Category: Trends in Sustainability

Consumers Spur Action on Toxins Like Methylene Chloride

Posted on by Nina Hwang, MPH

It has always been clear to Green Seal that toxic substances such as methylene chloride and 1,4-dioxane have no place in the products used in homes, schools or workplaces – that’s why we have long prohibited these and a long list of other hazardous chemicals in our certified products. 

Growing consumer awareness of the health risks of methylene chloride and 1,4-dioxane, both of which are found in common household and personal care products, has begun to prompt action by the federal government, states and retailers.  It’s encouraging that regulation and market behavior are beginning to catch up with the science on these two toxins. However, setting regulations is a lengthy process, and consumers shouldn’t be expected to police hazardous substances in household products in the interim.  

Green Seal fills a critical market gap by taking a precautionary approach – purposefully setting requirements beyond those of the U.S. federal government to empower consumers to choose the safest products on today’s markets and reward the industry innovators who are moving the market to safer, healthier product chemistry. Let’s take a closer look at the two examples of hazardous chemicals that Green Seal has prohibited for decades in our certified products. 

Methylene Chloride Timeline

Methylene Chloride

In 1993, when Green Seal first launched our standard for paints and coatings, methylene chloride was one of the first chemicals we prohibited. More recently, methylene chloride has made its way into headlines for all the wrong reasons. Earlier this year, two women sued the EPA to ban methylene chloride after their sons died from using products containing this chemical. 

This colorless liquid evaporates easily, and its vapors can be irritating to skin, eyes, and the respiratory tract. Exposure to very high concentrations, usually in areas with poor air ventilation, can result in unconsciousness and death.  Since 1980, there have been more than 60 reported accidental exposure deaths due to the use of paint strippers containing methylene chloride.  

As a member of a class of chemicals called organochlorides, methylene chloride is in the company of other known bad players, including vinyl chloride, the pesticide DDT, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Methylene chloride continues to be used because it is an extremely effective solvent. This chemical is used in paint strippers and in the manufacturing processes for other products, including pesticides, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Consumer products that contain methylene chloride include paint strippers, household cleaners, and acrylic adhesives used by hobbyists.

The European Union voted to ban the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers for consumers and most professionals in 2009, effective beginning in 2010. Almost a decade later, in 2017, the U.S. EPA proposed a similar ban in both consumer and commercial products. The final rulemaking was delayed until March of this year, when a scaled back version was passed, which only bans methylene chloride in consumer products. In the interim, several major retailers – including Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot and Amazon – committed to phasing out methylene chloride products due to consumer concerns.   

1,4 Dioxane Timeline

1,4 Dioxane

Green Seal doesn’t only prohibit harmful active ingredients from certified products – we also have strict requirements for any impurities and byproducts that may make their way into a finished product. 1,4-dioxane is a probable carcinogen that has also been prohibited from all Green Seal-certified products since 1993. 

Unlike methylene chloride, 1,4-dioxane does not play a role in chemical products. Rather, it is an unintended by-product of a common chemical reaction called ethoxylation. In this process, ethylene oxide reacts with any number of chemicals, including alcohols, phenols, and polyethylene glycols, to create surfactants and other chemicals. These surfactants are used in cleaning products, laundry detergent, and shampoos to remove dirt and stains. Ethoxylated ingredients are also added to cosmetics as thickeners, skin conditioning agents, and emulsifying agents. Because it is a by-product, manufacturers may not even know if their products contain trace amounts of 1,4-dioxane. 

Twenty-five years after Green Seal first acted to prohibit this chemical, state legislators are beginning to address growing consumer concern about 1,4-dioxane. California now requires that this chemical be disclosed if it is present in cleaning products, even as an impurity. The New York State legislature recently passed a bill limiting 1,4-dioxane to 1 part per million (0.0001%) in detergents and other cleaning products and California has announced plans to consider setting a threshold as well. 

Green Seal and Safer Alternatives

It can be challenging for manufacturers to find alternative substances that are safer for human health and the environment and that still perform to industry standards. Sometimes, in an effort to avoid one substance, the market moves toward regrettable substitutes: N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), once widely used an alternative to methylene chloride, has its own toxicity issues and has also recently been banned for consumer use by the U.S. EPA and retailers. 

Similarly, manufacturers that want to replace ethoxylated surfactants in their products to eliminate 1,4-dioxane will need to carefully select safer alternatives. Filling in data gaps can prevent the unintentional introduction of a dioxane-free replacement with its own set of health and environmental hazards. 

Consumer demand will continue to drive market change and innovation, especially among market leaders. When you see Green Seal’s certification mark on a product, you can trust that we’ve screened that product against these and all other known hazardous chemicals, and that the alternatives are not known to have associated health and environmental risks.  And because we have strict performance requirements, you can rest assured that these alternatives will still work as you expect them to. 

Will CA Transparency Law Spur Safer Cleaning Products?

Posted on by Doug Gatlin

Growing public demand for ingredient transparency across the marketplace is prompting regulators to require manufacturers and retailers to publicly communicate the ingredients in everything from personal care and baby products to cosmetics and cleaning products.  

