You can listen to Episode S3E3 right here!
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Hello, and welcome to the Third Age Design podcast, sharing essential information on senior environments. I’m Lori Pinkerton-Rolet. If you’re a fan of Barbra Streisand, you’ll know that on a clear day, you can see forever but what can you smell? I mean it…right now? If you were, or are in a care environment, what do you think you’d be likely to smell there? Well, there are actually some right and wrong answers to this. The right answers are nothing at all, or beautiful fragrances. The wrong answer, I don’t think we need to go into that do we? This month. Our TAD podcast continues our series entitled designing for the other four senses, this time it’s smell or our olfactory sense. And as I mentioned last month, designers and architects are trained to think about operational uses of space. What they look like, in other words. In February, we focused on hearing and acoustics but now it’s all about the nose. And I’ll be joined in a moment by Roger Bensinger of the international service Prolitec based in the United States, but working with customers in 83 countries. They know the science of scent, and how to enhance an environment, including odour remediation technology and my new favourite word, ‘malodorous environments.’ Our innovation spotlight this month stays with this theme as we review soft furnishing tricks and finishes, which can keep any odours at bay. I had the pleasure of living in Japan for three months, a couple of years ago, and there’s a wonderful term I’d like to share with you. It’s called ikigui, and it means to discover your purpose in life. In other words, to determine the reason why you wake up each morning to… find something that aligns with your strengths and your passions. Well, you can see that there’s a whole lot of unmet needs in the way of care and senior living environments. If you’ve come to that place as being important to you, then the Third Age Design podcast on our website has been developed to allow us to learn from one another and to support you in that goal. We research and share information on interior environments for the Third Age internationally to improve standards everywhere. You can also be part of this movement by hitting the ‘Join Us’ button on our website at Third Age.Design, and when you do you’ll also receive this quarter’s ‘A TAD Extra’, exclusive information for our community members. Plus, it’s entirely free to join. The Third Age Design podcast is supported by Innova Care Concepts whose mission is to enhance quality of life through innovation. From hydrotherapy pools to furniture, you’ll find quality, aesthetics and functionality in all unique Innova products. Innova Care Concepts – the leading edge of health care. Smell makes us capable of time travel. Really. Think about it. Have you ever smelled something and it brought you back to a different time and place. I can still clearly remember the smell of the wax that my great grandmother Jerry used on her floors and her stair bannisters decades ago. It brings me back in my mind to her home. No doubt you have similar experiences. My mother is Toujour Moi perfume, my father’s morning Nescafe and my youth. Now if you were to ask anyone on the street, what smells they might associate with residential care, you’re likely to get one of two answers. And one of them is bleach, and I’m not even going to mention the other one. And they are a complete fail. We’d like to address that today. Okay, let’s get started. My guest today is Roger Benzinger EVP of Global Business Development at Prolitec, where he oversees commercial revenue. parola Tech is a global leader in ambient scent marketing, with over 150,000 installations in more than 80 countries. Prolitec combines technology, fragrances, and full service commitment to create emotional connections between businesses and their customer. Now, Roger brings over 20 years of retail management experience having previously served as SVP of marketing at The Sharper Image, and while there he oversaw 100 million in advertising budget, and also directed the marketing efforts across the direct and retail sales channels. He also had profit and loss responsibility for the wholesale and corporate B2B divisions of the company, where Sharper Image proprietary products were sold in the 1000s of retail doors domestically and abroad. Prior to joining sharper image, Roger co owned and operated St. Louis based All Pro Sports, all pro sports produced and aired Major League Baseball in major markets across the United States. He himself is now a major player in the olfactory market. Welcome, Roger.
Roger Bensinger
Thank you.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
I’d like to begin with a statement from the politic website that says Emory Healthcare conducted research on the impact of scenting in emergency wards. And they found that the centred areas had a 3x improvement on their cleanliness score, but apparently there weren’t actually no changes in cleaning. How do you explain this?
