The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that chemical manufacturers, distributors, or importers provide SDSs to their downstream users for every hazardous chemical. SDSs communicate the properties of the chemical; the physical, health, and environmental hazards of the substances; and any safety precautions that should be taken when handling, storing, or transporting the chemical. 

The report’s preliminary findings showed that 30-percent of the initial set of 650-plus SDSs included inaccurate chemical hazard warnings. For example, the analysis found that of the 512 SDSs where carcinogenic (cancer-causing) substances were present, 15-percent did not report carcinogenicity in the Hazards Identification section of the Safety Data Sheet. The analysis also found that 21-percent of the 372 SDSs containing chemicals that cause reproductive harm in humans, including harming fertility or fetal development, failed to include warnings for reproductive toxicity. Additionally, 13-percent of the 278 SDSs with substances of specific target organ toxicity were missing or had inaccurate hazard warnings. 

Federal Regulations Lag 

While federal regulations are essential for protecting health and safety, they have not kept up with the industry. When OSHA was established in 1970, the agency’s mandate included protecting workers by restricting the use of hazardous chemicals. Over the past 50 years, OSHA has set standards restricting workplace exposures to only 31 chemicals, but there are more than 45,000 chemicals being used in the United States today. The two most recent chemical standards—silica and beryllium—each took 19 years from announcement to implementation. 

Green Seal Certification Provides Confidence 

To verify that products are optimized for health, Green Seal collects confidential ingredient details and inventories from both manufacturers and their raw material suppliers. Green Seal screens and analyzes all chemicals present in the formula at levels equal to or higher than 100 parts per million, including inert chemicals, impurities, and residual chemicals that are not intentionally added to the product. 

Green Seal comprehensively prohibits hazardous chemicals in certified products, regardless of the chemical’s federal designation. We review 100-percent of a product’s formula and consult dozens of authoritative lists of toxins from leading authoritative bodies, including the Interagency Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and California’s Proposition 65, to ensure certified products do not contain chemicals that are suspected or known to be harmful to human health or the environment. 

Exposure to toxic chemicals is linked to a variety of health and environmental safety concerns that put people at risk. Instead of trying to find safer products based on SDSs that may be missing critical hazard details, choose Green Seal-certified products for more peace of mind. Green Seal’s third-party certification sets the benchmark for health and safety — often setting requirements that are years ahead of federal regulations — and ensures that consumers and employees have complete and verified information to make informed decisions. 

Green Seal’s standards have long prohibited long-chain PFAS formally classified as hazardous. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that short-chain PFAS known as “safer substitutes” have the same harmful health and environmental effects as the legacy PFAS they are replacing. Green Seal’s newly expanded prohibition on all PFAS in certified cleaning and personal care products promotes safer options for consumers and recognizes industry leaders who are taking important steps to protect human health and reduce environmental pollution.  

Green Seal is taking a product-category approach to developing PFAS restrictions as part of a multi-year phased initiative to ensure that certified products in all categories have leadership restrictions on PFAS. A product-category approach is critical to ensure our policy effectively addresses manufacturing and use considerations that vary by product category, including exposure pathways, functional performance, and regrettable substitutes. 

What are PFAS? 

PFAS are a large group of synthetically produced chemicals that have a history of use dating back to the 1940s. This class includes over 12,000 chemicals identified by the U.S. EPA CompTox PFAS Master List database — an evolving list that aggregates PFAS based on environmental occurrence, manufacturing process data, and testing programs from agencies across the globe. Today, PFAS are found in food packaging, coatings, personal care and cosmetics, paints, textiles, cookware, and even some cleaning products. 

PFAS have carbon-fluorine bonds that make them very stable and effective at repelling oil, water, and heat. Unfortunately, the same unique chemical structure that makes PFAS so effective is also what gives them the moniker “forever chemicals.”  

PFAS are persistent in the environment, with evidence that some chemicals are so resistant to degradation that they could persist for hundreds of years. They are now found in drinking water and bioaccumulate in both soil and humans, with some chemicals taking more than eight years to reach their half-life — or reduce their concentration by 50 percent in the human body. 