Starting this January, cleaning product manufacturers for the first time will have to post their product ingredients online to comply with a new ingredient disclosure law in California. As the nation’s leading environmental certification organization, Green Seal has always required manufacturers to fully disclose their product ingredients to us to qualify for certification. 

We believe that public disclosure of product ingredients can empower purchasers to choose healthier, safer products. But we also know that reading a long and complicated list of ingredients without context can be confusing or even misleading, defeating the purpose of ingredient transparency.

Formula Facts Make Disclosure Easier

To help both purchasers and companies get the most out of the new ingredient transparency law, we recently launched Formula Facts, an ingredient label program that makes it easier for leading manufacturers to provide clear, accurate and meaningful ingredient communications.

But will disclosure finally prompt companies to weed out the stew of toxic chemicals that lurk in most cleaning products?  Here is what we have learned about the benefits and challenges of ingredient transparency over decades of working with the nation’s leading cleaning product manufacturers. 

1.       Manufacturers don’t know all their product ingredients.

Ingredient disclosure is made harder by the fact that cleaning product manufacturers often don’t have access to information about some of their ingredients. That’s because they buy their raw materials from other suppliers who keep their formulas confidential.  Manufacturers know what the raw material will do in the cleaning product (for example: it’s a solvent), but they may not know the specific identity of the active ingredient or whether there are any additives.

Think of it like making homemade cookies with bakery-bought chocolate chips. You know that the chips will taste delicious in your cookie, but you don’t know where the chocolate was sourced or whether any ingredients were added to keep them tasting fresh.

When Green Seal evaluates a cleaning product for certification, we work with the company’s raw material suppliers to track down every ingredient in that product. Because so many of the ingredients in a finished cleaning product are contained within the raw materials and hidden from view to the manufacturer, it will be essential for manufacturers to convince their suppliers to disclose their ingredients — even when they involve confidential business information.  This will only help promote safer product formulations.

2. Some chemicals are hard to detect.

In addition to ingredients that are intentionally added, cleaning products can contain byproducts and other impurities that are unintentionally created during a chemical reaction.One example is 1,4-dioxane, a carcinogen found as a reaction by-product in ethoxylated substances, which are often used as surfactants in cleaning products.

The state laws require manufacturers to identify certain byproducts and other impurities that are associated with harmful health and environmental impacts. But this information can be hard for manufacturers to find because there is no requirement for raw materials suppliers to disclose the byproducts and impurities in their products. These chemicals also tend to be present at much lower concentrations that are harder to detect. Green Seal always screens for byproducts and impurities when we evaluate a cleaning product for certification to fully understand the product’s composition. Often, this process alerts manufacturers to the presence of chemicals they weren’t aware were in their products.Identifying these chemicals is the first step to weeding them out – another win for ingredient disclosure. Communicating product ingredients can help companies increase credibility and build trust with their customers. However, even the clearest ingredient labels can be difficult to decipher for anyone but a toxicologist.

3.       “Chemicals of Concern” are constantly changing.

The ingredient labeling laws require companies to clearly communicate whether their products contain any “chemicals of concern,” which include known carcinogens, reproductive toxins, and other ingredients harmful to human health.  But this task isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. There are dozens of different lists of chemicals of concern, including 22 referenced by the California law.  What’s more, the lists are constantly updated as new studies and information become available about the potential health impacts of the chemicals available in the marketplace.

In order to comply with the laws, manufacturers will have to track ongoing changes to each of these lists and update their ingredient labels accordingly.  In this way, the disclosure laws will force companies to pay close attention to new findings about the health risks of common chemicals.

4.      Ingredients have aliases.

The laws require cleaning product producers to list ingredients in descending order of weight, but even something as simple as communicating an ingredient’s name can be complicated. There are more than 2,000 chemicals used in conventional cleaning products – but an estimated 10,000 names for those chemicals.  For example, the carcinogenic byproduct 1,4-dioxane goes by a number of aliases, including Diethylene Oxide, Diethylene Dioxide, Dioxane, para-Dioxane, 1,4-Dioxacyclohexane, and Diethylene Ether, to name just a few.

Companies will have to follow the states’ regulatory guidelines for choosing the most appropriate names for their ingredients.  However, variations in naming conventions are likely to continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for consumers, who can’t be certain whether the ingredients they are screening for are hidden under aliases.  

5.       Communication won’t do the job of certification.

Communicating product ingredients can help companies increase credibility and build trust with their customers. However, even the clearest ingredient labels can be difficult to decipher for anyone but a toxicologist. Long lists of chemicals can be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing even when the chemicals are harmless.  Consumers can’t be expected to know whether chemical combinations are producing harmful byproducts or whether an ingredient that is considered a carcinogen in aerosol form is benign in liquid form.

When reviewing a product for certification, Green Seal always starts with ingredient disclosure – but that by itself does not translate to safer, greener products.  Disclosure precedes a scientific analysis of the formula information, and then the essential work of filtering out products that don’t meet strict health, safety and performance benchmarks. 

