Going Green for Cleaning
Are you looking to go green?
Here are some resources you can look into to assist your company for formulating green products. As always, even if your product is green, it still needs to work. We can help evaluate your product for cleaning effectiveness based on several "green" standards.
See story run by WBZ TV Channel 4 on ingredients in cleaners or watch the video.
How Effective Are 'Green' Cleaners? New Program Will Test and Recognize Top Performers
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International Executive Housekeepers Association (IEHA) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) have launched a program to test and validate high performance products. (See Press Release). The fee-based program will test soil removal efficacy of hard-surface cleaning products—both those certified as green by third-party organizations such as Green Seal, EcoLogo, and EcoForm, as well as products with green attributes—and recognize products that perform well in standard and customized cleaning tests. Products accepted into the program will be tested using a variety of scientific methods and devices producing a detailed analysis of product performance. Manufacturers can use this information to improve their formulations as well as promote their products. The value the program will provide is unbiased performance testing to enable product selection based on objective data rather than on anecdotal information. |
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Massachusetts Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
The primary goal of the Program is to use the Commonwealth's purchasing power to reduce the environmental and public health impact of state government and foster markets for EPPs. From this site, you can obtain information about the benefits of EPPs, statewide EPP contracts, guides, tools, events and more.
Visit the Massachusetts EPP website
Green Seal
Founded in 1989, Green Seal provides science-based environmental certification standards that are credible, transparent, and essential in an increasingly educated and competitive marketplace. Our industry knowledge and standards help manufacturers, purchasers, and end users alike make responsible choices that positively impact business behavior and improve quality of life.
EPA DfE Formulator
The DfE Program offers formulator companies the opportunity to partner with DfE to design or reformulate products with a more positive environmental and human health profile. DfE also recognizes formulators and products with improved environmental and health characteristics.
Visit EPA Dfe Formulator website
GreenBlue's CleanGredients
GreenBlue is a nonprofit institute that stimulates the creative redesign of industry by focusing the expertise of professional communities to create practical solutions, resources, and opportunities for implementing sustainability.
ToxServices
ToxServices has partnered with the US Environmental Protection Agency's Design for the Environment (DfE) as a third-party profiler to evaluate a wide range of cleaning and household products for DfE-recognition. They also have partnered with Green Blue to evaluate chemical ingredients for listing on CleanGredients. Through these programs, ToxServices provides:
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- DfE and CleanGredients reviews
- Screening of products, fragrance formulas, and chemical classes for chemicals that may pose risks to human health or the environment
- Expert use of predictive software applications to predict physical and chemical properties, environmental fate (including biodegradation), toxicity to aquatic organisms, and human health risks
- Consultation with U.S. EPA and industry partners to identify safer substitutes for chemicals of concern
To submit a product for DfE review, please download the Formulation Information Request form from their website and upon receiving the form, ToxServices will contact you to discuss a timeframe and quote for your review. Please contact themto learn more about their DfE third-party review services or to list a chemical ingredient on CleanGredients.
Canada's Ecolabel Program
EcoLogo is North America's most widely recognized and respected certification of environmental leadership. By setting standards and certifying products in more than 120 categories, EcoLogo helps you identify, trust, buy, and sell environmentally preferable ("green") goods and services. On this website, you'll find more than 7,000 EcoLogo-certified products from hundreds of manufacturers.
Visit Canada's Ecolabel website
European Union Ecolabel - Flower
The Flower is the symbol of the European Eco-label - your guide to greener products and services.
It is a voluntary scheme designed to encourage businesses to market products and services that are kinder to the environment and for European consumers - including public and private purchasers - to easily identify them.
You can find the Flower throughout the European Union as well as in Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. The European Eco-label is part of a broader strategy aimed at promoting sustainable consumption and production.
Cleaning Industry Research Insitute
CIRI (http://www.ciriscience.org/)
CIRI, a 501.C.3 not for profit scientific educational and research insititute, was created to raise awareness of the importance of cleaning through scientific research. Their goal is to identify, catalog & expand on existing research to help members be more effective, improve people's understanding of the importance of cleaning and influence the development of policy.
The Healthy House Institute, LLC.
http://www.healthyhouseinstitute.com/
The Healthy House Institute® (HHI) provides consumers information to make their homes healthier. HHI strives to be the most comprehensive educational resource available for creating healthier homes. To this end, HHI treats the home like an ecosystem with many interrelated parts, covering topics in-depth such as air and water quality, building, remodeling and furnishing, cleaning and housekeeping, health and safety, ventilation, lighting, energy efficiency and more. The source for a better, safer indoor environment.
Housekeeping Channel
http://www.housekeepingchannel.com/
HousekeepingChannel (HC) is a comprehensive resource for "Better, Faster, Healthier" cleaning and housekeeping.
HC exists to help you clean, protect and enhance your home environment using proven processes and practices from cleaning experts, professional executive housekeepers and cleaning services, environmental service professionals, doctors and scientists, and organizational and time-management consultants.
International Executive Housekeepers Association (IEHA)
The IEHA is a 3,500-plus professional member organization for persons employed in facility housekeeping at the management level. The organization was founded in 1930 in New York City, and is now located in Westerville, Ohio, a suburb of the State’s capitol, Columbus. Executive Housekeepers are managers who direct housekeeping programs in commercial, industrial or institutional facilities. They supervise staffs ranging from a few to several hundred people and handle budgets from a few thousand dollars to millions. IEHA provides members with an array of channels through which they can achieve personal and professional growth. Some are: leadership opportunities; resource materials; education program designation; employment referral service; a Technical question Hotline (1-800-200-6342); networking; an annual convention and trade show including several education sessions; and a monthly trade publication, Executive Housekeeping Today.
Green Gopher
GreenGopher is a one-stop shop for information about and connections to lean and green product and practice resources for businesses. The website includes "how to" information about conserving water and energy, reducing pollution, and contributing less to the waste stream. The site's staff of analysts (or Green Gophers) researches, vets, and presents lean and green solutions in a clear, unbiased way that helps identify choices that improve business results.
This page updated Friday May 07 2010