Roger Bensinger
Well, first up, I want to convey that that Emory did not have a cleaning problem. So we didn’t go in to solve a, you know, an issue of of of maintenance, they really just wanted to improve the patient perception. And the industry standard by which that is measured is called H-Cap scores in the United States. Obviously, most visits to emergency rooms come with a lot of stress and an Emory took an approach, and we took an approach, that we wanted to address a sense of cleanliness, a sense of clean, which would raise the level of confidence by the patient of being in the space. And so, we decided to use a clean fresh scent and it worked.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Now, a clean fresh scent is that… historically in the States back when I was living there, that was either a pine scent or a lemon scent or bleach. Is the scent that you’re developing in this sort of instance for health care is it any one of those things or something entirely different?
Roger Bensinger
Definitely different than bleach! Bleach has a really an industrial kind of you know, large scale connotation and is not something that today people are reacting to in a positive way. So, and you know, I think the the manufacturers of bleach have added other scents to bleach to address that concern. Our fragrances really are more than just single note fragrances. So, there is some complexity to those fragrances, but there are certain elements that do convey fresh and clean typically, citrus scents fall into that category you know, we use lemongrass quite a bit, that that seems to be a particularly popular scent in senior living, because it there creates a sense of calm while also creating a sense of clean.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right, and are there other positive what you’d consider positive sense that you think will get used more and more in senior living environments?
Roger Bensinger
So, this speaks to the objective of as we call it, the centre objective in the space and in senior living the priority is is is to ease a sense of anxiety and stress because they can be you know, as you know, it can be both there can be anxiety on the part of of the residents as well as those who are visiting either for the first time to consider that you know that property or even you know, returning family members and friends. So, what we what we try to target first and foremost in the common areas is a sense of calm and the types of fragrances that and elements of those fragrances that will convey that include lemongrass, vanilla, is is commonly used as an element in the fragrances that we do for for senior living ilan ilamg is you know, really a calming scent, lavender, which most people are familiar with also create a sense of calm, so and rosemary also to some degree. So there there are elements that we use to kind of build these chords and create a fragrance that may not be immediately recognised. You can’t say well, that’s lemon because there’s some complexity to it but but our goal at least in senior living in the common areas is to is to create a calm scent. Now outside of the common areas like the hallways and common with what you would call the clubhouse realm, they may have a fitness centre and so the that what I just described is what we consider to be a positive centre. In the fitness centre, we may look to do the opposite to create a an energising scent, not a calming scent, but something that helps the residents reflect a sense of accomplishment as they’re working out. And that can be You know, the kind of scent that can be used for that includes peppermint, and any kind of minty scent, a lemon and orange are really good to create a sense of accomplishment and energy. So that’s another way of creating a positive scent, but in a different type of environment.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Are there any gender differences in smell preferences that need to be brought into this on the idea? So let’s say we weren’t just looking at Senior Living, let’s say we were looking at care. And the majority of people in care still tend to be women. Are there preferences that go into some of that decision making?
Roger Bensinger
Without being stereotypical. But it is true that that, that, that florals are more popular with women than they are with men? So in an environment where it’s predominantly women, we may we may incorporate more florals into the into the scent. But in general, in senior living, we don’t really have to address gender. Okay, you know that that is a that’s a low priority. And that really is relevant. Is it really conveying a sense of calm.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
When you’re working with a new client? Do you review any other aspects of their building before you start engaging in a new scent solution for them? Because every environment might have its own background scent before you even start doing something on top of it. So how far does one need to go into that if at all, before developing or agreeing a scent profile for a particular space?
