On October 12, 2023, Green Seal’s Vice President of Certification, Sara Risley joined Softly Solutions’ Mollie Hughes for a webinar to discuss the value of certification for businesses, purchasers, and consumers, and how to find Green Seal-certified products.
Tag: Certification
Proposing a New Leadership Standard for Trash Bags & Can Liners
Update: The public comment period closed on January 29, 2023. Green Seal is now reviewing stakeholder input.
Green Seal is proposing a certification standard for trash bags and can liners to recognize products that use less virgin plastic while maintaining top performance.
This standard introduces the new concept of plastic efficiency, which prioritizes the result – curbing virgin plastic use – over the method used to achieve it. While traditionally trash bags are deemed environmentally preferable for incorporating post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, this new model opens a second pathway to recognize products that use innovative technology to produce thinner liners that maintain tear and puncture resistance.
A High-Impact Single-Use Product
As single-use plastic products, trash bags and can liners have significant environmental impacts. American households consume more than a billion trash bags each year, sending them on to landfills where they turn into microplastics that further pollute the environment. An estimated 79% of all plastic products eventually reach the ocean, harming marine life and emitting the potent greenhouse gas methane when they degrade
Trash bags and can liners have significant carbon pollution impacts on the front end too – they generally are made of virgin plastics that are produced using considerable amounts of energy and associated carbon emissions. In fact, over 95% of the carbon footprint of plastics comes from its production.
Extracting and manufacturing resources for plastic production can also produce harmful chemicals that have human health impacts, particularly on industry workers and neighboring communities. These chemicals have been associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, including impacts on development, reproduction, and the nervous system.
Reducing Impacts by Using Less Virgin Plastic
Currently, there are no alternatives that perform as well as plastic trash bags and can liners for strength, odor control, and sanitation. While non-conventional plastics such as bio-based, biodegradable, or compostable plastics are marketed as sustainable alternatives, they currently are not effective solutions due to a lack of recycling and composting infrastructure, improper consumer use and, in the case of bio-based plastics, land use and emissions concerns associated with growing crops to produce the materials.
However, there is a more sustainable solution: plastic trash bags can be made with less virgin plastic without sacrificing performance.
Incorporating post-consumer recycled (PCR) content into a trash bag reduces plastic pollution by giving a second life to used plastic films that would otherwise end up in landfills or the ocean. It also reduces the carbon impact of trash bags by eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions associated with extracting and manufacturing new virgin material and avoids emissions from incinerating plastic waste.
Several state and federal purchasing policies require trash bags to contain 10% PCR content, and demand for PCR content in plastic products and in packaging is growing among states, industry, and advocacy organizations.
However, PCR content alone may not be an effective way to identify products that reduce virgin plastic use. A Green Seal analysis of products in the marketplace found that bags that feature PCR content sometimes still incorporate the same amount of virgin plastic as their PCR-free competitors. Additionally, challenges with recycling plastic films can make sourcing high-quality PCR content difficult for manufacturers: plastic films are not typically collected in curbside collection programs and can damage recycling equipment at traditional recycling facilities. Some can liner types, such as those made from HDPE resins below 0.4 mil, also struggle to incorporate any PCR content without compromising performance.
Another way for manufacturers to reduce the amount of virgin plastic in trash bags is through using technological advancements to produce liners that are thinner but maintain uncompromising performance. In a Green Seal analysis, thin liners produced fewer greenhouse gas emissions than thicker liners, even in some cases where thicker liners incorporated PCR content. Manufacturers can also take advantage of mineral additives to reduce their use of virgin plastic and provide more strength to the bag.
Plastic Efficiency: A New Approach to Environmental Leadership
Through an extensive market analysis, Green Seal has developed a program to recognize environmental leadership in trash bags and can liners based on plastic efficiency: reducing virgin plastic use to the minimum amount required to maintain top performance for the product’s gallon size.
This approach opens a pathway to recognize products that use leadership levels of recycled content, but also those that use innovative technologies to produce thinner liners that still maintain a trash bag’s important functional attributes of tear and puncture resistance. The result is a clear designation for buyers that a bag is in the top 30% in its size category for the lowest amount of virgin plastic in the liner, and thus the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions and plastic waste.
The draft standard includes:
- Verifying product functional performance through tests for puncture and tear resistance
- Requiring a minimum amount of 10% verified post-consumer recycled content for bags above 0.7 mil in thickness
- Prohibiting the addition of hazardous ingredients such as carcinogens, heavy metals, phthalates, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and fragrances that can further pollute the recycled plastic supply chain or pose harm to users
- Requiring source reduced, recyclable, or post-consumer content in packaging materials
The draft standard and a supplemental background report are available here.
A Collaborative Approach to Standard Development
Green Seal’s standard development process includes input from a Working Group made up of leading companies, nonprofit organizations, and independent subject matter experts. Working Group members provide technical and market feedback throughout the standard development process, program implementation, and evolution to ensure the standard is a meaningful tool for manufacturers and consumers.
Seeking Feedback
Green Seal welcomes public input on the draft standard. The public comment period is open until January 29, 2023. Review the draft standard or submit comments here.
Green Seal’s reputation for credibility and market impact rests on an open and transparent process for developing and revising our science-based standards. All standard development and major standard revisions include extensive stakeholder outreach and opportunities for public input. Green Seal will publish all formally submitted comments, as well as a response to each substantive issue identified by commenters.
The Green Seal Compass: Ensuring Clean Water
This is part of a series of stories about Green Seal’s Compass. Find related stories here.
Green Seal’s work follows a compass that focuses on four key targets: protecting human health, minimizing waste, ensuring clean water, and preserving the climate. This compass keeps us focused on Green Seal’s priority impacts, ensuring that Green Seal certification reflects products and services that are safer for people and our planet. In this blog post, I will describe how Green Seal verifies that certified products protect the health of water resources.
What You Should Know About Water Pollution
Water pollution is a global issue and a continuing challenge in the U.S. Almost half of our rivers and streams are unsuitable for fishing or swimming because of high concentrations of pollutants.