PFAS are associated with numerous adverse health effects, including impacts on the endocrine and reproductive systems; increased risks of prostate, testicular, and kidney cancer; and decreased immune responses — including our body’s ability to develop beneficial antibodies in response to vaccines. 

Providing Transparency  

It can be challenging for consumers and even manufacturers to be sure that products do not use PFAS. For example, PFAS are often used in raw materials – and those proprietary formulas are often not fully disclosed to the final manufacturer. Eliminating all PFAS from the supply chain for consumer and professional care products is a critical step in protecting human health and ending the environmental contamination caused by releases of these chemicals.  

To increase supply chain transparency and encourage the use of safer alternatives, Green Seal added criteria to prohibit PFAS in standards for the following product categories: 

• General Purpose Cleaners (GS-8, GS-37) 
• Laundry Care Products (GS-48, GS-51) 
• Specialty Cleaners (GS-52, GS-53) 
• Personal and Hand Care Products (GS-41, GS-44, GS-50) 

Green Seal focused first on eliminating PFAS in formulas for certified cleaning and personal care products because PFAS is non-essential for the performance for these types of products. Manufacturers have one year to document that their certified products comply with the updated PFAS criteria. Green Seal will now turn its focus to establishing PFAS requirements for other product category standards.   

Green Seal implements standard development based on best international practices using a stakeholder-based approach and opportunities for public comment. We appreciate the time and expertise provided by our stakeholders in this process, including the San Francisco Department of the Environment, Ecolab, the Household and Commercial Products Association, and other subject matter experts and manufacturers.  

 
Visit Green Seal’s Standard Projects page to access the final PFAS requirements and standard development documentation.

As the world opens up amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, travelers have come to expect more frequent cleaning and disinfecting in the spaces they occupy – but it does not have to come at the expense of healthy indoor air quality.

While uncertainty about how the virus spread during the early days of the pandemic led to a significant increase in the use of harsh cleaning chemicals, two years later we have much better information that allows hotels to protect guests both from the virus and from the negative health effects of exposure to disinfecting chemicals.

Cleaning for COVID Starts with Accurate Information

From the very beginning of the pandemic, scientists understood that coronaviruses break down easily with plain soap and water or regular cleaning solution. However, most businesses acted on a natural instinct to turn to the harshest cleaning chemicals available: disinfectants.

Today we know that the virus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets, and the risk of surface transmission is extremely low. In fact, research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the chance of being infected with COVID-19 from touching a contaminated surface is less than 1 in 10,000.

This means that covering surfaces with chemicals will not necessarily help prevent the spread of COVID, but it could lead to significant health risks for building occupants. Hotel and lodging properties can guard against viruses and other germs – while also protecting the building’s indoor air quality and the health and safety of guests – by understanding how to choose safer products and when disinfecting is appropriate.

Travelers’ Expectations are Changing

Despite recommendations from the CDC, hotel guests are looking for evidence that substantial cleaning and disinfecting are taking place. So, while the risk of surface-born infection is extremely low, business still must reassure people about safety amid the continuing pandemic. In fact, a 2020 study revealed that 85 percent of consumers want to see visible proof of cleaning.

“The pandemic has placed cleanliness, safety, and security at the forefront of what we now consider luxury, and these criteria are now the priority to pick and choose a hotel to stay at,” says Cecile Sandral-Lasbordes, Director of PR & Marketing – Guest Experience & Quality Leader for Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, a Green Seal-certified property. “Guests are more alert and educated than ever on cleaning measures and how to fight germs, and they want transparency on what we are doing at the hotel level. But they also want these measures to become part of the overall hotel stay, not disconnected from it. The cleaning and disinfecting need to elevate the experience, not create a context of fear.”

Ninety-five percent of customers responding to a 2021 study said they want to see cleaning practices stay the same or increase even after the COVID vaccine is widespread, indicating that effective cleaning and disinfecting are more than a short-term trend. Guests continue to demand more from housekeeping personnel, underscoring the importance of maintaining a robust cleaning plan for both guest safety and peace of mind.

