Greening Your Purchase of Cleaning Products

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, or EPP, seeks the overall best value, taking into account price competitiveness, availability, regulatory requirements, performance standards, and environmental impact. Because purchasers typically have clear sources of information on procurement and regulatory requirements and well-established methods for evaluating price and performance, the US EPA EPP Program has developed these purchasing guides to help government purchasers consider the environmental factors in the EPP equation. Please note that EPA is not endorsing any of the products, services, or organizations described in the guides, and has not verified information provided by these organizations. For more information about the EPP Programs's history, tools, and resources, please visit http://www.epa.gov/oppt/epp/.

Introduction
Cleaning products are necessary for maintaining attractive and healthful conditions in the home and workplace. In addition to the obvious aesthetic benefits of cleaning, the removal of dust, allergens, and infectious agents is crucial to maintaining a healthful indoor environment. But cleaning products can present several health and environmental concerns. They may contain chemicals associated with eye, skin, or respiratory irritation, and other human health issues. Additionally, the concentrated forms of some commercial cleaning products are classified as hazardous, creating potential handling, storage, and disposal issues for users. Reducing these human health and environmental concerns is an important incentive for implementing an EPP cleaning products program.

Why Green Your Cleaning Products?

Environmental and Health Concerns
NOTE: The following discussion primarily addresses hazards associated with cleaning product ingredients. The actual risks from these chemicals at typical exposure levels are often uncertain, and in many cases are probably low. Regardless of the expected risk levels, however, reducing the intrinsic hazard of a product is a desirable pollution prevention objective as long as this can be accomplished without adversely affecting other important product attributes.

• Cleaning products are released to the environment during normal use through evaporation of volatile components and rinsing down the drain of residual product from cleaned surfaces, sponges, etc. Janitorial staff and others who perform cleaning can be exposed to concentrated cleaning products.

• Certain ingredients in cleaning products can present hazard concerns to exposed populations, e.g. skin and eye irritation in workers, or toxicity to aquatic species in waters receiving inadequately treated wastes (standard sewage treatment effectively reduces or removes most cleaning product constituents). For example, alkylphenol ethoxylates, a common surfactant ingredient in cleaners, have been shown in laboratory studies to function as an "endocrine disrupter," causing adverse reproductive effects of the types seen in wildlife exposed to polluted waters.

• Ingredients containing phosphorus or nitrogen can contribute to nutrient-loading in water bodies, leading to adverse effects on water quality.

• Volatile organic compounds (VOC) in cleaning products can affect indoor air quality and also contribute to smog formation in outdoor air. For example, general-purpose cleaning products have been estimated to contribute approximately 8 percent of total nonvehicular VOC emissions in California.

(Choose Green Report on General Purpose Cleaners, Green Seal, March 1998; Green Seal Standard and Environmental Evaluation for General-Purpose, Bathroom, and Glass Cleaners Used for Industrial and Institutional Purposes, October 2000; Hormonally Active Agents in the Environment, National Research Council, National Academy Press, 1999)

Magnitude of Potential Exposure
• Cleaning products are one of the most frequently reported products involved in poisonings reported to Poison Control Centers nationally. (Litovitz et al, Amer. J. Emergency Medicine, 13(5), Sept. 1995)

• The cleaning industry employs about 2.8 million potentially exposed janitors. In addition to these professional janitorial staff, who can be assumed to use cleaning products daily, many other building occupants perform light cleaning on a routine or occasional basis, e.g. dusting, wiping off desks and counters, etc. All building occupants are potentially exposed to the volatile components of cleaning products.

(Green Seal Standard and Environmental Evaluation for General-Purpose, Bathroom, and Glass Cleaners Used for Industrial and Institutional Purposes, October 2000)

Benefits of Buying Green
• Choosing less hazardous products and taking steps to reduce exposure can minimize harmful impacts to custodial workers, improve indoor air quality, and reduce water and ambient air pollution.
• Buying cleaners in concentrates with appropriate handling safeguards, and reusable, reduced, or recyclable packaging reduces packaging waste and transportation energy.
• Buying less hazardous commercial cleaners may reduce costs when it comes time to properly dispose of any leftover cleaners.
• Using products that perform well and that have positive environmental attributes such as biodegradability, low toxicity, low volatile organic compound (VOC) content, reduced packaging, low life cycle energy use, etc. can reduce the environmental impact of routine cleaning activities while also ensuring cleaning effectiveness.