Reputable ecolabel standards stay far ahead of public awareness about the health risks of toxic chemicals.  For example, commonly found toxins like methylene chloride and 1,4-dioxane – which have only recently spurred widespread public concern – have been prohibited in Green Seal-certified products for decades. While ingredient communication itself is not sufficient to transform the market, these requirements often encourage manufacturers to move toward safer product formulations – in effect taking their first step towards environmental certification. With ingredient labels that consumers can access and understand, transparency will continue to spur innovation and guide the economy towards a healthier, cleaner future.

Emerging Wellness Trends Advance Green Hospitality

Posted on by Doug Gatlin

What’s that smell? Deodorizer? Bleach? When you enter your hotel room for the night, you shouldn’t have to worry that the air you breathe will provoke headaches, allergies, or asthma. That’s the mindset of a growing generation of consumers who view sustainability as inextricably linked to human health – and who support hotels that do the same.

“It’s a generational shift, in my opinion,” said Glenn Hasek, publisher and editor of Green Lodging News. “Gone are the days when you had travelers who grew up smoking cigarettes and breathing smog in dirty cities. Travelers are increasingly interested in experiencing a healthy stay and being offered health and wellness options, from spa experiences at high-end hotels to something as simple as a bike sharing program that offers the opportunity to see the city on wheels instead of with a carbon-emitting vehicle.”

For the lodging industry, this shift means guests increasingly treat travel as a chance to demonstrate their commitment to health and sustainability, rather than escape from it. Figures from the Global Wellness Institute show wellness tourism growing twice as fast as tourism overall, reaching a $639 billion market in 2017. And contrary to popular belief, relatively few wellness trips are to destination spas or meditation retreats. Nearly 90 percent are regular leisure or business trips where travelers choose to participate in wellness experiences.

“Having green-friendly practices and wellness services and amenities are no longer a ‘nice to have,’ they are an expectation, particularly from the luxury traveler,” said Dant Hirsh, general manager of the Dominick Hotel, an independent luxury hotel located in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. The company underscored its commitment to health and sustainability by earning a Green Seal Bronze certification in 2018, meeting rigorous benchmarks in areas including minimizing waste, preventing pollution, conserving energy, managing water resources and purchasing greener products. For wellness travelers, the Dominick offers partnerships with several local fitness boutiques and an on-site fitness center with Peloton bikes, and it is revamping its spa with updated suites and custom amenities that appeal to the fitness and wellness traveler.

However, hotels don’t need to offer expensive spa services to facilitate wellness for their guests, Hasek said. Simple steps like providing maps of local trails and eco-conscious soaps and amenities also contribute to a healthier stay.

Several health-related features already are mainstream at hotels worldwide. According to Greenview’s 2018 Green Lodging Trends Report, the majority of hotels now use low-VOC or VOC-free paints in renovations and additions, provide eco-conscious amenities for guests, and conduct annual carbon monoxide and radon testing. A growing number of hotels also are evaluating suppliers in human rights areas, providing portable air purifiers, and designating more than 90% of guestrooms as non-smoking.

Hasek said hotels increasingly are embedding health and wellness programs in their overall sustainability strategies, as they go hand in hand with initiatives already underway on the properties. At the Dominick Hotel, for example, equipping rooms with iPads cuts down on paper use and also allows the company to offer guests custom digital workouts.

The most successful health and sustainability programs often have staff-wide buy-in, and hotels that involve associates in their green and wellness initiatives report positive culture shifts and happier employees. At the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites, a Green Seal Silver certified property in Los Angeles, associates formed a “green team” comprising representatives from each department who champion specific sustainability initiatives. Some were so inspired by the mission that they began implementing the practices at home as well, said Claudia Lambaren, the hotel’s senior sales and marketing coordinator.

Today, Westin Bonaventure associates are integral to projects including targeting zero-waste in the cafeteria, implementing a water reclamation system in the laundry facility, installing trash sorting and recycling bins throughout the property, purchasing from sustainable local vendors, recycling unused amenities through the Clean the World program, and offering business customers Westin Clutter-Free Meetings with socially conscious amenities and green features including energy efficient light bulbs, double-sided meeting pads and water pitchers instead of bottled water.

Hotel executives stress that their sustainability and wellness programs reach both to the front and the back of the house. At the Dominick, employees enjoy discounts with neighborhood fitness partners and healthy meal options at the staff cafeteria. “The employees are the heart of the house, so we strive to ensure that any benefit we launch at the hotel benefits both guests and associates.”

The Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, a Green Seal Silver certified hotel, offers a wellness food section in their cafeteria and a free charging station for employees who drive electric vehicles. The hotel also hosts awareness campaigns employees to participate in throughout the year and celebrates Earth Hour, Earth Day, World Food Day and other national days.

“We emphasize the fact that our daily gestures have a real impact on our community, and that going green also involves a social responsibility,” said Cecile Sandral-Lasbordes, the hotel’s marketing and public relations manager. The hotel’s “green team” is dedicated to using sustainable, recyclable, energy efficient and non-toxic items throughout every aspect of the hotel’s day-to-day operations, and ensures a minimum of 50 percent of the hotel’s food purchases are from local or regional vendors. The hotel also implements a WATCH program that trains employees to recognize signs of child sexual exploitation and coordinate with local partners and law enforcement to respond.