Water pollution sources are diverse, ranging from agricultural and stormwater runoff to industrial spills, discarded tires, wastewater discharges, and the chemical soup of landfill leachate. Toxic chemicals in conventional household and commercial products can contaminate water bodies when these products are manufactured, used, and improperly disposed of.
Green Seal encourages and incentivizes companies to avoid water pollution by designing greener, healthier products that phase out hazardous chemicals from products and supply chains, instead of shifting the burden of chemical pollution to wastewater treatment plants.
Our High Standard for Ensuring Clean Water
The Green Seal Certification Mark helps buyers find products that are verified to be safer for aquatic ecosystems and to preserve our water quality. Below is an overview of some of the water protective requirements in Green Seal standards.
Products Cannot Be Harmful to Aquatic Life
Green Seal evaluates each ingredient in certified products to verify that the product is not harmful to aquatic life, meaning that short-term exposure to the ingredient will not harm fish or other organisms.
Green Seal does this by verifying an ingredient’s median lethal concentration of fish or its median effective concentration for immobilization of daphnia (water fleas). This means that a study has been conducted to identify how much of the ingredient will kill or immobilize half of the exposed test organisms over the course of a few days. If a small amount of an ingredient can kill half of the test organisms, that ingredient is classified as toxic to aquatic life. In general, when a study shows that an ingredient’s median concentration is greater than 100 milligrams per liter of test water, it is considered not harmful to aquatic life.
Products Must Be Biodegradable
Cleaning and facility care products can be formulated with chemicals that are persistent in the environment. Persistent chemicals take more than 40 days in typical aquatic conditions to break down into carbon dioxide, water, and harmless minerals. Because persistent chemicals remain in the environment longer, they have more time and opportunity to do harm than chemicals that are highly toxic but degrade rapidly. For example, certain surfactants in conventional cleaning products break down into nonylphenols which are toxic to aquatic life, are endocrine disruptors, and can take five years to degrade. Another example, per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), can take decades or longer to degrade and are linked to prostate, breast, liver, and ovarian cancers and endocrine disruption.
Green Seal screens cleaning products to verify that ingredients are biodegradable in aquatic settings based on internationally accepted definitions and test methods.
Chemicals Must Not Bioaccumulate
Certain chemicals are known to accumulate in the body tissue of animals and people. Even though a chemical may exist at very low levels in food or water, when it enters our bodies faster than it leaves, it can build up and cause numerous adverse health effects. Certain bioaccumulative chemicals are associated with cancer and neurological damage. Mercury is a well-known heavy metal that bioaccumulates in fish, which is why the US Food and Drug Administration sets guidelines of 2-3 weekly servings of fish for young children and pregnant women. Certain PFAS, the persistent chemicals mentioned above, also bioaccumulate in human tissue, fish, and other wildlife.
Green Seal prohibits the use of chemicals that bioaccumulate in certified cleaning products.
Products Cannot Contain Optical Brighteners
Optical brighteners are a type of chemical used in laundry cleaning products to make fabrics seem whiter and brighter. Optical brighteners are prohibited because they are not readily biodegradable and may bioaccumulate — therefore failing two of Green Seal’s hazard endpoints.
Products Must Limit Phosphorous Use to Prevent Eutrophication
Eutrophication is when rivers, lakes, and coastal waters become saturated with nitrogen or phosphorus, causing the rapid growth of aquatic plants and algae, some of which are toxic. These plants are consumed by microbes that deplete the oxygen in the water, creating expansive “dead zones” where fish and aquatic life cannot survive. Eutrophication reduces biodiversity, affects water clarity, and often produces a terrible stench. When eutrophication occurs in marine waters, the plants and algae decompose and release carbon dioxide into the water – making ocean water more acidic and harming many species of marine life, including fish and shellfish.
Green Seal sets limits on phosphorus use to prevent certified cleaning products from contributing to eutrophication.
Companies Must Conserve Water
Certain Green Seal standards set limits on water usage, which is another important way to protect our water resources.
Hotels and lodging properties certified to Green Seal’s gold standard have saved up to 10 million gallons of water a year by meeting Green Seal’s criteria for using water-saving toilets and fixtures.
Manufacturers of Green Seal-certified sanitary paper products must meet limits on gallons of water used to produce a ton of final product.
Impacts that Matter
Producing greener products, fostering greener supply chains, and implementing water conservation policies are critical steps that today’s leaders are taking on the path to a low impact economy. Green Seal recognizes these leaders with third-party certification so that you can identify choices that protect public health, safeguard our rivers and lakes, and preserve our climate.
Eligible for Certification: Spray-Applied Microbial Cleaners
Green Seal has made important improvements to our standard criteria for microbial-based cleaning products to better recognize leadership in this popular product category. These updates allow Green Seal to verify important health protections while removing the restriction on spray-applied products. Now product manufacturers with spray-applied microbial cleaners can demonstrate that their products are formulated to be healthier, safer options for buyers.
The Benefits of Microbial Products
Formulating with microbes is an exciting application of green chemistry. These naturally existing ingredients can allow product formulas to reduce or eliminate hazardous solvents and surfactants and make it easier for producers to formulate with biobased rather than petroleum-based ingredients.
In certain cases, these products are likely to be healthier, to degrade at a faster rate and under more natural conditions, and to be less harmful for aquatic life. Microbial-based cleaning products are sometimes referred to as “probiotic cleaners” because their active ingredients are non-pathogenic, commercially cultured bacterial strains, similar to what is in your yogurt, kimchi, and sauerkraut.
Assessing Health and Safety
When Green Seal first issued criteria for microbial-based cleaning products in 2011, we took a precautionary approach by designing heavy restrictions until more information was known about the safety and environmental impacts of this newer product type. In the decade since then, these products have proliferated across the North American and global markets.
Now, extensive literature reviews and stakeholder outreach have demonstrated a sufficient record of safe use, with no scientific evidence that microbial-based cleaning products present a higher level of risk to human health or the environment than chemical-based cleaning products. Adding to our understanding of their safety profile, these types of products are being studied as safer options in healthcare settings.
