Why Environmentally Conscious Cleaning?
Compliance - Many government and non-governmental organizations now require the purchase and use of products that have a reduced impact on the environment.
Cost Control - Products that have a reduced impact on the environment, particularly chemicals, may also pose a reduced risk to users and those surrounding them. Use of these products may help to minimize a company's liability for illness caused by more hazardous chemicals.
Customer Perception - The public increasingly views environmentally responsible organizations as preferable to those that have not taken such a stance.
Corporate Citizenship - Environmentally conscious cleaning advances companies' sustainable business strategies, improving both their business models and their role in the communities they serve.
Key Facts to Remember About Environmentally Conscious Cleaning
"...all products, packaging and services have some environmental impact, although some may have less than others." (Federal Trade Commission, Facts for Consumers: Sorting Out "Green" Advertising Claims)
This is particularly relevant to cleaning chemicals and consumables like paper and foodservice items. While certain products in these categories may have reduced environmental impact, they still create waste and/or release chemicals into the environment.
- No one "green" standard exists
- A product needn't bear a particular seal, logo or certification to have a reduced impact on the environment
- In reduction of environmental impact, proper cleaning process is as important as product choice
Compliance = Current Environmentally Conscious Cleaning Standards with the following standard.
U.S. EPA Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
STANDARD: The EPA created the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program (EPP) to help federal officials meet the requirement of purchasing environmentally preferable products. Environmentally preferable means "products...that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose." This comparison applies to raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, use, reuse, operation, maintenance, and disposal.
AUDIENCE: Primarily federal agencies, but helpful to anyone interested in purchasing products with a reduced environmental impact.
U.S. EPA Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines
STANDARD: EPA is required to designate products that are or can be made with recovered materials, and to recommend practices for buying these products. Once a product is designated, procuring agencies are required to purchase it with the highest recovered material content level practicable. EPA also issues guidance on buying recycled-content products in Recovered Materials Advisory Notices (RMANs). RMAN levels are updated as marketplace conditions change.
AUDIENCE: Primarily federal agencies, but helpful to anyone interested in purchasing products with a reduced environmental impact.
U.S. EPA Design for the Environment
STANDARD: The DfE logo on a product means that the DfE scientific review team has screened each ingredient for potential human health and environmental effects and that-based on currently available information, EPA predictive models, and expert judgment-the product contains only those ingredients that pose the least concern among chemicals in their class.
AUDIENCE: Anyone interested in purchasing products with reduced environmental impact.
Green Seal
STANDARD: Green Seal is an independent, nonprofit organization that issues science-based environmental certification standards. Product evaluations are conducted using a life-cycle approach to ensure that all significant environmental impacts of a product are considered.
AUDIENCE: Large institutional purchasers, including government agencies, universities, and the lodging and architectural building industries.
EcoLogo
STANDARD: EcoLogo is North America's oldest environmental standard and certification organization (and the second oldest in the world). It is the only North American standard accredited by the Global Ecolabeling Network as meeting the international ISO 14024 standard for Type I (third-party certified, multi-attribute) environmental labels.
AUDIENCE: Anyone interested in purchasing products with reduced environmental impact.
Carpet and Rug Institute
STANDARD: The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) is the science-based source for the facts about carpet and rugs. CRI's Green Label program help specifiers identify products with very low emissions of VOCs. Green Label Plus sets an even higher standard for indoor air quality and ensures that customers are purchasing the very lowest emitting products on the market.
AUDIENCE: Any purchaser of carpet, adhesives and/or vacuum cleaners.
The Biodegradable Products Institute
STANDARD: BPI promotes the use, and recycling of biodegradable polymeric materials (via composting). The BPI is open to any materials and products that demonstrate that they meet the requirements in ASTM D6400 or D6868, based on testing in an approved laboratory.
AUDIENCE: Anyone interested in compostable products.
Glossary of Commonly Used Terms*
Unless qualified by additional wording, in order to comply with FTC "Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims" (last revised in 1998), product claims must comply with the below descriptions. The "Green Guides" were last revised in 1998 and do not currently address claims such as "sustainable" and "renewable."
Biodegradable
Will break down and return to nature within a reasonably short time after customary disposal. What a "reasonably short time" is depends on where the product is disposed. Biodegradable claims for products that go down the drain, like detergents and shampoos, may be substantiated if the product will degrade in wastewater treatment systems. A "reasonably short period of time" for biodegradability of products like detergents and shampoos that go into the wastewater treatment systems would be about the same time that it takes for sewage to be processed in the wastewater treatment systems.
Compostable
Will break down, or become part of usable compost (for example, soil-conditioning material or mulch), in a safe and timely manner in home compost piles. For composting, a "timely manner" is approximately the same time that it takes organic compounds, like leaves, grass, and food stuff, to compost.
Recyclable
Can be collected, separated or recovered from the solid waste stream and used again, or reused in the manufacture or assembly of another package or product through an established recycling program.
Recycled Content
Materials have been recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream, either during the manufacturing process (pre-consumer) or after consumer use (post-consumer). If the product or package does not consist of 100 percent recycled content (excluding minor, incidental components), qualifying words-like the percentage of recycled content in the product-must be used to limit the claim.
* As defined by the FTC in Complying with the Environmental Marketing Guides,