As President and CEO of Earth Friendly Products®, Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks leads the strategy and production of ECOS™ environmentally friendly cleaning products, including the Baby ECOS™, ECOS™ for Pets!, and ECOS™ Pro product lines. She has been internationally recognized for her highly effective leadership and influential voice in the green movement and in corporate social responsibility.
Vlahakis-Hanks oversees four sustainable manufacturing facilities across the U.S. and a global sales team. She has implemented sustainable operating practices that have made Earth Friendly Products (EFP) a model for green American business. Under her leadership, EFP achieved the unprecedented “trifecta” of sustainable manufacturing: carbon neutrality, water neutrality, and Zero Waste Platinum certification. As a primary manufacturer, EFP has received many awards for its innovations in safer green chemistry, including the U.S. EPA’s Safer Choice Partner of the Year. EFP makes its plant-powered products using 100% renewable energy and has reduced its waste by over 95% by working closely with its suppliers and extensively recycling and reusing materials.
Under Vlahakis-Hanks’ leadership, EFP instituted one of the strongest employee benefits programs in the U.S., offering its employees a wide variety of benefits such as medical insurance, paid sick and family leave, disability coverage, and onsite wellness programs. The company also offers financial incentives to employees who make sustainable living choices such as purchasing a low-emissions vehicle or solar panels. Citing the benefits of supporting working families, Vlahakis-Hanks implemented a “living wage” policy in 2014 that raised the company’s minimum wage to $17 per hour, one of the highest in the country. She believes that paying a living wage not only supports families and local economies but also creates a workplace with lower turnover, higher productivity, and higher job satisfaction.
A graduate of UCLA and Chapman University Argyros School of Business and Economics, Vlahakis-Hanks held positions in public relations and lobbying before joining EFP in 2003. She was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2009 and was responsible for opening several new manufacturing facilities and overseeing global sales in over 60 countries.
Vlahakis-Hanks has been featured on CNN, ABC News, FOX News, NBC News, Bloomberg, and Marketwatch and in the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register. She has received many awards for her sustainable leadership, including Global Green’s 2016 Corporate Environmental Leadership Award and Green Building & Design’s 2016 Women in Sustainability Leadership Award. She was named one of Orange Coast Magazine’s Remarkable Women and won the Orange County Business Journal’s Women in Business Award. She is an active member of several boards, including the Environmental Media Association and the American Sustainable Business Council, which awarded her its 2016 Sustainable Policymakers Award (SUSTY) for championing public policies that help build a more sustainable economy.
By lending her voice to industry councils and government programs, Vlahakis-Hanks works to promote higher standards for product manufacturing that protect consumer health and the environment. Vlahakis-Hanks has dedicated herself to the pursuit of green chemistry innovation, environmental protection, and social advocacy.
Vlahakis-Hanks resides in southern California with her husband, teenage daughter, and three-year-old rescue dog Mina.