Expanding Options for Safer Cleaning Products
Recognizing the green chemistry benefits and safety profiles of microbial-based cleaning products, Green Seal has adjusted our requirements for these products.
A key update is that we are now allowing certified microbial-based cleaning products to be sold in spray packaging. Because Green Seal takes a precautionary approach to newer chemistries and technologies, we have incorporated health-protective requirements that are intended to address the risk of inhaling microorganisms during product application. Microbial-based products in spray packaging must either:
- Be formulated only with non-pathogenic microorganisms that are listed on the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Qualified Presumption of Safety list, or
- Undergo inhalation exposure testing via a test chamber and demonstrate a low level of airborne microorganisms after product application.
We have also updated our labeling requirements to be more practical and allow for more flexibility in how companies disclose microbial ingredients on the product label.
Visit our Standard Projects page to see the final requirements, red-lined tracked changes, and all development documentation.
About This Initiative
Green Seal implements standard development based on best international practices using a stakeholder-based approach. We appreciate the time and expertise provided by our stakeholders in this process, including the American Cleaning Institute (ACI), EcoQuality Solutions, Genesis Biosciences, the Household and Commercial Products Association, and other subject matter experts and manufacturers.
As always, Green Seal will study the value and benefits of these criteria to product formulators and product users. We are excited to explore opportunities to further raise the bar for these products by lowering thresholds, providing greater transparency around microbial strains in products, and enforcing stronger quality control.
The Green Seal Compass: Minimizing Waste
This is part of a series of stories about Green Seal’s Compass. Find related stories here.
Green Seal’s work follows a compass that focuses on four key targets: protecting human health, minimizing waste, ensuring clean water, and preserving the climate. This compass keeps us focused on Green Seal’s priority impacts, ensuring that Green Seal certification reflects products and services that are safer for people and our planet. In this blog post, I will describe how Green Seal verifies that certified products have achieved significant waste minimization across the product lifecycle.
Addressing Product Waste Across the Lifecycle
Online shopping in the U.S. rose by an astonishing 32% in 2020 over the previous year, representing $790 billion in consumer spending. While many of us are conscientiously flattening the cardboard boxes, crumpling the hard plastics, and collecting the plastic film wrappings, we are seeking more sustainable options. Research shows more than half of US consumers are concerned with the environmental impact of packaging waste. To shift industry toward meaningful and significant waste prevention and minimization, and allow product users to dispose responsibly, Green Seal verifies waste minimization across the product lifecycle – from raw materials selection, product design, and production to transportation and end-of-life.
Raw Materials
Recovered materials: preventing de-forestation and lowering emissions
Designing single-use tissue products with high levels of recycled content not only prevents deforestation but also reduces the carbon emissions generated during production.
Green Seal-certified bath tissue, facial tissue, and foodservice napkins are required to be composed of 100 percent recycled material – that means that there is no virgin fiber in those products. Why? These products are single use. Unlike writing paper, which can be recycled, it is important to design products based on how many times they can be re-used.
Choosing certified products adds up to big impacts. Green Seal-certified recycled-content sanitary paper saves 3.2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year, the equivalent of taking 695,936 cars off the road for a year.
Product Design, Production, and Transportation
Concentration requirements: curbing plastic use and lowering emissions
Professional products and, more recently, a variety of household cleaning products – including laundry detergent pods and sheets – are shifting to concentrated products. This significantly reduces carbon emissions by avoiding shipping water weight from the manufacturing plant to the distribution center and then to a store, office, or home. For example, a conventional glass cleaner sold in the US can be filled with more than 90% water – meaning you can seek out low-carbon products simply by choosing products that come as concentrated pods and solid bars or sheets – instead of ready-to-use liquids.
To achieve certification, Green Seal requires professional products to be concentrated at the following levels:
- For general-purpose cleaners: at least 1:32 — 1 part product to 32 parts water
- For glass, restroom, and carpet cleaner: at least 1:16
Another significant benefit to concentrated products is the associated reduction in plastic use from replacing disposable plastic spray bottles with reusable systems. Case in point: Green Seal-certified concentrated cleaning products saved 197 million pounds of plastic in 2020 alone – the equivalent of 1.2 billion industry standard plastic bottles.
Greener packaging materials – Preserving resources and curbing plastic use
Green Seal requires packaging to be either source-reduced, recyclable, contain at least 25% percent post-consumer material, or be a refillable package with an effective take-back program. Additionally, we don’t allow secondary packaging unless the product is a concentrate – like a pod, for example. This means that the product can’t be packaged in a rigid plastic and then again in a cardboard box. We also verify that packaging is not produced with hazardous toxins such as phthalates, BPA, and heavy metals. Materials that contain fewer hazardous chemicals can be re-processed and recycled more easily.
Product Use
Product functional performance: preventing wasted resources
Many of us have surely purchased a product, tried it out, and sadly tossed it in the trash after one or two disappointing experiences. It didn’t remove a stain, the odor from your sneakers was not hidden under the stench of the fragrance, or the paint required five applications before it looked consistent on your wall. Green Seal sets performance requirements to make sure that the products we certify work effectively, meaning they work according to a standardized test or work as well as a market-leading or nationally available product on the North American market.
Ensuring that certified products perform as well as or better than conventional alternatives avoids waste from discarded products that fail to meet consumer expectations.
Product durability
For certain product types – such as paints — durability is a critical concern; a long-lasting product greatly reduces the environmental impact. For example, if you buy a paint product that lasts 2-3 years, you will end up using twice as many resources as if you had used a paint that lasts 5-7 years.
Impacts that Matter
Preventing and minimizing waste is a critical goal for shifting to a low impact economy – one in which we are healthier, our rivers and lakes are cleaner, and our climate is preserved.
