Going Green: North America Ecolabeling and Environmentally Preferable Programs

Presentation given at CESIO 2008 World Surfactants Congress, June 22-25, 2008, Paris, France

Introduction and Background
Companies formulating cleaning products for the North American consumer, and industrial and institutional (I&I) markets increasingly are being asked to “go green.” The green market possibly represents billions of dollars of sales; however, the definition of ‘green’ (or environmentally preferable) has yet to be settled. Taking part in this debate are federal and state agencies, third-party certifiers, standard setting organizations, retailers, and the cleaning product and services industries. Some of these are directly tied to sustainability programs within companies and government agencies. While the green debate wages on, industrial and institutional formulators in particular are caught in the cross-hairs of needing to meet variable local, state and federal EPP procurement mandates for green products. And green claims are increasingly appearing in the retail market.

Results and Discussion
The question of what is \“green\” still weighs heavy on the U.S. cleaning products industry. Whether its internal company decisions, third party certifiers or state or federal programs, NA formulators (with the best of intentions) can be confounded by the myriad of approaches and criteria currently used. The presentation will review the various logo programs found in North America, their criteria for recognition of complying products, available tools for assessing ingredients, and show where coordination between programs is occurring. We will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these programs and significant differences among them.

SDA Substance Identification Procedure, Appendix A, Toxic Substances Control Act Chemical Substances Inventory, Initial Inventory, Volume 1
SDA SUBSTANCE IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURE
For Class 2 Chemical Substance Derived from Natural Fats and Oils and Synthetic Substitutes

The substance identification system presented here is an alternate and relatively simple method which was used to identify for the Inventory certain multicomponent Class 2 chemical substances derived from natural fats and oils and synthetic long-chain alkyl substitutes. The system was developed by The Soap and Detergent Association in conjunction with the EPA and is intended to standardize the identification of substances manufactured and used extensively in the soap and detergent industry. Accordingly, the system was used to identify multicomponent soaps and surface active active agents (and also their precursors and derivatives) manufactured, imported, or processed for such uses as wetting agents, emulsifiers, dispersants, and penetrants. Its applicability, however, extends beyond the soap and detergent industry.

Harmonization of Chemical Control Systems Around the Globe

This paper is from Proceedings of the 4th World Conference on Detergents: Strategies for the 21st Century. It is the proceedings from a presentation discussing approaches to chemical management in regards to the United Nations 1992 stance; affirming the importance of chemicals in society as well as the need for to protect human health and the environment.