Nov 20 2008
The nonprofit institute GreenBlue was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a “Champion” in the Design for the Environment Program’s (DfE) Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI) at an awards ceremony held yesterday afternoon in Washington DC.
GreenBlue was recognized for its project, CleanGredients®, an online database of ingredient chemicals used in cleaning products. The EPA developed SDSI to recognize environmental leaders who use or promote the use of safer surfactants in cleaning product formulation. Champion is the highest level of recognition offered under SDSI; GreenBlue was lauded for “outstanding efforts to encourage the use of safer surfactants.”
CleanGredients, developed in partnership with U.S. EPA DfE, provides reliable technical information on the chemicals used in cleaning products for companies looking to formulate safer products. Suppliers who subscribe to CleanGredients can list an unlimited number of ingredient chemicals and showcase their potential environmental and human health benefits. Launched in 2006, more than 300 cleaning products formulators now subscribe to CleanGredients and it has become a central marketplace for innovative chemicals from leading companies.
“We are honored to be recognized by the U.S. EPA for our work on CleanGredients,” said GreenBlue Senior Project Manager Topher Buck. “CleanGredients would not have succeeded without the partnership and support of the Design for the Environment Program and our many corporate partners. Indeed, we’re pleased to see that the majority of companies also recognized as “Champions” by DfE subscribe to CleanGredients and have been actively involved in its development. The cleaning products industry has made great strides towards developing more sustainable products and we are happy to play a small role in that.”