With their Green Seal certifications, all of the hotels committed to using cleaning products that are free of harmful chemicals that can exacerbate asthma and other health conditions, a measure that is especially beneficial to cleaning associates. In fact, employers that prioritize employee health often find they are rewarded with more productive associates who take fewer sick days and cost less to insure.

“Healthier employees cost less in the long run,” said Hasek. He pointed to the innovate, self-insured employee healthcare model developed by Rosen Hotels & Resorts in Florida. The company’s health offering includes its own medical center for employees and their dependents, same-day appointments, low premiums and a strong focus on preventative health and wellness (a mandatory stretching program for housekeeping staff and other employees prone to musculoskeletal problems reduced injuries by 25 percent). The plan has already saved the company $340 million and contributed to a low annual employee turnover rate of less than 15 percent, compared to the industry-wide average of 60 percent.

Hotels are also seeing sales and marketing benefits from their health and sustainability investments as both leisure and business guests make green a requirement. “Questions regarding our green practices and wellness benefits are standard from decision-makers at companies that are looking to hold a group program here or assign a corporate account,” said the Dominick Hotel. “Having a strong stake in these initiatives gives us a competitive advantage.”

At the Westin Bonaventure, Lambaren said many of the hotel’s customers include green recycling requirements in their proposal requests. “We have seen an increase with requests for information, and we have had several groups stay with us because of our green efforts,” she said.

At the Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, the hotel’s green and wellness standards align the property with the meetings criteria of prime businesses, Sandral-Lasbordes said. “Big corporations and technology pioneers like Google or Microsoft have substantial environmental charters in place and want their partners to be the same.”

But the ultimate business benefit of the hotel’s health and sustainability initiatives, says Sandral-Lasbordes, is the engagement of employees. “The excitement and satisfaction they portray when helping the community and the planet is beyond rewarding.”

Editors Note: This article was reprinted with permission from the Hotel Business

SAVOR…Chicago Earns First Convention Center Certification

Posted on by Green Seal

by Doug Bradley, SAVOR…Vice President of Culinary

Managing food service waste in a convention center is an immense challenge. Chicago’s McCormick Place, the largest convention center in the Americas, draws almost 3 million visitors each year. SAVOR… Chicago takes the responsibility and opportunity to manage our business sustainably very seriously, a commitment that led us to be the first convention center in the world to receive Green Seal certification for sustainable restaurant and food services. Sustainability is embedded in everything we do. One of our most exciting challenges is to seek out new innovations that enable us to drive continual improvements. Every year, more than 30% of our country’s food supply — 133 billion pounds – is sent to landfills, where it emits potent methane gas into the atmosphere instead of feeding millions of people. As the official food service provider of McCormick Place, SAVOR…Chicago has more than doubled our waste diversion rates since 2011. While much of this increased diversion comes through food donations within our community and visitor education, we’re also undertaking new approaches like the Grind2Energy food-waste-recycling system.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_KqhREQauhs

Making its McCormick Place debut this week at the 2019 National Restaurant Association Show, our Grind2Energy system will allow us to divert nearly 100% of pre-consumer organic waste. Grind2Energy’s technology combines a specialized grinder that processes food trim and scraps into slurry that will be stored onsite, in a safely sealed 8,000 gallon tank. As needed, the slurry is transported to a local anaerobic digestion facility, where microbes will break down the material to extract methane for energy production and to produce a nutrient-rich fertilizer. Minimizing waste is a challenge we fight daily through steps large and small; adding this tool that both eliminates waste and creates usable energy is a win for all of us. Also at the National Restaurant Association Show, SAVOR…Chicago is pleased to launch a new Green Seal promotion to the show’s more than 40,000 attendees and food industry leaders through digital menu messaging promoting Green Seal certification. We have found that education is one of the most powerful tools available to help spread the message that we can do so much more with less.  

Doug Bradley is Vice President of Culinary at SAVOR. He leads SAVOR’s talented team of 80+ chefs around the country and also manages SAVOR…Chicago. Classically trained as a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Doug has 20+ years of industry experience in high profile organizations.

Harsh Cleaning Chemicals Have No Place in Our Schools

Posted on by Green Seal

Many Americans are familiar with “Code Orange” days, when the air outside is so dangerous that school officials keep kids indoors. But what if the air quality inside our schools is just as much of a concern? That’s the case in half of our nation’s schools where the EPA found poor indoor air quality is putting children’s developing bodies at risk every school day. Poor indoor air quality is linked to asthma, concentration problems, and even poor test results. Unhealthy indoor air stems from a number of maintenance and design issues, but the good news is that one of the major contributors is also the easiest to address: the toxic chemicals in conventional cleaning products. Ironically, schools that are trying to protect the comfort and health of children and staff with regular classroom and facility cleaning are inadvertently doing more harm than good. That’s because even when they’re advertised as “green” or “natural,” cleaning products can contain a toxic stew of chemicals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are linked to asthma, allergies, cancer, and harm to our reproductive and nervous systems.