With improved product design, less shipping of water, greater use of recovered materials, and well-performing, long-lasting products, we can reduce the waste that is so costly to our society and ecosystems. Leading product manufacturers are doing the work: they’re shifting their supply chains and investing in greener technologies – and achieving recognition through Green Seal product certification. With the complexity of the market, the Green Seal Certification Mark provides clarity, signifying that a product meets a strong benchmark of health and environmental leadership — thereby making it simple for buyers to make the greener choice.
The Green Seal Compass: Protecting Human Health
This is part of a series of stories about Green Seal’s Compass. Read our introduction to the Compass here.
Green Seal’s work follows a compass that focuses on four key targets: protecting human health, minimizing waste, ensuring clean water, and preserving the climate.
This compass keeps us focused on Green Seal’s priority impacts, ensuring that Green Seal certification represents products and services that are safer for people and our planet. In this blog post, I will explain how Green Seal certified products are more health-protective than conventional options on the market.
What You Should Know About Toxic Chemicals
There are more than 80,000 chemicals registered for use in the U.S. and only a few hundred have been evaluated for health and environmental effects. Although Congress updated the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2016 to grant the US EPA greater authority and resources, to date the agency has banned only nine chemicals, and addressing the massive chemical evaluation backlog is estimated to take centuries at the current pace.
Some product manufacturers are leading the way: disclosing all ingredients, publicly committing to phase out hazardous chemicals, and strongly investing in green chemistry innovations. However, there are still too many products with toxic ingredients available in easy reach on store shelves and school custodial closets.
For example, many cleaning products contain chemicals that disrupt our endocrine systems. The endocrine system is like your body’s conductor – setting the rhythm for metabolism, growth, mood, and sleep patterns. Endocrine disrupting chemicals cause hormone changes, lower sperm counts, birth defects, obesity, diabetes, and thyroid irregularities, reduced immune function, and reduced vaccine response. Examples of endocrine disruptors that Green Seal prohibits in certified cleaning products are:
- Phthalates
- Bisphenol A (BPA)
- Nonylphenol ethoxylates (the byproducts of alkylphenols)
- Glycol ethers
Our High Standard for Health Protection
Green Seal’s standards address the most significant health and environmental impacts for which there are known and feasible safer alternatives. Critically, Green Seal standards also set requirements for functional performance; buyers can be confident the certified healthier product they are choosing is also one that will meet their expectations and get the job done.
Green Seal standards are designed to protect the most vulnerable, including, pregnant women, infants, children, and immunocompromised individuals. Our requirements address health risks across the product life cycle, including acute hazards, chronic hazards, and hazardous chemical exposure during product use, storage, and disposal.
This approach has helped Green Seal to be a leader, moving to act on hazardous chemicals decades ahead of state regulators and retailers. For example, Green Seal certified products have been free of the neurotoxin methylene chloride and the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane as far back as 1993.
In addition to protecting the health of product users, Green Seal sets prohibitions on hazardous chemicals to incentivize the greening of supply chains: As more of a company’s products are Green Seal certified, it becomes simpler for the company to phase out their use of hazardous ingredients and raw materials across all production.
Certified Safer and Healthier
Green Seal’s standards are the blueprint for product certification. Our scientists look at intentionally added chemicals and contaminants in the product to protect users from health and safety hazards. We verify that a product:
- Is non-toxic via ingestion and/or inhalation
- Will not cause skin and/or eye damage
- Meets strict limits for volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Is not combustible and/or flammable
Green Seal also screens formulas for chronic hazards (impacts that can occur after 10 to 20 years of daily professional use or weekly household use), prohibiting chemicals classified as carcinogens, mutagens, or reproductive toxins.
Buyers face steep challenges when searching for healthier, greener products, from a proliferation of vague and unsubstantiated marketing claims to the absence of information about the safety of tens of thousands of chemicals. The Green Seal Certification Mark signifies that a product meets a strong benchmark of health and environmental leadership, making it simple for everyone to make the healthier choice.
Kaivac Univac and AutoVac Stretch – Innovation Criteria
The public comment period for Kaivac has ended. Please see the final issued criteria here.
Green Seal’s Environmental Innovation Program allows product manufacturers to explore environmental and health impacts, engage in transformative product innovation, and achieve global recognition to the newest sustainability standard.
Kaivac, Inc is a member of the initial cohort of beta program participants who are pursuing certification of their products under the Environmental Innovation Standard (GS-20, Edition 2.0). They submitted two products for the GS-20 Review: UnivacTM and AutoVacTM StretchTM with the same primary innovation claim: A significant reduction in the use of both water and cleaning solutions due to a high-flow fluid extraction method, debris filters, and the reuse of grey (recycled) water based cleaning solutions.
According to Kaivac, these products are able to reduce the use-phase impacts of powered floor maintenance equipment by 66% for water and 70% for cleaning solutions compared to other powered floor cleaning equipment in the North American market.
UnivacTM and AutoVacTM StretchTM
Standard: GS-20 Environmental Innovation
Start: 7/6/20
Stop: 8/6/20 11:59PM
Published: Yes Kaivac’s Univac and AutoVac Stretch are used to clean hard surface commercial flooring. UniVac is designed to be used on hard-to-clean, heavily soiled grouted or obstructed floors, such as those found in commercial kitchens and restrooms. AutoVac Stretch is equipped with a trolley bucket and wide-area trailing squeegee to enable cleaning larger open hard-surface flooring (e.g., hallways, lobbies, gym floors, warehouse floors, etc.) Innovation Claim Details Kaivac claims that these products differ from other powered floor maintenance equipment on the market in two primary ways:
- By reducing the typical water use rate by at least 66%
- By reducing the typical cleaning solution use rate by at least 70% while maintaining equivalent product performance to comparable alternatives.
The environmental innovation is achieved through the following design elements:
- The use of a high-flow fluid extraction method that removes soil and cleaning solution via a dual-blade squeegee head powered by a wet vacuum motor,
- The use of filters for debris and contaminants via a fine mesh filter bag and sedimentation trough, and
- The reuse of grey water based cleaning solution at least three times and up to seven times.
