We looked at the irony that we use poison to make our homes healthier.

"We asked ourselves the question - what is dirty, what we're cleaning up, or what we're cleaning with?"

In 2001 came the breakthrough - the pair wrote out their first invoice to a supermarket for US$65.

Today Method is a $US100 million plus company with a focus on minimalist product design, a range of biodegradable natural cleaning supplies to its name and certain New Zealand influences.

Neither Joshy Handy or Sally Clarke were at this week's summit, but both Kiwis work as designers for Method.

Method sells its line of about 100 products in the States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, and is seen as a vehicle for driving positive change in the sector.

In 2004 Method launched the first triple-concentrated laundry detergent into the mass market.

"Wal-mart saw that, we talked to them about the benefits of triple-concentrated laundry detergents, and they stated pressuring their manufacturers into it.

"You're not carrying this giant jug of stuff around, it was better for the environment because you're not wasting as much, and it was better for the washing machine and your wallet - it really was just a simple design solution."

Other companies took Method's lead - creating eco-friendly products of their own.

"Basically the entire laundry category has changed because Method paved the way."

Lowry is unfazed and the proof, it seems, is in the company's methodology.

It reads: 'go ahead, copy our products, copy our design, copy our advertising, copy our copy - but you will never copy our culture.'

It is, he said, built from the belief that Method's culture is its only sustainable competitive advantage.

"Quite simply people give a shit, they do. They know that while they're coming to work each day to a soap company they know that soap company is making a difference."

"It's about proving that our most powerful institution is business and really creating positive change by thinking about design and innovation."

Drawing inspiration from a US action adventure hero, Lowry considers what MacGyver might do.

"MacGyver is bringing solutions, he's being resourceful and he is knocking on doors."

"For us it's about creating a kick-ass business, but a business that changes the world forever."

- NZ HERALD ONLINE