Peer-reviewed studies have found that children who are frequently exposed to conventional cleaning products suffer higher rates of wheezing and asthma. With asthma forcing children to miss 14 million school days each year, asthma-attack-inducing chemicals have no place in our schools. Long-term research also shows that adults who clean their homes with conventional cleaning products cause as much damage to their lungs as if they smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. We would never tolerate classrooms filled with cigarette smoke – so why tolerate classrooms sprayed with hazardous chemicals? Schools should provide safer environments for our children and protect their health. For decades, Green Seal has been a vital resource for school districts, colleges, and universities across the country, helping to transform campuses into cleaner, healthier places to live, learn, and play. Nearly half of U.S. states and thousands of schools and healthcare facilities specify Green Seal as a trusted name that defines healthier products. Custodial teams know that Green Seal certified products deliver the same effectiveness as conventional ones – from cleaning products to paints, coatings, and construction materials.

Now, our Healthy Green Schools initiative is helping schools like Harvard University and Howard County Public Schools demonstrate that they are providing the healthiest indoor air quality for their students and staff. These schools and programs are achieving Green Seal certification for their cleaning programs to prove that they meet the highest standards of health and sustainability in the US. By meeting each and every requirement in Green Seal’s GS-42 Standard for Commercial and Institutional Cleaning Services, school cleaning teams are demonstrating leadership in key areas: green purchasing, green cleaning procedures, undergoing vital trainings, properly maintaining equipment, and helping our towns and cities reduce their environmental footprint through waste minimization practices. Every child has a right to learn in a place where they can thrive, and that means schools with safe, clean air to breathe. On Healthy Schools Day, school leaders can take the first step by making a district-wide commitment to purchase only certified green cleaning products and to provide Healthy Green Schools for all children.

Updated Paper Waste Standards Deliver Big Environmental Wins

Posted on by Green Seal

It’s a simple but harsh truth: America has a paper waste problem

Americans throw out 68 million tons of paper each year – that’s 417 pounds per person. Until this year, the U.S. could handle this immense volume by shipping one-third of our waste to China, but due to new Chinese policies, almost all of that refuse is now staying in the US and going straight to our landfills. The paper that we recycle each day shouldn’t be sitting in landfills when it can be processed and used to create new products – but it will continue to pile up unless we rise to the challenge by choosing paper products made from recycled material.

Facility Managers and Procurement Pros: You have an important role to play

Lower your building’s environmental footprint and help all of us tackle the paper waste challenge by making greener purchasing choices, like choosing Green Seal certified sanitary paper products to make sure that you’re getting the highest percentages of post-consumer recycled content.

This simple choice will immediately lower the environmental impact of your building operations and clearly demonstrate a facility-wide commitment to solving our national paper waste issue and to conserving precious natural resources – our forests. Green Seal has made it simple for you to make the greenest choice because we’ve done the hard work. We’ve conducted extensive research to ensure that our standards accurately reflect the highest levels of leadership on today’s market: the greenest feasible fiber content, a chlorine-free papermaking process, a low energy and water-use manufacturing process, ingredients that are significantly safer for human health, and verified performance that users appreciate.

Over the last 20 years, more and more manufacturers have stood up to our challenge – and undergone our thorough certification process – to prove that their sanitary paper products meet each of the 12 major best practices that Green Seal has identified as key impacts within the product lifecycle. The results of your greener paper purchases can be ballparked with help from the Environmental Paper Network. According to Portland’s Sustainability At Work program, For a 120-person office, over one year, your company will save 8,700 trees, 1 million pounds of emissions (the equivalent of removing 100 cars from the roads), and 5.6 million gallons of water. Those green brags are easy wins that you can include in your annual sustainability metrics report.

Continuous Improvement in Environmental Benchmarking

To make sure that we’re supporting today’s environmental challenges, Green Seal implemented a major review of the GS-1 standard, and today we’re relaunching it as Edition 6.2.

With direct feedback from manufacturers and end users, the standard is now more in-line with industry practices. We’ve removed the unintentional barriers to certification, expanded number of pathways for compliance, improved the readability of the standard, and maintained the stringent level of protections for human health and our environment. With these improvements, we are now off to the races, setting the stage for a major shift in this industry. With feasible leadership standards, Green Seal is incentivizing higher rates of landfill diversion and certifying a wider selection of bath tissue, paper napkins, tray liners, and other sanitary paper products that we use every day. Purchasing Green Seal-certified products is a simple choice that can have tremendous impact on our environment. From facility managers to restaurant owners to everyday consumers, making simple changes in our purchasing habits can help significantly reduce waste and stabilize the U.S. recycled paper market. We urge you to join us in making this change, because it’s up to us to reduce our waste footprint and ensure that we have a healthy planet for generations to come.

HSC Report: How Schools are Keeping Kids Healthier, Safer

Posted on by Doug Gatlin

A new report out this week from the Healthy Schools Campaign shows that a growing number of school officials across the country are choosing environmentally certified cleaning products. This is great news, because as the Healthy Schools Campaign CEO, Rochelle Davis, points out, “We know that how schools approach cleaning says a lot about how they value their students, staff, and the communities where they are located.”