“Understanding the new expectations and learning to evolve with them is key,” says Sandral-Lasbordes. “The pandemic has taught us that we need to be flexible to survive. Transparency is also extremely important, as well as constantly training our team members to stay up to date with the latest rules and regulations and how to reimagine our work.”

Avoiding a Dangerous Reliance on Disinfectants

Because of the nature of the COVID-19 virus, masking, vaccines, and regular handwashing are the most effective precautions against its spread. However, cleaning and disinfecting are among several additional measures that can help protect guests and reassure them about the safety of a property’s indoor environment.

While regular cleaning is typically effective at removing most virus particles on surfaces, targeted disinfection is sometimes appropriate – such as when someone confirmed or suspected to be infected with COVID has been in the building within the past 24 hours. Otherwise, cleaning regularly is sufficient, so hotel staff do not have to worry about cleaning every time a guest or employee touches a surface.

Even when disinfecting is appropriate, it’s only effective after regular cleaning, as cleaning removes dirt and grime that viruses can hide under. It is also vital to ensure housekeeping employees are using the appropriate cleaning products for the surface, that the products are certified for health and performance, and that housekeeping employees are trained on disinfectants’ dwell times, which can range from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

Though disinfectants are sometimes needed, they are not harmless: Repeated or extended exposures to disinfecting chemicals can lead to significant health effects. Some common disinfectant ingredients, such as quaternary ammonium compounds, are linked to asthma and reproductive toxicity.

Exposure poses an especially grave risk for the 1 in 13 Americans with asthma – a group that is high-risk for COVID-19. This means that overusing disinfectants to combat the virus can worsen the problem you are trying to solve. Even low levels of indoor air pollutants like these can trigger respiratory symptoms, so it’s critical that hospitality properties make safer choices for the comfort and safety of guests and employees.

Choosing Safer Cleaning Products and Disinfectants

Choosing safer, verified-effective cleaning products – especially those that do not contain asthmagens or respiratory irritants – is critical to protecting hotel staff and guests. Conventional cleaners commonly contain endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, which have been linked to a variety of diseases. Only a few hundred of the 80,000-plus chemicals registered for use in the U.S. have been evaluated for health and environmental effects – so the chemicals inside your cleaning products matter more than you might initially think.

In addition to respiratory irritants, conventional cleaners commonly contain chemicals that can disrupt the endocrine system. The endocrine system is like the body’s conductor – setting the rhythm for metabolism, growth, mood, and sleep patterns. Endocrine disrupting chemicals are linked to a plethora of adverse health effects including hormone changes, lower sperm counts, birth defects, obesity, diabetes, thyroid irregularities, reduced immune function, and reduced vaccine response. Due to the hazardous nature of these chemicals, some third-party certification organizations have restricted endocrine disrupters. Green Seal, for example, prohibits phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol ethoxylates (the byproducts of alkylphenols), and glycol ethers in certified cleaning products.

While housekeepers are most at risk from exposure to hazardous cleaning chemicals, other employees and hotel guests also come into contact with these products daily. To protect people while they are in your space, procurement managers can look for products that have been verified for health, safety, and performance by a credible third-party organization. Green Seal maintains a publicly accessible directory of certified products at certified.greenseal.org.

Like cleaning products, some disinfectants are safer for human and environmental health than others. However, identifying these products can be more challenging because the U.S. EPA does not allow third-party certifications for disinfecting solutions. Purchasers instead must rely on product ingredient labels and resources from leading ecolabels to distinguish safer formulas.

The U.S. EPA’s List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus is a great resource for finding products that are effective against the COVID-19 virus. This list, however, does not identify which products use safer active ingredients. Green Seal recommends choosing approved disinfectants with safer active ingredients such as citric acid, hydrogen peroxide, or isopropyl alcohol, which are not linked to asthma, cancer, endocrine disruption, or DNA damage. A full list of recommended safer active disinfecting ingredients, as well as examples of List N products that use these ingredients, is available here.

How to Safely Adapt to Traveler Demands

In addition to selecting safer cleaning and disinfecting products, lodging properties can promote safety, sustainability, and equity by implementing proven-effective cleaning practices, strengthening cleaning and disinfecting protocols, and effectively communicating their efforts with guests.