Federal EPP Authority and Mandate
Spending approximately $230 billion annually on a large quantity and wide variety of products and services, the federal government leaves a large environmental "footprint." However, by purchasing environmentally preferable products and services, the federal government can wield its spending power to increase national demand for greener products as well as to help meet environmental goals through markets rather than mandates. In 1995, in response to Executive Order 12873, EPA established the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) program to encourage and assist Executive agencies in the purchase of environmentally preferable products and services. In 1997, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which establishes uniform procedures and policies for federal acquisition, was amended to support federal procurement of "green" products and services. And in 1998, Executive Order (E.O.) 13101, entitled "Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition," directed Executive agencies to "consider . . . a broad range of factors including: elimination of virgin material requirements; use of biobased products; use of recovered materials; reuse of product; life cycle cost; recyclability; use of environmentally preferable products; waste prevention (including toxicity reduction or elimination); and ultimate disposal" when making purchasing decisions and to "modify their procurement programs as appropriate."

Similarly, the Biomass R&D Act of 2000, the Farm Bill of 2002, and Executive Order 13134 have emphasized the potential importance of biobased products to national economic and environmental interests. Together these authorities encourage a strong federal role in the development and early adoption of biobased products and recognize the role of procurement as part of an overall federal policy on biobased products.

Five Guiding Principles
To help federal government purchasers incorporate environmental considerations into purchasing decisions, EPA developed five guiding principles. The guiding principles provide a framework purchasers can use to make environmentally preferable purchases. The five principles are:
1. Include environmental factors as well as traditional considerations of price and performance as part of the normal purchasing process.
2. Emphasize pollution prevention early in the purchasing process.
3. Examine multiple environmental attributes throughout a product's or service's life cycle.
4. Compare relative environmental impacts when selecting products and services.
5. Collect and base purchasing decisions on accurate and meaningful information about environmental performance.
For more information, go to the five guiding principles on EPA's EPP Web site.

What Can You Do?
Ask manufacturers if they have conducted life cycle studies on their products. In the absence of comprehensive life cycle data, purchasers must simply make the best decision possible with the limited information available. Recall that the overall best value takes into account price, availability, regulatory requirements, performance, and environmental impact. Purchasers should examine as many relevant product attributes as possible, recognizing that tradeoffs are inevitable. For example, one product may be made with renewable resources (a desirable characteristic), while another product has a lower VOC content (also a desirable characteristic).

Purchasers have to make a decision about the overall best value, taking into account their own organization's policies and priorities. Purchasers should be especially careful in interpreting vague or generic claims such as "environmentally friendly," "eco safe," etc. Guidance on the use and interpretation of environmental marketing claims is available from the Federal Trade Commission .

So how can you make an informed purchasing decision? Try this list of attributes considered, in addition to price and performance, when selecting environmentally preferable cleaning products. Many organizations incorporate some of these attributes into their cleaning service contract specifications.

Corporate Environmental Performance
• Does the company have a formal environmental management system, e.g. steps to reduce waste and emissions, efficient use of energy and materials, etc.?
• Does the company have ISO 14001 certification?

Product Content and Use
• Minimal presence of or exposure to potentially harmful chemicals, such as:
— Corrosive or strongly irritating substances.
— Substances classified as known or likely human carcinogens or reproductive toxicants by authorities such as the National Toxicology Program, the U.S. EPA, the International Agency for Research on Cancer or the State of California.
— Ozone-depleting compounds as listed in Clear Air Act regulations.
— Regulated hazardous materials (e.g. products classified as hazardous waste; products that trigger OSHA hazard communication requirements).
• Use of renewable resources, such as biobased solvents from citrus, seed, vegetable, and pine oils.
• Low VOC content
• Biodegradable by standard methods and definitions, e.g. OECD ready biodegradability
• Low aquatic toxicity, e.g. LC50 or EC50 > 10 mg/L (chronic)
• Low flammability, e.g. flash point > 200 F
• Designed for use in cold water
• Limit the use of disinfectant products to applications where it is important to control infectious agents. Many types of general purpose cleaning do not require the use of disinfectants.