We at Green Seal couldn’t agree more. Environmentally certified products keep kids safer and healthier. It is why we dedicate so much time and attention to developing the most rigorous testing for cleaning products and services, and Green Seal is proud to be the leading environmental certification of cleaning products and services in schools.

According to the 2018 National Education Facilities Cleaning Survey, Green Seal was identified as the top third-party certifier for green cleaning products. The report shone a spotlight on Maryland’s Howard County Public School System (HCPSS), which went above and beyond to create a world-class building environment that puts health first. HCPSS decided to get Green Seal (GS-42) certified to make sure that they achieve their mission of making their schools a healthy place to work and learn. To receive this certification from Green Seal, they implemented their own rigorous rating system that monitors the health and cleanliness of each building in the district. They also made sure all of HCPSS’ equipment, cleaning tools, standard operating procedures and staff training complied with each requirement in the Cleaning Service Standard. It’s no coincidence that a school system where cleaning is seen as a health priority rather than just as a housekeeping duty, Green Seal is the certification of choice.

Green cleaning isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s a public health issue. And where our children are concerned, that can’t be said enough. Moving forward, I hope more businesses and public sector leaders see the necessity for Green Seal certifying more schools and spaces for children, families, staff, and the community. We’ve always been honored to play a role in keeping schools healthy, safe and clean for children. This study just proves it.

Update: TCSA (Toxic Substances Control Act) Amendment

Posted on by Green Seal

Recently, Green Seal’s standards development team attended a conference on the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which celebrated its 1-year anniversary. We greatly enjoyed the candid conversations between the heavy hitters: government officials, members of Congress, representatives from industry, and environmental advocates.

The bill was signed into law on June 22, 2016 by President Obama, and was widely proclaimed a success. Soon after the signing, the usual political chatter began: cheers (a rare show of bipartisanship!), grumbles (the law was decades overdue), jitters (could the EPA handle the ambitious time lines?), shrugs and yawns (too many compromises). We, in Green Seal’s Washington, DC’s headquarters, sometimes enjoy the political opera, especially since we remain happily seated in the mezzanine. I, and my friends in the DC environmental community, were heartened by the news: the EPA now had greater authority, strict time lines for progress, and dependable funding sources for implementing effective chemical regulation.

Chemical Safety, The Previous Version

The law is an update and expansion of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (“Ta-Ska”), which defined the federal regulation of chemicals. Unlike the other major environmental legislation of the 1960s and 70s (The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, CERCLA, RCRA, etc.) which responded to pollution and hazardous chemical releases after the fact, TSCA was intended to prevent hazardous chemicals from entering the market. The EPA was authorized and required to track chemicals that were being manufactured or processed, to evaluate new chemicals for health and environmental impacts, and to regulate (restrict, ban or in some way control) those chemicals that were identified as hazardous. TSCA implementation was slow and often ineffective because of legal loopholes, an overworked and underfunded agency, and general disinterest among members of Congress. Pushed to fill what they saw as a public health protections gap, state health departments and legislative bodies established state-wide chemical regulation programs, which sometimes caused confusion and frustration for product companies and chemical suppliers. With a goal of simplifying and re-nationalizing US chemical regulation, TSCA reform became a priority for businesses and chemical manufacturers. From 2009 to 2016, members of Congress, environmental advocates, and industry groups worked on the reform bill, and ultimately passed the Lautenberg Act in the House of Representatives with a vote of 403 to 12, and passed the Act in the Senate with a voice vote.

About the Lautenberg Act (TSCA Amendment)

  • The EPA no longer needs to identify a regulatory action that is “least burdensome” to industry when carrying out a chemical ban, restriction, or exposure reduction measure.
  • The EPA is no longer required to conduct a cost-benefit analysis along with its chemical assessments, and is, in fact, prohibited from factoring in the financial impacts of a regulatory action.
  • The Act requires the EPA to protect vulnerable populations: “”the health of children, pregnant women, the elderly, workers, consumers, the general public, and the environmental from the risk of harmful exposures to chemical substances and mixtures.” One year in, the EPA has made real progress.
  • June 22, 2017: The EPA issued Final TSCA Framework Rules (National Law Review)
  • Announced the scopes of the risk evaluations for the first ten chemicals (EPA)
  • Dozens of new chemical determinations were completed in June 2017 and nearly 1,000 new chemical determinations were completed from June 2016 to June 2017 (EPA – Actively updating the number of completed determinations).

Green Seal’s Chemical Considerations

The ongoing implementation of the Lautenberg Act has had no direct effect on Green Seal, our standard development, or our product evaluation processes. In their chemical assessment process, the EPA is identifying and regulating the most harmful chemicals; Green Seal is defining and validating the qualities of environmental leadership products – that they are formulated with safer chemicals, perform effectively, and have an overall lower environmental and health impact. However, TSCA Reform may eventually lead to a change in Green Seal’s standards. If the floor for chemical safety rises in the US market, we may see a significant shift in the formulations of all products, and further improvements to leadership products. If this shift takes place, Green Seal will update our standards in order to accurately reflect the new levels of leadership.