Green Seal has not yet validated any of these claims. Once Green Seal finalizes the requirements after this public comment period, Kaivac will submit documentation for third-party certification by Green Seal. The Univac and AutoVac Stretch will achieve Green Seal Certification for Environmental Innovation if all requirements within the Kaivac UniVac and AutoVac Stretch Criteria Document are met.
Environmental and Human Health Impacts
Over the lifecycle of powered floor maintenance equipment, the use phase has the most significant environmental and human health impacts through water use and cleaning solution use from normal operation.
Water Use Rate
According to the ISSA 612 Cleaning Times & Tasks book, comparable products such as floor scrubbers and autoscrubbers can clean 500 square feet per gallon of water on average depending on soil conditions. The applicant product is reported to clean 1500 to 3500 square feet per gallon of water depending on soil conditions.
Chemical Solution Use Rate
According to the ISSA 612 Cleaning Times & Tasks book, comparable products such as floor scrubbers and autoscrubbers typically use cleaning solution at a rate of 50 oz per 25,000 ft2. The applicant product is shown to have a cleaning solution use rate of 16 oz per 25,000 ft2. Cleaning solution metering is accomplished by using packets of pre-measured cleaning solution.
Chemical Hazards
Since the claims made in this certification relate to the efficiency of the product with regard to water use and cleaning solution use, the cleaning solution formulation was not reviewed for human and environmental hazards as part of the product innovation. Therefore, no claims shall be made in association with this certification as to the “safety” or “environmental preferability” of the parts or the cleaning solution formulation.
About Green Seal’s Environmental Innovation Standard
Green Seal’s Environmental Innovation Standard (GS-20) provides a framework for the certification of environmental innovations in a variety of product categories. Applicants follow the steps below to complete the process:
Our Standard Means Uncompromising Cleaning Performance
At Green Seal, we often hear the question: how do I know green cleaning products work as effectively as conventional ones? With coronavirus prompting more frequent use of cleaning products (and more inhalation of cleaning chemicals), here’s a window into Green Seal’s performance requirements for certified green cleaning products.
Defining Clean
Amid the coronavirus epidemic, it is important to remember that proper cleaning is a critical first step in the disinfecting process. Disinfectants are less effective when applied directly to dirty surfaces because germs can hide behind bits of dirt.
To clean is to remove visible soil from objects and surfaces where germs can hide. How you measure effectiveness depends on the kind of surface you’re trying to clean.
Shortly after launching, Green Seal worked together with hundreds of cleaning industry and public health experts to agree on how to evaluate the effectiveness of cleaning products in a way that can be tested in a lab – so we can clearly see what works and what doesn’t work.
For example, glass cleaners should be able to remove toothpaste splatters and hairspray from your bathroom mirror while avoiding leaving behind unsightly smears and streaks.
Carpet cleaners should be able to remove dirt and stains and to avoid re-soiling- which is where soapy, sticky residue from the cleaner ends up attracting more soil and dirt.
And general-purpose cleaners, like the kind used on kitchen counters, should be able to remove a minimum of 80% of dirt from a surface.
If It Doesn’t Work, It Won’t Be Certified by Green Seal
A foundational belief at Green Seal is that a product is not green if it doesn’t work as consumers expect it to. The odds are that an under-performing product will be thrown away and replaced with one that works better – which is a terrible waste of resources. All of our standards include strict performance requirements so that consumers can be confident that Green Seal-certified products are proven-healthier and proven as effective as conventional alternatives.
When it comes to performance, not all certifications are created equal. Purchasers and consumers should always check whether a certification body includes performance requirements in its standard.
Green Seal’s Testing Requirements
Before achieving Green Seal certification, general purpose cleaners are rigorously tested and re-tested to prove that they can successfully and consistently remove dirt and grime from surfaces.
How does this test work? Green Seal requires testing based on a nationally developed method for evaluating cleaning products. The standard, from ASTM (formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials), details the steps to take to evaluate a cleaner’s efficacy in removing test soil from white vinyl tiles. This test method was not specially designed for green cleaning products – many conventional cleaners have been tested this way as well.
The standard provides a recipe for the test soil, which acts as a stand-in for dirt that most of us encounter in real life. The recipe includes ingredients such as natural humus (organic material that includes decayed leaf litter), used motor oil, iron oxide (rust), kerosene, vegetable shortening, and olive oil.
First, a set amount of the test soil is applied to vinyl floor tiles and air dried for 24 hours. Then, a fresh sponge that has been soaked with the cleaning solution is attached to the cleaning apparatus, which scrubs the tile exactly 10 times at the same applied pressure. Next, the tile is rinsed off with water.
The amount of soil removed is determined by using a reflectometer that measures light reflected off of the tile (0=black, 100= white). The more light that is reflected, the cleaner the tile. Each tile is measured three times and the average is used as the final cleaning score.
This process is repeated with at least 3 different sets of tiles and sponges. The cleaning product must receive an average score of 80% soil removal to be considered effective and to qualify for Green Seal certification.
Learn More
For more information about proper cleaning and disinfecting, visit the EPA and the CDC for the best guidance for preventing coronavirus in your home or building. You can also find Green Seal’s blog on safely disinfecting for coronavirus here, including a curated list of some of the safest EPA-registered disinfectants.
USC Hotel: Why We Pursued Green Seal Certification
by Ron Mackovich, USC University Communications
When USC rebranded our university-owned hotel as USC Hotel a year ago, we made it a goal to be an example of sustainability practices in the hospitality industry. Traditional hospitality practices use significant resources and materials and generate substantial waste. We aim to serve our hotel guests and the Trojan Family responsibly and strive for a more sustainable future for the next generation of Trojans.
In a major step toward sustainability, USC Hotel has now achieved certification from Green Seal, a national leader in setting environmental standards. To earn this premier certification, the hotel underwent an in-depth audit of purchasing records, practices and on-site operations to meet Green Seal’s GS-33 green lodging standard.
