Green cleaning and sustainability continue to be the mantra of successful businesses throughout the cleaning industry supply chain—manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and facility service providers looking to innovate and distinguish themselves in the marketplace. This trend will definitely continue to flourish in 2011. With growth in market demand for green cleaning products and supplies continuing to outpace demand for traditional products. Key industry sectors, such as education and health care, will continue to adopt green cleaning at a more rapid pace than other sectors, but green cleaning will continue to expand in other market sectors, including retail, commercial buildings, and food service.
Meanwhile, the nature of the green cleaning market itself is continually evolving. Take the institutional marketplace: It continues to expand in size and level of sophistication, including the nature of the information it demands as a condition of doing business (schools and state government signing the use of green cleaning into law, for example). As this sector continues to grow, it will impact and help shape the direction for the rest of the marketplace.
What all this means is that companies must continually monitor and plan for shifts in industry trends to remain competitive, and nowhere is this truer than in regards to the evolving green marketplace. With this in mind, below some green cleaning advances and changes worth consideration as you contemplate the business opportunities that lay ahead in 2011.
Green Disinfectants & Sanitizers
Perhaps the news that gave us the greatest expectationand disappointmentin 2010 was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s announcement in December of 2009 that it launched two pilot projects for disinfectants and sanitizers, a major departure from its long standing policy that prohibits claims of safety or environmental preferability in relation to EPA-registered products. The first pilot allows for recognition of disinfectants and sanitizers as environmentally preferable by the U.S. EPA Design for the Environment (DfE) Safer Product Labeling Program, and the other pilot allows for some limited claims of environmental preferability for these products.
Well, here we are in January 2011, and not a single disinfectant or sanitizer has been recognized by the DfE under this program. Further, there are less than a handful of products that are working their way through the pipeline for approval sometime in the next few months. It seems that the EPA took an overly cautious approach to the criteria by which such products would be recognized as environmentally preferable and is using an environmental screen for active ingredients that will only allow products based on citric acid and hydrogen peroxide to be recognized.
The good news is that the EPA realizes that the screen is overly stringent given the dearth of products and has indicated it is willing to develop an environmental screen specifically for active ingredients that will take into account their intended function. In addition, the agency indicated it is willing to explore ways in which it will allow claims of biodegradability for disinfectants and sanitizers, an apparent about-face from the position it staked out some months ago. In fact, at a January 11, 2011, EPA meeting, the agency explored parameters of a policy under which it would allow biodegradability claims to be made in regard to surfactants or all of a product’s ingredients. The policy will be fleshed out in the coming month or so.
Please note that the EPA policy continues to prohibit claims of environmental preferability in relation to disinfectants, sanitizers and other EPA-registered products unless done under the auspices of the above referenced pilot programs.
USGBC LEED-EBOM
The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) continues to be a major driver in shaping market demand for green cleaning products and services. To continue to be relevant and challenging, the USGBC periodically revises LEED-EB: O&M, and is in the process now of amending this environmental rating system for commercial and institutional facilities.
If you want to know which way the green cleaning marketplace is heading, it helps to review the green cleaning components of LEED-EB: O&M since the proposed revisions are telling in that regard. The following is a summary of some of the major proposed revisions to LEED-EB: O&M:
- The required Green Cleaning Policy would be revised to include strategies for purchasing cleaning products and supplies for which no third-party environmental standard or certification exists, such as for mop buckets, floor pads, etc.
- Proposed revisions to the Green Cleaning Policy also include contingency planning in the event of staffing shortages and service interruptions due to employee absenteeism.
- Purchase requirements for green cleaning products would be expanded to include chemical-free products and equipment.
- Revisions would also add both the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard for Green Buildings (CIMS-GB) and the Green Seal Environmental Standard for Commercial Cleaning Services (GS-42) as options in securing credit under LEED-EBOM Environmental Quality Credit: Green Cleaning—High Performance Cleaning Program.
- The U.S. EPA DfE program has been proposed as an option in qualifying chemical cleaners as green.
The first public comment period on the proposed revisions to LEED-EB: O&M closed on January 19, 2011, and a second round of public comment is scheduled for July 1 through August 15, 2011. USGBC projects that the final revised version of LEED-EB: O&M will be released in November 2012.
Radical Transparency
A major trend pervading all industry sectors is the increased demand for radical transparency. A growing segment of both the institutional and household markets is demanding that companies disclose a greater amount of information about the environmental and safety and health characteristics of their products and services as a condition of purchase. This segment of the marketplace is growing not only in size, but also in the level of sophistication regarding the nature of the information it demands. On an increasing basis, customers not only want to know that a product is green but also how green it is, and why it is green including the data that supports these conclusions. Today’s “sophisticated green purchaser” demands detailed information about the environmental profile of products and services so that s/he can make an informed decision and purchase those items that possess attributes that resonate and otherwise support their own sustainability goals and how they wish to position their organizations in the marketplace.
Evidence of this trend is all around us. Consider the following:
- The European Union REACH regulations require manufacturers to provide environmental and safety data on ingredients which, in turn, will form the basis for additional regulations on the substances as well as for the products in which they appear. The REACH regulations will form the basis for the overhaul of U.S. chemical safety regulations.
- The EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs has initiated a rulemaking that would require the disclosure of inert ingredients in all EPA-registered products, including disinfectants and sanitizers.
- Wal-Mart launched its Sustainability Index by which it requires its suppliers to provide it with product information relevant to energy and climate, material efficiency, natural resources, and people and community.
- New York State initiated a regulatory process by which it would require the disclosure of the ingredients in household and institutional cleaning products.
And the list goes on. The demand for radical transparency will continue to grow in time, and companies are advised to develop strategies on how to cope with this evolving marketplace reality.
Transpare
The growing market demand for transparency is one of the main reasons ISSA decided to partner with Ecoform to develop the next generation of online environmental resource tools for the commercial cleaning industry, Transpare. Originally referred to as IBEL, Transpare is a Web-centric system that provides critical information regarding the environmental attributes of cleaning products. As such, Transpare provides manufacturers with a platform that allows them to communicate key environmental, safety, and health information about their products in a credible and compelling manner. For purchasers, Transpare provides them with information that empowers them to make informed choices consistent with their organizational sustainability goals.
Currently under development, Transpare is first being designed to address chemical products, but it will soon be modified to address other major product categories, including those for which there are currently no third-party ecolabel programs, such as cleaning equipment. ISSA and Ecoform will soon begin Beta testing of Transpare with an eye toward launching the system in late Summer 2011.