Green Seal’s Guidelines for Safer Cleaning and Disinfection for Workplaces offer science-based guidance on best practices. These guidelines align with the LEED Safety First Pilot Credit for Cleaning and Disinfecting, another resource hotel and lodging properties can rely on. The guidelines lay out five actionable best practices for property owners and managers:

• Create a cleaning and disinfection plan, following CDC and EPA guidance. The plan should identify high-touch surfaces and implement a policy that goes beyond visual inspections to regularly verify the effectiveness of cleaning and disinfecting.
• Ensure that housekeeping staff are properly trained on the safe handling of all cleaning and disinfecting products, effective cleaning procedures, and the use and maintenance of cleaning equipment. This includes training housekeeping staff to prioritize ventilation by opening windows and running fans, when possible, and to follow the instructions on product labels, including dwell times. Training should also include best practices for preventing ergonomic injuries and using and disposing of personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce injuries and exposure to harmful chemicals.
• Select products that maintain sustainability and healthy indoor air. This includes choosing certified green cleaning products and disinfectants with safer active ingredients.
• Provide safer working conditions for housekeeping staff. Use the most effective PPE for cleaning and disinfecting and use ergonomic cleaning equipment with features that reduce worker injuries.
• Communicate the cleaning and disinfecting plan to other employees and guests so everyone can understand what measures are in place to protect safety. As travelers demand more visibility into businesses’ cleaning protocols, effectively communicating your lodging property’s protective requirements is more important than ever.

In addition to following the above guidelines, hotels that want to verify that they are adhering to best practices for cleaning performance and health protection can apply for certification or validation from independent organizations including Green Seal, LEED, WELL, or Fitwel.

Promoting Equity Through Green Cleaning and Disinfecting

Using safe, effective green cleaning and disinfecting practices offers the same health and performance benefits as before the pandemic, but the stakes are greater now, since excessive use of hazardous chemicals has become the norm.

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the roles and sacrifices of housekeeping professionals. These frontline workers put their own health on the line to protect the health of others. Promoting safer cleaning products and practices offers a significant opportunity to promote social equity for the members of this behind-the-scenes workforce, who are predominantly members of under-represented and marginalized communities.

Several studies found that both domestic and professional cleaning work are associated with increased risk of asthma and other respiratory effects. In fact, the first long-term study of the effects of cleaning chemicals on lung function found that regular use of cleaning sprays can cause a decline in lung function that is comparable to smoking 20 cigarettes per day.

Hotels can promote equity by sourcing certified green cleaning products; choosing List-N disinfectants that use safer active ingredients; and adhering to independent, science-based guidelines, such as Green Seal’s Disinfecting Guidelines or the LEED Safety First Pilot Credit for Cleaning and Disinfecting.

Society’s understanding of the virus has evolved over the course of the pandemic, and so must the response. Hotel guests now have an unprecedented interest in indoor air quality that is expected to long outlast the pandemic. By following the latest independent, science-based guidance on cleaning and disinfecting, hospitality property owners and managers can provide assurance that they are on top of the necessary measures to protect the health of guests and employees effectively and holistically.

Green Seal is proposing a new prohibition on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a large class of chemicals that are commonly used in consumer products and associated with a number of adverse health and environmental effects.

Although only seven PFAS are formally classified as hazardous, a growing body of evidence indicates that all PFAS are likely to have harmful health and environmental effects. While Green Seal has long prohibited those seven PFAS, as part of Green Seal’s precautionary approach, we are now proposing to prohibit all chemicals in this class (approximately 12,000 PFAS) in certified products.

It can be challenging for consumers and even manufacturers to be sure that products do not use PFAS. For example, PFAS are often used in raw materials – and those proprietary formulas are often not fully disclosed to the final manufacturer. A prohibition on PFAS would allow Green Seal to verify that these chemicals are eliminated from these product supply chains and provide assurance to both manufacturers and buyers that their Green Seal certified cleaning and personal care products are PFAS-free.

Green Seal is taking a multi-year phased approach to this initiative, with the end goal of ensuring all certified product formulas and product packaging are PFAS-free across product categories. In this initial phase, our focus is on eliminating PFAS in formulas for certified cleaning and personal care products.

