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Meliora Means "Better"

We're a Woman-Owned B Corp 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.

All Ingredients Listed, Right on the Label

It all started when Kate, while studying for a Masters 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 have lobbied in support of cleaning product Right-To-Know Acts, including the successful SB-258 campaign that will require ingredient listings on cleaning products in California! California will be 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.

We Make Everything in Our Chicago Factory

Our factory on the West Side of Chicago does everything from making soap to packaging finished product. Everything we make, we make ourselves and we are proud that we have developed every detail of our process. Through understanding each cycle our product goes through we are able to examine the environmental impact each product creates, thus able to remove unnecessary waste along the way. It is important that our workers are paid a living wage, they are integral in making improvements and introducing new products.

Meet the Founders

  • Kate Jakubas

    Founder, COO, Beneficial Owner

    Kate first asked the question of "what's in our cleaning products" while studying for her Masters of Environmental Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology in 2012. After winning the Quinlan School of Business's Sustainable Enterprise Competition in the spring of 2013, Meliora was born! From the beginning, Kate's vision has been to use business as a tool to change for the better. Using better ingredients and disclosing 100% of them - as well as our recipes! - has been a cornerstone of Meliora Cleaning Products from day one. Kate began asking how things worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying Materials Science & Engineering. After graduating, she spent several years in the manufacturing of plumbing products and bicycling component industry, working on material specifications and compliance with increasing regulations around what goes into the products we use everyday. She pursued and attained her Six Sigma Black Belt certification in 2015 to make sure our operations are efficient and use a minimum of natural resources. Born and raised here, she's proud to call Chicago home.

  • Mike Mayer

    Co-Founder, President, Beneficial Owner

    Watching his then-girlfriend Kate work on a seemingly innocent school project, Mike was excited to see the idea grow into something more substantial after seeing their clothes come out clean after a flag football tournaments worth of dirt and sweat using the first batch of what would be Meliora Cleaning Products' Laundry Powder. He agreed with Kate - she might have something here worth sharing! Mike started deconstructing his toys since before he can remember, which logically led to studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He spent over a decade in New Product Development in areas ranging from office supplies, medical equipment, and plumbing products. He then went on to get his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, which led him to work in global supply chain strategy in Chicago before coming on to join Kate's vision of making "Meliora" a household word.

Contact Us

Let us know if you have any questions about our ingredients or disclosure policies.

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