Roger Bensinger
Great question. So each space is different. And the age of the space is the layout of materials that are used in the design and construction. The as I said, we start with a set object, the main set objective, which is, which is the two, you know, there really three things that we have to address. If there are maloudors, obviously, the fragrance of the formulation is really important in solving those problems as well. The first, the first problem is potential incontinence. The second is human body odour. And the third is, you know, if it’s an older facility, a kind of a musty smell that could emanate from the carpeting, or the walls or the furniture. So that we look at that first. And that’s going to determine where we, where we put the horsepower in terms of of coverage, then we, you know, we look at, at the type of the design in, you know, for example, a more traditional wood, if there’s a lot of predominance of wood in the space, we may choose a woody element in the sand to be congruent to the space if it if it’s more glass and chrome, you know, we may not have any kind of woodiness in the space. So there is some some paying attention to the design of the space. But for the most part, we’re really targeting the problems.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
RIght. And that makes sense, because you want it to be congrous to the entire environment as you would with lighting or any other aspect of the space. So presumably, if you get this right, you don’t notice it. It’s if it’s not right, that you notice it, is that correct?
Roger Bensinger
That’s right, that’s right. And that there’s a there’s a delicate balance between when you’re solving the problem typically more traditional methods of solving a malodour problem is to just drown the space with scent. And that often creates a third smell, that’s, it’s that is, you know, too strong, and is difficult for for both the workers and the residents that are there that are living there. 24/7. So the technology inside of the fragrances is really important, as well. And, you know, what we like to say is we like to send at a barely detectable level, so that it’s breathable, and it’s livable.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
What is meant by odour remediation technology that I found on your website, I’d like to know what it is and how it works.
Roger Bensinger
Here, we use some patented processes that that are inside of, of the fragrances that we use for for senior living. There are two patented technologies one is deoclicks, which is basically a means of creating a chords that will form a chemical reaction, a safe chemical reaction, that eliminate the malodours and basically convert them into something that is considered pleasant. That’s that’s the first piece of the technology The second piece is, is deodecyl Which is targets bacteria. So bacteria can create the growth of mould and and also some other malodorous elements. And so that that part of the technology really targets the growth of bacteria. And those two combined allow us to not have to create such a strong scent, because it’s already the main core of a problem has been, has been solved. And now we can just layer on top, whatever the appropriate scent is for that space. We talked about design and architectural concerns. And so that all of that together, we consider to be malodour technology.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Very, very interesting and very technical. It’s, you know, it’s not the same as putting out a pot with diffuser sticks in it. In other words, this is really a very chemically complex equation that you’ve sort of picked apart un other words.
Roger Bensinger
Yes, from a mechanical standpoint it is. And then you have to combine that with really state of the art technology to deliver it in a way that that’s uniform. And that works. So, you know, I think I think we’ll probably talk a little bit about that, you know, going forward, it’s very important in terms of the technology that’s being used.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So let’s get into a libble bitof that technology right now. When I’ve worked with similar sorts of systems in the past, it’s worked through a diffuser, which was either wired or battery operated. And then we sat down with the provider to go through the floor plans and how high the ceilings were, and where things should be located. And whether they should be battery operated or direct wired. Do you work in a similar fashion? Or how do you figure out where you’re deploying your technology,
Roger Bensinger
Okay, so, we, we have those concerns that you just mentioned, the, you know, the size of the space, what is the airflow. Si, airflow is very important in the space, you know, you do not want to… scentis going to drift and, and follow, follow wherever the airflow is. So we pay attention to that, and we position our appliances appropriately, especially if they’re going to be inside of the space, we call that direct scenting. And the alternative to that is, is going through the HVAC system, which we actually prefer…because it’s out of sight out of mind. Typically, we don’t have to bother, you know, we’re not in the, the common area space. And you know, most most HVACaccess is back of house, you know, in a in a closet or on the roof. And so we don’t have to bother any any of the residents or visitors in the space. And then if this HVAC system is designed as it should be, it’s