Product Packaging and Shipping
• Concentrated formulas with appropriate handling safeguards
• Efficient packaging, e.g. light weight, reduced volume
• Recyclable packaging
• Recycled-content packaging
• Refillable bottles
• Pump sprays rather than aerosols
• Packaging and dilution systems designed to reduce exposure to product
• Products shipped in bulk
• Clear labeling and information on use and disposal
• Training on proper use of product.

Contacts and Resources

The City of Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica has been a leader in green purchasing and their contract specifications have served as a model for specifications developed by a number of other local, state, and federal institutions. Here are the Santa Monica bid specs and the EPP Program's case study on the city's success.

Perrigo
Perrigo, a leading manufacturer of generic and "store brand" consumer products, wanted to minimize the environmental impact of the cleaning services in its facility. After reviewing material safety data sheets and interviewing a number of suppliers, Perrigo developed a list of desirable product attributes, including environmental factors, cleaning effectiveness, and price. For more information, visit the EPP Program's case study, Private Sector Pioneers.

The National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the janitorial products and work practices used at Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, including the management and training issues associated with this "greening" initiative.

Department of Interior Headquarters
The Department of the Interior (DOI) included environmental preferability as a major factor in the selection of the new janitorial services contractor for its headquarters buildings.

Janitorial Products Pollution Prevention Project
Sponsored by the US EPA, Cal EPA, and several cities and counties in California, this project has developed guidance and information resources that address a range topics related to janitorial products and work practices.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Describes in detail the process Massachusetts used to identify environmentally preferable cleaning products and establish state purchasing specifications.

State of Minnesota
Provides comprehensive information on the process Minnesota used to evaluate the environmental preferability of cleaning products.

King County, Washington
Includes excerpts from the county's 1996 environmentally preferable cleaning specifications.

Canada's Environmental Choice Program
Includes a copy of the specifications for earning Environment Canada's EcoLogo for industrial and commercial cleaners.

U.S. General Services Administration Cleaning Products Catalog
Provides environmental attribute information on cleaning products available through the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government's primary supplier. (Go to www.gsa.gov and follow links to Products>Food service, hospitality & cleaning>Cleaning equipment, accessories, janitorial supplies, cleaning chemicals and sorbents)

Soap and Detergent Association
Contains information on a wide range of topics related to cleaning products, including health, safety, and environmental issues.

Green Seal
Contains Green Seal's environmental preferability standards for industrial and institutional cleaners. The Web site also includes the earlier standard and Choose Green Report for household cleaners.

Washington Toxics Coalition
This organization provides information regarding public health and environmental issues associated with a variety of products, including cleaners.

INFORM, Inc.
Issued a comprehensive guide to environmentally preferable cleaning products and methods that have been effectively used in office buildings, schools, and hospitals in the United States and Canada.

Center for a New American Dream
The Center's Cleaning Products Work Group convened a group of state and local officials who agreed upon a set of mandatory and desirable environmental criteria for cleaning products.

EPA's Purchasing Tool Suite
EPA's EPP Program has developed the following Web-based tools to help purchasers consider the environment, along with price and performance, when buying a product or service.

Cleaning Product Attributes Ranking Tool — An interactive tool that helps the user choose a greener cleaning product by prioritizing environmental attributes (e.g., skin irritation potential, VOCs, recycled packaging).

Database of Environmental Information for Products and Services — A searchable database of product-specific information (e.g., environmental standards and guidelines or contract language) developed by government programs, both domestic and foreign, as well as third parties.

Promising Practices Guide for Greener Contracts — A series of short case studies highlighting successful strategies for incorporating environmental factors into a variety of product and service contracts.

General EPP Training Tool — Covers basic EPP principles and mandates, along with some more in-depth applications of EPP, in an entertaining and multimedia format.

Tips for Buying Green with the Government Credit Card — Tips to help government credit card holders make greener choices when buying products, such as cleaning products.

For additional information on environmentally preferable cleaning products, contact Jim Darr of EPA at 202-564-8841, or by e-mail at <darr.james@epa.gov> .

Pollution Prevention Home | OPPT Home

EPA Home | Privacy and Security Notice | Contact Us