How Did Green Cleaning Start?

Green Cleaning is a great way to help keep the environment free of pollutants and keep your home free of toxins. If you are a business owner such as a restaurateur then you will be excited to know that there are several green friendly products that are available for your establishment. This will also ad validity to your claim that you have a "Green Buidling". It is nice to say you have a green building which means you used eco friendly construction materials. You may even be using solar power to heat and cool the building and it's water, but chances are the process wasn't "green". Diesel powered construction equipment was used to construct I am sure. So green cleaning goods will help you make up for this "deficiency" (tongue in cheek).

When did “Going Green” become popular? The green movement started to get extremely popular in the mid 2000’s. When Al Gore came out with the Inconvenient Truth this helped sparked more interest in green activities and green products. Everyday consumers and businesses began to demand these products and it was up to manufacturers to meet this demand. Was the movie hype or fact? You will have to decide

When manufacturers of cleaning products first started making green products they were of poor quality. A lot of the products simply did not clean at all. The raw materials were environmentally friendly but they simply did not perform. For the consumer of household cleaning goods some products did not remove stains on counters or floors. Window cleaning products left streaks. Poor performance of cleaning goods is why you would see a lot of green products on the clearance rack at your local grocery store. The only early green product that really cleaned well with few complaints was pot and pan detergents. A manufacturer can remove a few raw materials and still have a functioning pot and pan detergent.

Institutional green products that actually “worked” were even harder to come by. The formulas of institutional cleaning products that were green simply could not handle the harsh environments of very greasy kitchens, nursing homes, gyms etc. Again the only product that worked well here was pot and pan detergents. Institutions were not really interested in green products at first because they were more expensive than non-green products. Now however, a lot of newer restaurants (young owners) will ask for green products and some places such as hotels and nursing will use nothing else.

As time went on manufacturers began to develop better green raw materials which in turn were used to make better cleaning products. These raw materials were primarily synthetic petroleum based products were becoming less and less. Big manufacturers and chemical companies began to lobby for less stringent criteria for a green raw material. This also allowed for better raw materials. What were the arguments of the chemical companies for less regulation? The same argument the consumer had. The green don’t clean! With innovation and newer developments raw material costs for green products declined and a better green product was made.

Who Determines If A Product Is Green?

DFE which stands for Designed for the Environment and Green Seal determines if your product is “green”. After a lengthy process of product and formulation testing your product will be approved. Once it is approved your products can carry the Green Seal or the DFE Logo. Getting either seal will take several months and cost several thousands of dollars. After you receive your seal and are able to put it on your products you will be subject to an audit. This means your facility will be examined to make sure it is utilizing "green procedures"and that your formulas are still green. You will have to pay for the auditer to come out as well. So you better make sure you are making enough money on these products to recoup your cost. Even if you don't recoup your money you will probably still have to have the seal and products because if you don't your competitor will. Now you can get an idea of the "slippery" slope and how politics starts to play a part in this process

Cost is a factor of whether a manufacturer will try to certify a product. Certifications are costly to obtain. DFE is much less expensive and intrusive than getting a Green Seal. Obtaining a Green Seal ,last I checked, which was 3 years ago required a hefty up front sum of around 10grand. Then after you paid that you went through the process of getting the seal. Then once you got it you had to pay royalties to green seal on every product you sold that carried their seal. This is one of the reasons smaller or mid sized manufacturers go with the DFE Logo. It is basically the same thing and a lot less expensive as I stated before. So it is up to the individual to decide if it is worth it to them or not to go Green Seal or DFE.

A manufacturer will certify the products that are his “best movers” other wise he will “Self-certify” the product. What this means is the product will state that all raw materials are environmentally friendly. However, they are not certified by any agency. Sometimes this is acceptable to customers. Otherwise the customer will require a product with a seal. If you are a massive such as Ecolab (which is the cleaning products equivalent to Google or Microsoft) then you can self certify. Your the biggest kid on the block you do what you want.

There are a lot of products in this world that carry green seals on them from food to shoes. However, I know about cleaning products and raw materials because I developed a product line and got it approved through DFE.