going to deliver an even amount of airflow through throughout throughout the space. And we just basically follow the current of the air, the scent is injected in at the pretty much at the source, where the where the blower is the mixing chamber of the HVAC system, and then it goes down through the ductwork and out through the vents. And that works very well. I’d like to address one one point about technology, there are all kinds of different ways of of scenting. The most common and traditional is what we call evaporative scenting. And that’s where you have either sent cake or sent beads, something that’s injected with scentthat exists in a space, and there’s a fan and it blows over it, and delivers that that scent out into the public area. It’s it’s a clean way of doing it, it’s can be very effective in the first few days or the first week. But the problem with it, much like when we were fragrance, you know, you have to keep you have to reapply, because what’s happening is it’s evaporating off. And it doesn’t, you know, scent is made of basically top mid and bass notes, the top notes are the most volatile and they will diffuse off first. Those are the kind of the kicker that we smell them, you know, the top like, like citrus typically is, is going to be diffused off first and off of your skin or, or in the means that I just described. So it’s a problem after about a week. Not only does the character of the set change, but the intensity level also change. So we don’t do that technology. That’s That’s old technology. We do something called cold diffusion, which is basically we take liquid fragrance when we converted into tiny micro droplets to more than two microns in diameter that compares with your typical aerosol can that is 50 microns in diameter. I know I’m getting kind of technical, but this is an important consideration when you’re talking about delivering sent into a large space, right and so all the notes are released at the same time with our technology. We’re constantly replacing all three elements, top, mid, and bass, sdo that you get a consistent aesthetic and intensity throughout the life of the we put our scent in cartridges. And that’s, that’s a big advantage.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So that’s the consumable… the consumables would be the cartridges.
Roger Bensinger
That’s correct. That’s right. They’re the consumable.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And how do you monitor systems like that, that are that are running in a building somewhere miles away from where you are running through the HVAC system?
Roger Bensinger
Okay. Good question. So we we can predict based on how much scent we’re going to put into this space, what our service cycles are. And I want to emphasise that Prolitec we do a full service around the globe, ours is not a self service model. You know, we’ve, we tried that many, many years ago. And we and we found that our clients are best served by not having to deal with, with the touch the technology, replace the cartridges, because oftentimes they forget, and then you know, those cartridges that for those customers who aren’t like an auto replenishment, they still, you know, they just they forget, and they start to, to stack up in the back room. And then the service is given a black eyey, because it’s not, it’s not, it’s not performing. So ours is a turn-key solution. We go in, we do the site survey, we do the installation, and then we do the ongoing maintenance and cartridge changes. And those changes can be anywhere from, you know, monthly or bimonthly to once a quarter. And the way we monitor that is we can already predict based on how much fragrances is is needed to go into the space we are our appliances are fully programmable. So we can programme to at a very granular level from intensity level 1 to 50. And that’s and then we can predict how much fragrance is going to be used. But we also have a remote technology called Sense It. That allows us to go in and look at our appliances remotely via the Internet and make intensity level changes and monitor the levels of the fragrance. So, you know if for example, environmental conditions change, because of seasons of the year, where we where we may need to raise or lower the intensity level based on the response that we get from our clients, we can do that remotely instantaneously.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right. So in the summer, if you have lots of doors open, you might, for example, need to need to boost what’s coming out. Is that right?
Roger Bensinger
That is right, exactly. Because you’ve got more fresh air interchange, it requires a little more scent to go into the space, we can also programme by time of day in terms of intensity level based on peak traffic flow. So when visiting hours are let’s say we’re setting the entrance of a of a senior living facility, where you’ve got certain hours of the day when when when family members and friends come and do a lot of visits, we will raise the level of scent during those hours. And then during those hours, when there isn’t so much of the doors opening and closing, we can bring it down. So you have this consistent level of scent at all hours of the day.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And do you do people when you have a regular scent do they get? Do they get nose blind, where they don’t smell it after a while it just becomes a background, ambient part of the environment?
