Media Kit

Meliora Cleaning Products is a Woman-Owned Certified B Corporation that manufactures people- and planet-friendly home cleaning and laundry products in Chicago, IL.

Our vision is for people to have clean, happy, and healthy homes without relying on products with secret formulas and mysterious chemicals.

We list every ingredient right on the label. All our products are single-use plastic free, cruelty-free, and MADE SAFE® certified. They are free of palm oil, dyes, preservatives, phthalates, and synthetic fragrances.

Meliora (meh-lee-OR-ah) is a Latin word that means "better."

Company

Meliora Cleaning Products was founded by Kate and Mike, two proudly uncool and perpetually curious engineers on a mission to make amazing people- and planet-friendly home cleaning and laundry products.

Many household cleaning products contain chemicals that are harmful to humans and the planet. We want to use our business as a tool to solve that problem.

It all started when Kate, while studying for a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering, struggled to find out and understand what ingredients were in everyday household cleaning products such as laundry detergent. She wanted to make sure the ingredients were safe for those in her household and the environment, but the ingredients weren’t even listed! It became clear that it was hard to be a responsible consumer and to do no harm. After formulating her own vegetable soap and using it to do her own laundry, she knew she could offer better products that were rooted in simple ingredients and build a company that was honest about how products are made.

Since our very first day as a business, we have disclosed every ingredient in every product we make, right on the label. We lobby in support of cleaning product Right-To-Know Acts, including the successful SB-258 campaign that requires ingredient listings on cleaning products in California! California is the first state to require such labeling and we are very excited for the implementation of this law, so more people will be able to understand the household products they use.

Our factory on the West Side of Chicago does everything from making soap to packaging finished product. We make everything ourselves and we are proud to have developed every detail of our process, allowing us to examine the environmental impact each product creates and remove unnecessary waste. It is important that our workers are paid a living wage and are integral in making improvements and introducing new products.

Logo & Headshot Files

You can find files of our logo here.
You can find the files for headshots of our co-founders Kate Jakubas and Mike Mayer here.
Please contact us if you would like additional images or information. We're happy to help!

Founders’ Biographies

Kate Jakubas
Founder, COO, Beneficial Owner

Kate Jakubas is the Founder of Meliora Cleaning Products, a Chicago-based manufacturer of people- and planet-friendly household cleaners. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Operations Management at the Baumhart Center at Loyola's Quinlan School of Business. Kate earned her BS in Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) in 2006 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Masters in Environmental Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2013.

Mike Mayer
Co-Founder, President, Beneficial Owner

Mike Mayer is the co-Founder and President of Meliora Cleaning Products, a Chicago-based manufacturer of people- and planet-friendly household cleaners. He spent over a decade in new product development in areas ranging from healthcare to durable home and office products. Mike earned his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2012, which led him to work in global supply chain strategy for a Fortune 500 industrial supply company based in Chicago.

Notable Press

Sustainability

Sustainability is embedded throughout our company. From the ingredients we use to the packaging our products are shipped in, all of our products are made and distributed with the utmost care for the health of our customers and the environment.

We hold ourselves accountable to our commitment to be a better company. Better isn’t just in our name; it's a reminder that every day we can improve on the status quo by offering cleaning products that are better for people and the planet.

We want to be certain that the standards we uphold for ourselves and our products are reinforced through third-party partnerships and certifications.

Certifications

  • Certified B Corporations meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability, and aspire to use the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems. Meliora Cleaning Products became certified in 2015.
  • Leaping Bunny is the highest standard for companies that are committed to using no animal testing. In order to be approved for inclusion in the program, companies must make a voluntary pledge to clear animal testing from all stages of product development. The company’s ingredient suppliers must make the same pledge. The result is a product guaranteed to be 100 percent free of new animal testing. Meliora Cleaning Products became certified in 2017.
  • MADE SAFE® provides America’s first comprehensive human health-focused certification for nontoxic products across store aisles. They screen ingredients against their Ingredient Database of known harmful chemicals, which is made up of thousands of chemicals found on scientifically reliable lists from organizations and agencies around the world. Meliora Cleaning Products became certified in 2016.
  • 1% for the Planet connects businesses worldwide with nonprofits that align with their mission and values. Every company pledges at least 1% of their annual revenue to a nonprofit partner to help them achieve their goals of protecting our planet. Meliora Cleaning Products became a member in 2013.
  • The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certifies businesses owned and operated by women. We recognize the commitment to supplier diversity that is embraced by corporations and government agencies and we are proud to be a woman owned business. Meliora Cleaning Products became certified in 2020.
  • The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a Guide to Healthy Cleaning where all our products have been rated A.
Certified B Corporation — Meliora Cleaning Products
1% for the Planet — Meliora Cleaning Products
Leaping Bunny Certified Cruelty-Free — Meliora Cleaning Products
MADE SAFE® Certified Non-Toxic — Meliora Cleaning Products
Certified Women-Owned Business — Meliora Cleaning Products

Products

All Meliora Cleaning Products follow our Big Three guidelines:

  • They work, so you can trust that your home and clothes are clean
  • They're people-friendly, so you know it's okay to have them around your home and your family.
  • They're planet-friendly, so you can be confident that what goes down your drain won't cause any problems.

Laundry collection

Home Cleaning collection

Personal Care Soap collection

Ingredients

Ingredient disclosure and transparency is the cornerstone of our business. We list every ingredient on the front label of each product and on our website. Our Ingredients page lists the technical name, chemical identification (CAS number), country of origin, and additional details for every ingredient we use.

All our products are made from a short list of ingredients including baking soda, washing soda, sodium percarbonate, various forms of soap made from coconut and sunflower oil, and glycerin formed as a byproduct of soapmaking.

All products are MADE SAFE® certified, meaning they meet the strictest ingredient screening requirement in the industry. MADE SAFE® certified means that a product has been Made With Safe Ingredients™ that are not known or suspected to harm human health, animals, aquatic life, or ecosystems.

Every product is available in an unscented base formula. We also offer products scented with organic essential oils that are MADE SAFE® certified and obtained from cruelty-free sources.

You'll never see the word "fragrance" on our ingredient labels. This catch-all term allows companies to hide ingredients that are potentially harmful to the health of people and the planet. In the US, hundreds of ingredients in the "fragrance" family have never been tested for their impact.

Packaging

Our entire product line is single-use plastic-free and most products are 100% plastic-free.  Through our plastic-free packaging, we have avoided the production, use, and disposal of over two million plastic bottles.

Our products are concentrated to reduce packaging and waste. Because our products are made in powder and solid forms instead of liquid, they are highly shelf-stable and weigh less than their liquid counterparts while maintaining the same price-per-use as the bulky, single-use plastic jugs.

We offer low waste refills for most of our products, including Laundry Powder, All-Purpose Home Cleaner, and Foaming Hand Soap Refill Tablets. 

We also offer our Dish Soap and Bath & Body Soap Bar completely package-free and a zero-waste bucket return program for our Laundry Powder, Oxygen Brightener, and Gentle Home Cleaning Scrub.