A Sustainable Stay
USC Hotel’s sustainability efforts, aligned with Green Seal’s guiding principles, have produced impressive results. Since January 2019, the hotel has kept 250,000 plastic bottles out of landfills and composted 5,000 pounds of food waste. By switching to glassware in guest rooms, the hotel is saving 36,000 paper cups a year.
USC Hotel has transitioned to environmentally conscious vendors, including those that incorporate recyclables into their packaging and accept the packaging back after it’s been used. Linen, blankets and pillows that are being replaced are donated to local homeless and animal shelters. Thanks to waste diversion and composting, the hotel has kept over 30 tons of materials out of landfills. A property-wide conversion to LED lighting is nearly complete, which will cut electricity use by up to 75%.
Silver-Level Certification
USC Hotel is certified at the advanced silver level, which requires facility-wide measures to reduce waste, water and energy use, along with products that contribute to pollution. Single-use plastics are being reduced or eliminated under a “less is best” policy. Drought resistant landscaping and plumbing fixtures are cutting water use, and the hotel has switched to nontoxic, biodegradable cleaning products. Other sustainable steps include:
- Durable equipment and furniture that can be reupholstered, refinished or recycled.
- Shower curtains made of recycled plastic water bottles.
- New, energy-efficient washers and dryers.
- Extensive staff training in waste reduction, water conservation and energy savings.
USC could not have achieved this rigorous certification without the enthusiastic support from our people. Our team members are partners in sustainability and have us their full support in learning and following better practices.
USC Hotel’s Green Seal certification is a milestone in the hotel’s commitment to a sustainable urban future and lines up with the university’s forthcoming 2028 sustainability plan. We look forward to partnering with Green Seal as we continually seek new measures to reduce USC Hotel’s impact on the environment.
BMS: An Interview with Green Seal CEO Doug Gatlin
Green Seal partner Building Maintenance Service (BMS) sat down with Green Seal CEO Doug Gatlin to discuss green cleaning, sustainability in the janitorial industry, and why being Green Seal certified matters now more than ever.
WHY IS THIRD-PARTY VALIDATION IMPORTANT WHEN IT COMES TO SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CLEANING SERVICES INDUSTRY?
Green cleaning is a common term these days in the cleaning industry. The concept has been around for a long time. However, in recent years, the sustainability community has actively embraced it. They are better quantifying its impacts and promoting its value. Thanks to national benchmarks such as LEED as well as Green Seal’s Green Cleaning Services Standard, green cleaning has become more common. The knowledge of best practices has become more standardized within the industry. Many facility teams, building managers, and office managers are utilizing some elements of green cleaning. That said, green cleaning is a series of continuous improvement steps. It is based on core principles that include training, site-specific plans, careful chemical management, and environmentally preferable purchasing. In most cases we’ve seen, when a group says they’re implementing green cleaning, there are often major gaps in the implementation, the level of rigor, and the results. A third-party certification process confirms the application of actual green cleaning procedures and benefits.
HOW DOES GS-42 CERTIFICATION BENEFIT JANITORIAL COMPANIES AND THEIR CLIENTS?
We’ve heard from cleaning companies of all sizes that simply the act of applying for certification is beneficial. In completing the checklists, you can quickly identify gaps in what you were doing, assumptions you made, and communications that should have been developed that never were. It helps you get a bird’s-eye view of your own business. During the process, you’re speaking with a facilities management expert. This person can help you dive into the best practices of green cleaning and the unique ways to develop your site-specific plans.
Commercial properties that choose certified green cleaning services attract higher quality tenants. Consumers today are demanding a higher level of social and environmental consciousness. Green cleaning delivers on those priorities by reducing the building’s environmental impact and promoting the health and wellbeing of building occupants – as well as some of society’s unsung heroes: custodial workers.
Building occupant productivity is also a benefit. Occupants of green office buildings report three fewer sick days each year and a 5% increase in overall productivity. This has a direct connection to indoor air quality. In fact, a 2018 study from the U.S. Green Building Council found that 80% of green building occupants say the enhanced air quality improves their happiness and productivity.
HOW DO CLEANING CHEMICAL CHOICES IMPACT BUILDING OCCUPANT HEALTH?
VOCs are one of the most common hazards in today’s buildings. They can cause allergic responses, exacerbate asthma, or other respiratory issues, cause headaches, eye irritation, or dizziness, prevent us from feeling our best – or, at worst, send people to the emergency room.
Young people, sick people, pregnant women, and the tens of millions of Americans who suffer from asthma are especially at risk from exposure. One in seven cases of adult asthma can be attributed to the use of spray cleaners.
Cleaning professionals are on the front lines of these impacts. A large body of research has found that both domestic and professional cleaning work is associated with a higher risk of asthma and other respiratory issues. In fact, the first long term study on the topic recently found that cleaning with conventional products is as bad for your lungs as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day over 10-20 years.
The good news is that you easily mitigate these risks by simply switching to green-certified products.
HOW DO YOU DETERMINE SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS FOR CLEANING CHEMICALS?
We start by looking at function. It’s important for us to understand the intended function of a product. In many cases there are several. This helps us understand why a certain active chemical ingredient may be necessary or beneficial. Once we understand those two pieces, we conduct a marketing review by looking at safety data sheets or European regulations, which frequently home in on chemicals of concern before the U.S. does. We identify the known toxic chemicals that are in most cleaning products. Then we look at the products that have been designed without those toxic chemicals. We independently validate that these products still function to industry standards.
By focusing on those leadership products, we’re able to craft a profile that looks at everything from the raw materials and production processes to the formula and the end of life of the product. We zero in on the best opportunities for reducing environmental and human health impacts. We strive to create standards that are achievable for the top 20 percent of the industry. As the industry catches, we review and increase the performance thresholds where it makes sense, so that the Green Seal mark continues to set a leadership benchmark.
DO GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS (OR LACK THEREOF) IMPACT HOW YOU DEFINE YOUR STANDARDS, AND IF SO, HOW?
We rely on a number of authoritative lists to screen product formulations for chemicals of concern. These lists range from those set by international bodies, such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s list of carcinogens, to those set by professional associations, such as the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics’s list of asthmagens. In between, of course, are federal and state lists by U.S. EPA and California.