Roger Bensinger
Yes, that’s called olfactory adaptation. And what that what you know is you know, if you can check into a motel room or a hotel room, and if there’s somebody smoking in there, previously you immediately you’re bothered by it right? But after but if you have to stay in that room, you start to become adapted to the smell. The same, the same is true with scent. So yes, for those those people who are living in it, there, they do get used to the scent, but we do something we actually kind of through our programming, which is on off so we don’t just constantly deliver scent all the time. There’ll be time a time period where it’s on and then a time period where it’s off. That creates little little spikes up and down so that it for those who are living there, they’re reminded that something is going on. It battles the olfactory adaptation.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
There’s something nice happening here. That’s right. On the other side of things, have you ever had situations where somebody I know they’re very, very small particles, but have you ever had situations where someone had an allergic reaction to any of the scents?
Roger Bensinger
Ever is a is a big statement. But truth is we do not generate allergic reactions. Our scents, our technology is hypoallergenic because we maintain, you know levels of concentration, the air both in terms of what’s in the formulation, and then ultimately what’s delivered in the air at levels that are way below the allergic threshold. Looks like your, your cat just just woke up to this.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Speaking of allergic reactions, yes, so So for listeners, Roger is seeing me on a video on and indeed, Dasher or the cat is in the background having a having a bit of a stretch.
Roger Bensinger
Yeah, but the simple answer is we don’t we don’t generate allergic reactions. It’s true that some people who are allergic to fragrance, wearable fragrance, carry a psychological concern about walking into any space that might might have smell, you know, the smell of fragrance. And so, you know, sometimes we may deal with with with that perception, but we don’t put anybody into an emergency room, it’s, you know, our, it’s a healthy, we comply with all of the global standards that, you know, both in Europe and the United States, which are typically more stringent. And so the short answer is no.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Okay. And if we were to talk, just very briefly about incontinence has its own kind of scent. Is it basically the technology that’s removing that or do you have to use different sorts of scents in that environment to counteract this, the scent of incontinence.
Roger Bensinger
So the technologies that I that I described to deoclicks and deodecyl really intended to target potential incontinence in the space. You know, those those types of smells carry a certain signature of molecules, and those technologies deoclicks in particular, counteracts that. So that allows us to use any a wide variety of other other fragrances, that would not solve that problem, if that technology didn’t exist inside of the formulation.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
That’s, that’s very exciting, actually. Because if you do ask anybody, you know, to think about a care home for example, and scent they will invariably come up with the same answer, which is the answer that we’re not mentioning on this podcast, but it’s nice to know that it’s, it’s very possible to counteract that. What would you say is your best selling fragrance in the healthcare environment in general.
Roger Bensinger
That’s a tough one, we probably have two or three that you know, that are you know, kind of typical go twos, we have something called ‘Fresh Clean’, which is lives up to its name, it really conveys a fresh in a clean environment without being institutional, you know, there is some some some other elements within the fragrance there are there are some florals that add more complexity to it. And but it really, you know, solves solves problem, while also just raising the enhancing the sense of, of the standard in the space. So that’s a really popular fragrance. I mentioned lemongrass, we have something called lemongrass-ginger, that is an interesting combination of both lemongrass, ginger and some other citruses that also create a sense of of clean. We have something called Pink Grapefruit, that is very popular. And that you know is excellent in malodor situation. So I would say those those three are probably you know, the leaders but you know, we have a pretty wide variety of, of scents that can address whatever the scent objective is at that property. You know, as I mentioned, vanilla is an element that and lavender are two elements that can create a sense of calm, and we have we have a number of fragrances that have those as key elements.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right. And in the perfume industry I believe the people that are sort of experts in blending these things are called ‘noses.’ Do you do you work with ‘noses’ as well?