A Different Level of Scrutiny: While the EPA conducts risk analyses, Green Seal emphasizes chemical hazards. One of our major goals of product certification is to encourage the elimination of hazardous chemicals on the US market.

Identifying New Chemicals of Concern: In our product reviews, Green Seal ensures that products are not formulated with persistent / bioaccumulative / toxic substances (“PBTs”) and one way that we accomplish this is by noting the chemicals of concern that are listed in the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory. As the EPA gathers and reports the results of toxicological evaluations, new PBTs may be identified, which would better inform our evaluation.

A Clearer Evaluation Process for Companies: Companies with Green Seal-certified products will benefit from a clear and consistent framework for the evaluation of chemical substance and the associated risks, and from the new data that will result from the evaluation process. (Looking through rose-colored beakers…) Perhaps TSCA Reform will also spur green chemistry innovations, increasing the numbers of safer substitutes, and simplifying the process of developing safer formulations.

To learn more about TSCA Reform, the Lautenberg Act, and EPA’s progress since June 2016, check out the following links:

Celebrating Earth Day with Green Seal-Certified Airlie

Posted on by Mac Clevenger

This year I had the pleasure of celebrating Earth Day with (and at) one of Green Seal’s certified clients, Airlie. Airlie has been certified to the standard GS-33 Hotels and Lodging Properties since 2004. Certification to the standard GS-33 represents THE highest level of commitment to human and environmental health in the hospitality industry.

Earth Day is near and dear to both Airlie and Green Seal. After first introducing the idea for Earth Day at Airlie, Senator Gaylord Nelson selected Denis Hayes the first CEO and Chair of Green Seal – to organize the very first Earth Day in 1970. Following the success of the first Earth Day, Denis founded the Earth Day Network which eventually propelled the holiday to the international stage in 1990, organizing events in 141 nations. And now, at least according to Denis, Earth Day is “the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year.”

Green Seal Gaylord Nelson

We began our day with a ceremony revealing Airlie’s LOVEwork structure which is made out of 95% recycled materials. The LOVEworks program is a Virginia branding initiative that helps to promote family-friendly vacation experiences in Virginia and also the “Virginia is for Lovers” message. Airlie’s LOVEwork is a representation of their ongoing pledge to protecting the health of our planet.

Green Seal Airlie

Airlie’s LOVEwork is just a small taste of their many sustainability initiatives, however. Airlie protects human and environmental health by using nontoxic, biodegradable housekeeping products and nontoxic paints with minimal VOCs. They demonstrate stewardship by using environmentally preferable products, having developed and implemented an environmental mission and purchasing policy. Airlie manages their fresh water resources by using water-efficient landscaping and grounds keeping measures as well as installing water-saving fixtures. They practice energy efficiency and conservation by using energy-efficient appliances and windows in addition to installing energy-efficient lighting. And Airlie minimizes waste through recycling and composting programs while minimizing the use of disposable items. These practices happen to be just a few of the many requirements that Airlie fulfills in order to be Green Seal certified.

But Airlie goes even beyond their GS-33 certification. Airlie features a 360-degree view LEED certified Pavilion which utilizes geothermal heating and cooling.

Green Seal LEED gazebo

Airlie sources more than 90% of their food locally and utilizes their Local Food Project (a four-acre culinary garden on Airlie’s grounds) for ingredients in Airlie’s kitchen. Bicycles are provided for Airlie’s guests and Airlie staff even use hybrid vehicles and 100% electric vehicles in their daily operations. Upon arriving at Airlie, I noticed Airlie’s PEP (plug-in electric power) station that provides complimentary electric vehicle charging in the main parking lot at Airlie House.

Green Seal Airlie

And they even have preferred parking available for fuel-efficient vehicles. Earth Day is a time to come together with those who share a commitment to the natural world in order to celebrate and cherish our planet. We are the stewards of our world and it is up to us to keep it healthy for all future beings on Earth. Green Seal is proud of our long-standing partnership with Airlie and we look forward to continuing to work together protecting human and environmental health.

Green Seal Airlie

P.S. While on a tour of the Airlie House (pictured above), I happened to notice a familiar brand and certification mark…

Green Seal Bathroom tissue

Healthy Schools 101: Why Our Kids Need Healthier Facilities

Posted on by Claire Barnett

I am the founder and executive director of a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the many threats that unhealthy schools pose to children’s health and learning. I’m also a parent.

In fact, my organization’s roots lie in a shattering family experience: my younger son was poisoned by pesticides repeatedly applied at school. My son is grown now, with children of his own. But I vividly remember the sheer panic, then the anger and tears of frustration, and a new felt commitment to root reforms for children, as I learned how common environmental hazards were at all schools.

EPA has estimated that half of the nation’s 130,000 public and private schools suffer from indoor pollution. Of course, toxic products are a problem in any environment. But they are especially worrisome in schools.

As parents, we like to think of schools as warm and nurturing places for our kids. After all, other than home, schools are the environment where children spend the most time. Yet tens of thousands of P-12 school buildings daily assault our kids with environmental threats. Many of those threats arise from schools’ routine use of toxic products—everything from cleaning products to dry erase markers to wall paints and PCBs. These products and legacy toxics produce a stew of chemicals that degrade schools’ indoor environmental quality (IEQ).