By referencing multiple sources, we ensure that we have the most health-protective standards based on the latest science. Green Seal’s standard development is guided by the precautionary principle – if there is a lack of full scientific certainty on the suspected health and environmental health hazards of a chemical, we prohibit it until it’s proven to be safe. That’s why commonly found toxins like methylene chloride and 1,4-dioxane – which have only recently spurred widespread public concern in the U.S. – have been prohibited in Green Seal-certified products for decades.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE YOU HAVE SEEN FOR CLEANING SERVICE PROVIDERS TO ADOPT GS-42 STANDARDS?
We see employee turnover and maintaining buy-in as two of the biggest challenges. Green cleaning itself is not intuitive. It’s a careful, conscious process of monitoring, setting baselines, and understanding opportunities for where chemicals are unnecessary or overused, and shifting to better practices. It is a continuous improvement game. It works best with the buy-in of your teams—in particular, custodial managers, who can lead a culture shift.
In some cases, building occupants need to be educated about green cleaning. We’re conditioned to think that a bleach smell or a lavender fragrance signifies “clean.” It can also be hard to overcome the misconception that constant cleaning is beneficial. Many times, it’s counterproductive, and it unnecessarily increases chemical exposure.
It’s important to convey the concept of green cleaning to the building occupants. They must find value in this new way of working with non-fragrance products, in restricting cleaning schedules to off-hours, and in restricting the use of disinfectants and sanitizers to high-touch surfaces. But increasingly, we’ve seen that building tenants and occupants are aware of the benefits. They are requesting green cleaning, even if they don’t yet understand all the details.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST CONCERN AS IT RELATES TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE CLEANING INDUSTRY?
Water use. The more we can encourage the shipping of concentrated products, the more we can reduce the unnecessary emissions of shipping water. There’s an emerging concept in Europe where water itself is not required as frequently in cleaning. That could be interesting in the future as well.
We’re also concerned about the overuse of disinfecting products because of the potential for the development of microbial resistance to these products.
HOW DO YOU SEE SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CLEANING INDUSTRY CHANGING OVER THE NEXT 5-10 YEARS?
Green cleaning will be better understood. We’re going to see reductions in water use, more careful application of chemical-based products, and a shift to more evidence and quantification of green cleaning and effective cleaning. There will be more demand from building occupants for third-party certified services and products that protect and promote health and wellness. You can already see that in popular shared workspaces like WeWork – they offer snacks, coffee, and spaces that only use green products.
From Building Maintenance Service Blog – November 7, 2019. Contact us to learn more about BMS’s Sustainability initiatives, including our Green Seal (GS-42) certification.
Kittrich Shares What Green Seal Means for Consumers
by Rachel Bolin, Kittrich Corporation Formulator
Update: You can find Kittrich’s Eco-Me brand certified products on Amazon here
Can cleaning products be effective and be safer for people and the planet? At Kittrich Corporation®, we think they can.
To prove just how serious we are about making a difference to the health of our planet, we set out to certify our plant-based formulations in our Eco-Me® and Little Twig® brands with Green Seal®. Having the Green Seal certification means a product has met rigorous standards proving they work just as effectively as conventional products without including harmful chemicals.
We are proud to announce that our Little Twig Dish Soap & Bottle Wash and Eco-Me Dish Soap, Steel Cleaner, and Wood Polish have officially been Green Seal certified.
We choose to pursue Green Seal certification because we know just how high a standard Green Seal sets and what seeing that seal on our label would mean for consumers looking for better alternatives. Having the Green Seal certification mark symbolizes that we care about the health of our environment and our customers, while setting us apart from the competition.
Eco-Me and Little Twig are made with simple ingredients such as vegetable glycerin, coconut derived surfactants, and food grade preservatives. Each label includes every ingredient in our formulation, and our ingredients are free from harmful chemicals. Little Twig and Eco-Me cleaning products have become a staple in many homes – now, our customers can feel even more confident that they are using safer products that have been tested and certified by Green Seal.
We work hard to put out the best possible products and being Green Seal certified is a great way to shout our mission out to the world. We are honored to apply this seal as we know that our consumers consistently search for brands that care about the future of the planet and the people who borrow it.
(Read the press release here.)
BMS Cleans Over 100 Million Square Feet of Space
WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN TO BMS?
Because the environmental impact of the janitorial industry is so enormous, so is our potential to reduce it. As a responsible company committed to sustainability, it’s our obligation to offset this however we can. Annually the janitorial industry consumes 6.2 billion pounds of mostly petroleum-based chemicals. Additionally, our industry goes through about 30 million trees worth of sanitary paper and one billion pounds of equipment. Not to mention a huge amount of packaging and equipment is disposed of each year.
WHY DO YOU PRIORITIZE GREEN CLEANING?
It’s no longer a trend, but an expectation. While BMS is leading this effort, we now see that almost all cleaning companies have green cleaning programs. The benefits reach beyond statistics. Green cleaning has a significant impact on the health of janitorial workers and building occupants who are now breathing cleaner indoor air with less exposure to harmful chemicals that can cause asthma and other serious health conditions.
WHY DID YOU PURSUE GREEN SEAL CERTIFICATION?
Third-party auditing from Green Seal demonstrates our commitment to transparency and accountability in our operations. It’s critical to us that our sustainable practices and procedures are best-in-class. Being Green Seal certified is an important part of ensuring we maintain our standards. It helps us ensure sustainability becomes a part of our corporate culture. Our staff receives annual Green Seal training, which results in companywide buy-in. And regular Green Seal recertification ensures our continued adherence to best practic
DO YOU HIGHLIGHT YOUR GREEN CLEANING PRACTICES WITH CUSTOMERS?
Being Green Seal certified gives BMS leverage with prospects. In a competitive market, being able to showcase points of differentiation is key. We are proud to share our sustainability practices with our customers! Our BMS Green Clean℠ program is Green Seal certified, and was designed to enhance human health and foster sustainability within the commercial real estate, hospitality and education spaces we clean.