Roger Bensinger
We do! Without the nose we don’t we don’t have anything we have to have the ‘nose’ and you know it it is we’re talking about chemistry. But you know the human intervention and the influence of the human is the most important thing. So we have we have a designer on you know basically on staff that serves as the go between between between the client and the fragrance house the fragrance house and ours are go to fragrance houses Firmenich You may not know that name because they’re not consumer facing but they’re the largest supplier of fragrances in the world. And you know, they pretty much manufacture just about everything that you smell whether it’s in a cleaning product or perfume or in the in our case ambient scenting. And so e we have a perfumer, a nose, working with our designer, also a nose, in a different respect that that collaborate on creating the final formula formulation that’s going to satisfy the customer.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
This is such an interesting area. And as we just to go back to something that I asked earlier, and you answered quite emphatically. It’s not something you should necessarily jump out at you and notice, if it’s right. It’s only if it’s wrong, that you would become aware of the fact that olfactory sense has not really been taken into consideration in the design of a facility. Is that correct? Yes. And, again, I think it’s important point.
Roger Bensinger
Absolutely. It’s finding that delicate balance between between too much, or just the right amount or not, or not enough. And, you know, it’s you can spend a lot of money on on the visual elements of the space that you know, that you’re creating. And you can play beautiful, appropriate music. You can even, you know, have the greatest textures in terms of design elements. But if you walk into that space, and the smell is not right, it renders everything else pretty meaningless.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
That is a wonderful quote, I think we will be using that one a lot. Thank you, Roger. And thank you so much for taking part in the podcast and telling us about the way in which Prolitec works and addresses these issues. Thank you.
Roger Bensinger
Thank you, Lori. It was a pleasure being with you.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And I will just mention that sometimes, especially in dementia-specific areas, we will sometimes use sense such as the smell of baking bread near a dining room to encourage appetite. There was a lot of psychology attached to scents and how they’re best deployed. And I know that Prolitec is starting to work on some of those aspects as well. You will find direct links to additional research and indeed the Prolitec website on the podcast page for this episode at Third Age.Design. Sticking with today’s olfactory considerations, our ‘Innovation Spotlight’ highlights interventions that interior designers and architects can make when specifying finishes for retirement communities, care and dementia environments. Using short pile impervious-backed carpets is really important. The backing means that any liquid will not sink down to the subfloor and emit odours for years to come. And the short pile renders walker’s and sticks safe to use internally. Anti-microbial and impervious back upholstery fabrics are also very important. And most of these will just require a quick spot clean to be as good as new. The on-the-ground issue is that staff will occasionally turn the cushions over to provide a dry seat for residents. And that leads us to the final suggestion…which is a simple but effective solution to simplify this issue is to order additional seat covers. So, when a chair is soiled staff can remove the cover, so it’s impervious back as we’ve already mentioned, so the interior of the seat remains dry, but then they can put on the matching extra cover and the soiled cover can be removed, taken away for cleaning quite far away from the residents. You’ll find more on this topic and everything discussed in today’s episode on the podcast page at Third Age. Design. Just time for a quick look at our TAD international events calendar. The Senior Living Executive Conference is taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, from the 8th to the 10th of May. And the international forum held in Copenhagen will take place from the 15th to the 17th of May with a focus on health care quality and, in particular, safety. The 33rd Alzheimer Europe Conference will take place in Helsinki, Finland from October the 16th to the 18th…and as always, you’ll find further details and listings on the events page at Third Age.Design and let us know via the contact page if you have an event that you’d like to see listed. Thank you to today’s special guest Roger Bensinger from Prolitec to our producer Mike Scales who always smells terrific, to Valerie Adler of The Right Website, to Peter Thorne, who composed our theme music and is playing the piano with Mary Blanchard on flute. And to our sponsor, Innova Care Concepts, the leading edge of healthcare. Finally, to you. Thank you for being part of a community who believes we can improve senior environments together. I’m Lori Pinkerton-Rolet. Next month we’ll continue our series ‘Designing for the Other Four Senses’ with designing for taste. Not a designer’s good taste, but actual taste. What does that have to do with design? You’ll find out in the next podcast, and I do hope you’ll join me.