Children Faces Special Risks from Harmful Chemicals

EPA has estimated that half of the nation’s 130,000 public and private schools suffer from indoor pollution. Of course, toxic products are a problem in any environment. But they are especially worrisome in schools. School buildings are not well maintained and often poorly ventilated. They are crowded—schools are four times more densely occupied than offices. And the children who are packed into these facilities face special risks from harmful chemicals: they are biologically more vulnerable than adults, they face more exposures, and they are less able to identify threats or remove themselves from harm’s way.

Poor IEQ Impacts Health and Children’s Ability to Learn

The science is clear: poor IEQ in schools has direct impacts on children’s health and their ability to learn. Numerous studies have documented the effects, but two high-profile reports stand out. In 2006, the National Research Council found sufficient evidence linking environmental factors and children’s (and personnel’s) health to urge that in the future conventional green buildings be deliberately designed for health. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine found that “[p]oor indoor environmental quality is creating health problems today and impairs the ability of occupants to work and learn” and recommended “preventing exposures” (which it reported can be 100-1,000 times more intense indoors than out).

Advocates for children and education have launched numerous campaigns to improve schools. It’s great to see efforts to improve standards, train teachers, or otherwise enhance the school experience. But a new and improved curriculum, for instance, won’t help kids who can’t pay attention—or who are absent—because their schools made them sick. The school environment must also be addressed.

Reduce Indoor Air Pollution by Keeping Toxic Products Out

So how do we improve school IEQ? My organization is pushing for new policies and a host of other reforms. But the quickest and even the cheapest way to reduce indoor pollution in schools is to keep toxic products out. Schools must replace conventional toxic products with safer, healthier alternatives. Such as certified green cleaning products and safer disinfectants. Unfortunately, schools face special challenges in making these switches. Most local schools are unaware of decades of federal and state policies on reducing and preventing pollution. Unlike many of their sister agencies, education agencies have scant experience with environment generally or with green products specifically and no staff expert in the subject. For these and other reasons, schools are easy targets for greenwashing campaigns by trade associations and vendors.

A Practical Guide to Switching to Green Products

A new resource responds to these challenges. Healthy Purchasing for Healthy Schools was commissioned by the Coalition for Healthier Schools, which my organization coordinates, specifically to help schools understand why and how to switch to green products. The guide covers six product categories commonly used in schools: cleaning supplies, office equipment, paints, office supplies, art supplies, and furniture. It explains the hazards of conventional products and defines ingredients. It includes purchase specifications, names of the certifying bodies for each product category, sample bid specifications, and much, much more.

Armed with this practical information, districts, NGOs, and communities can move forward on green purchasing at school. The result will be immediate, tangible improvements to school IEQ. Children will literally breathe easier—and their parents can breathe sighs of relief.

The Healthy Schools Network is an environmental health research, education, and advocacy organization. The Network is recognized as the founder of the nation’s healthy schools movement and the nation’s leading voice for children’s environmental health at school. The National Coalition for Healthier Schools, which unites advocates from across the country working to protect children’s environmental health at school and has won new guidelines and funds for school environment.

Green Cleaning Your Way to LEED and Well Beyond

Posted on by Marion Stecklow

Much attention is focused on energy savings in buildings when attempting to achieve sustainability. That is a good thing! LEED certification is certainly the most significant, motivating factor in creating and maintaining sustainable buildings. Although the ROI (Return on Investment) for building or renovating and maintaining a property to LEED standards is significant, the initial investment can be daunting. Nevertheless, the growing market demand and government regulations, coupled with significant energy costs savings, are inspiring building owners to obtain LEED certification for their properties, or at least follow the standards.

An often overlooked component of the LEED EBOM (Existing Buildings Operation and Maintenance) is the section under EQ-Indoor Environmental Quality-Prerequisite 3 and Credits 3.1-3.9. This is unfortunate because the green cleaning portion of the standard can provide 6 or more points at little or no cost to the building owner. More and more cleaning contractors and in-house facilities staff are achieving certification to Green Seal’s GS-42, and many are aware of the LEED EBOM requirements for cleaning.

Those who have achieved GS-42 certification are ready and available to assist property managers with providing the documents and materials required for submission to the LEED AP. What a big help to the Property Manager! Also, high APPA audit scores and compliance with Custodial Effectiveness and High Performance Cleaning is easily available for LEED O&M credits when a GS-42 certified cleaning service is employed.

Green Cleaning – Above and Beyond the Pursuit of LEED Certification

Beyond LEED, the business of cleaning is going through a huge metamorphosis. It is no longer considered enough to push a broom and “slop” a mop. Through intensive training and achievement of GS-42 certification, cleaning companies and in-house services have elevated their staff to trained professionals who understand the importance of their occupation.

Green, healthy cleaning is a vital contribution to public health and the environment, considers the comfort and well-being of building occupants while maintaining the life span and appearance of surfaces in commercial and institutional buildings. So, let’s give more recognition and respect to cleaners, particularly those professionals who take pride in their work and are advancing the industry!