DOES CLEANING WITH GREEN PRODUCTS COST MORE?
It is a common misconception that green products are more expensive and less effective. This is false. These products are never more costly than traditional chemicals, and are equally, and in many cases more, effective. In fact, when used properly, they should cost less. Microfiber dusting cloths, dilution control systems, efficient machinery and ample staff training provide tangible savings. The only cleaning program offered by BMS is a sustainable one. We have built green cleaning into our everyday operations and clean to LEED standards all the time.
HOW ARE YOU DOING ON OFFSETTING YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS?
We annually track our sustainable efforts using the tools available to us. Our last Sustainability Report outlined the following environmental savings, and we have Green Seal to thank for helping us achieve these statistics:
- 81% purchasing of Certified “Green” products
- 92.8 tons of packaging reduction by purchasing chemical concentrates
- Over 531,551 gallons of water use reduction
- Use of 2.3 million pounds of recycled paper
- 1,500 of gallons of chemical reduction
ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
BMS cleans over 100 million square feet of space across New York, Chicago and the Mid-Atlantic. The statistics show that it is essential that our industry act now by investing in green cleaning practices. Collectively, we can make a tremendous impact. All of us, businesses and individuals, have a part to play in protecting the environment.
Your Feedback Is Key to the Success of Our Standards
Over the past twenty-seven years, Green Seal has published dozens of environmental leadership standards and certified over 4,000 products. We have achieved the most success over these years in the cleaning product industry, and have invested greatly in helping manufacturers green their products. About one-third of our 27 active standards define environmental leadership for specific types of cleaning products. For cleaning product manufacturers and for institutional purchasers, Green Seal is a well-known product certifier. Our services are trusted and respected, and the Green Seal Certification Mark is a widely recognized symbol that shows that a product has been evaluated for both performance and environmental leadership. A key facet of our success has been that our certification process is transparent and scientific; certification is based on our accurate and publicly available environmental leadership standards.
Transparent Requirements to Achieve Certification
To understand Green Seal certification, anyone can download a specific standard (a free PDF on our website) and note each of the requirements for performance, human health protection, and environmental leadership. For example, purchasers know that a Green Seal-certified cleaning product has demonstrated a specific level of performance, that it is not formulated with certain hazardous substances, and that it has an overall reduced environmental impact compared to most other products on the market.
A Bit of Maintenance: Keeping Our Standards Clear and Accurate
The guiding principles of a Type 1 Ecolabel require us to keep each of our standards relevant to today’s market, to ensure that they accurately define environmental leadership, and also to verify that the requirements are practical for certification. Our periodic assessments of each standard also include a review of the market to identify if relevant technologies and best practices have evolved. Green Seal references many external sources in our standards that make a revision necessary: ASTM and ISO update the names and criteria of their test methods; the OECD updates their suggested methods for evaluating chemicals, and the US EPA often increases the size and complexity of its environmental databases in response to newly published scientific studies. Also, the market is continuously evolving. Manufacturers are always developing new technologies and re-designing their products. For example, over the years companies have expanded their offerings of environmentally-preferable packaging. Source-reduced packaging, packaging take-back programs, and packaging made from higher percentages of post-consumer materials are being used by environmental leaders in the cleaning industry now, but were not widely available a decade ago. For our standard revisions, we note these types of changes and gauge whether an update is necessary.
Our 2016 – 2017 Standard Revision: Improving Nine Cleaning Product Standards
On November 15, we published a document with the proposed revisions to our cleaning product standards and opened the Public Comment Period. As a Type 1 Ecolabel that provides an independent and life-cycle based evaluation, we actively engage the public in our revision process. When each standard is developed, and again when each standard is revised, we widely announce a Public Comment Period. During this eight-week period (sometimes longer!), we promote our “Proposed Revisions” and request feedback from any interested individual, organization, or company. We often receive detailed comments from product manufacturers (some with and some without Green Seal-certified products), product evaluators, advocates in public health, and experts from environmental organizations. Many individuals stay tuned in to ensure that Green Seal’s standards maintain the same level of stringency, and others chime in to make sure that our requirements describe a practical evaluation. Institutional purchasers stay involved in order to ensure that they can still depend on Green Seal-certified products as a way of obtaining their group’s sustainability goals.
…And the Comments Pour In
During the Public Comment Period, we encourage comments that directly reference our proposed revisions (nothing outside of the scope, please); comments that are science-based; a realistic viewpoint of industry; and comments that helpfully reference scientific or technical information. We have received supportive comments, neutral comments about editorial improvements or the flow of a standard, and critiques, and all help us to evaluate our proposed revisions. After we close the Public Comment Period, Green Seal publishes our “Response to Comments” document which includes each comment that was submitted through our online forum, and provides our direct reactions. Sometimes we are able to respond to each submitted comment but in some cases we provide one response to a group of comments that touch on the same issue. In our responses, we try to clearly state: Yes, the comment resulted in a change in the standard, or, No, we’re going to proceed as we originally proposed. For both cases we describe our reasoning. Sometimes, we also get in touch directly with the commenter to provide a more elaborate reaction to help them better understand our perspectives, our goals, and also to hear from them about their concerns and their reasoning. These types of conversations are greatly beneficial, and help us to stay informed on the issues and perspectives of our stakeholders.
Stay Engaged, Add Your Comment, and Encourage Feedback
Do you have expertise in the performance, or environmental and health impacts of cleaning products? Do you have a specific interest in one of our proposed revisions? We welcome you to register on our online forum and provide your comments. This is your chance to help define environmental leadership for the cleaning industry. If you do not have expertise in these topics or a strong understanding of the issues that are being proposed, but you are strongly interested in promoting environmental leadership, consider reaching out to a health or environmental organization, or to your favorite cleaning product brand, and ask them to provide their input on our proposed revisions. Our standards and certification process play a major role in reducing the environmental impacts of your state governments and schools, and help drive environmental improvements in the cleaning industry.