What are PFAS?

PFAS are a large group of synthetically produced chemicals that have a history of use dating back to the 1940s. PFAS have carbon-fluorine bonds that make them very stable and effective at repelling oil, water and heat. Today they are found in food packaging, coatings, paints, textiles, cookware, and even some cleaning products.

Unfortunately, the same unique chemical structure that makes PFAS so effective is also what gives them the moniker “forever chemicals.” PFAS are persistent in the environment, with evidence that some chemicals are so resistant to degradation that they could persist for hundreds of years. They also bioaccumulate in soil, drinking water and in humans, with some chemicals taking more than eight years to reach their half-life — or reduce their concentration by 50 percent in the human body.

PFAS are associated with numerous adverse health effects, including impacts on the endocrine and reproductive systems; increased risks of certain cancers such as prostate, testicular, and kidney; and decreased immune responses — including our body’s ability to develop beneficial antibodies in response to vaccines.

Eliminating PFAS

While two of the approximately 12,000 PFAS have been phased out of use in the U.S., evidence shows that the “safer substitutes” (other PFAS) also cause harmful health effects. Therefore, Green Seal is proposing to prohibit all chemicals classified as PFAS by the US EPA’s comprehensive CompTox PFAS Master List database — an evolving list that aggregates PFAS based on environmental occurrence, manufacturing process data, and testing programs from agencies across the globe.

Eliminating all PFAS from the supply chain for consumer and professional care products is a critical step in protecting human health and ending the environmental contamination caused by releases of these chemicals.

Proposed Changes

Recognizing an opportunity to increase supply chain transparency and encourage the use of safer alternatives, Green Seal is proposing to add criteria prohibiting PFAS to our standards for cleaning products and personal care products. These proposed updates include:

• Prohibiting any intentionally added PFAS
• Restricting any PFAS to 100ppm when present as a contaminant

The PFAS criteria will be added to the product health and environmental requirements section of each of the following standards:

• General Purpose Cleaners (GS-8, GS-37)
• Laundry Care Products (GS-48, GS-51)
• Specialty Cleaners (GS-52, GS-53)
• Personal Care Products (GS-44, GS-50)

Seeking Feedback

The public comment period is now open until January 22, 2022. To submit comments or schedule a conference call, contact us by email here.

The Proposed Revisions and supplementary documents are available on Green Seal’s Standard Projects page.

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 major standard revisions include extensive stakeholder outreach and opportunities for public input. Green Seal publishes all formally submitted comments, as well as a response to each substantive issue identified by commenters.

Products certified to Green Seal standards must abide by strict limits to VOCs to protect human health. This post provides a quick overview of VOCs, how to choose healthier, greener products, and other tips for reducing your exposure to VOCs.

What Role Do VOCs Play in Products?

Sometimes called oil-based or petroleum-based solvents, many VOCs are included in paints and cleaning products to dissolve or dilute the other ingredients. Some VOCs function as flame retardants that are added to mattresses and building materials, which, as you can guess from their category name, are formulated to slow the spread of fire. Many fragrances are also VOCs, which are intentionally volatile and off-gas at a certain rate so that the scent lingers in the air.

How VOCs Collect Indoors

VOCs have high vapor pressures, which means they evaporate easily – or off-gas – when they come into contact with air molecules. Paint, for example, begins to off-gas when it is applied to a surface, and, depending on its chemical formula, may continue to off-gas for months as the paint completes the curing process.

Studies show that indoor concentrations of VOCs are often up to seven times higher than those outside – commonly a result of applying paints and personal care products, as well as daily home combustion events, such as cooking and heating with gas appliances. VOCs get stuck inside when a room has poor ventilation, as VOCs are added to our space faster than they can escape through a window or HVAC system. Additionally, heavier types of VOCs, called semi-VOCs (SVOCs), are emitted from products and then settle onto surfaces and are absorbed by dust. Inhaling and ingesting this dust is harmful to health, especially for children.

How VOC’s Affect Your Health

Acute inhalation exposure to VOCs can cause coughing, decreased lung function, low energy levels, headaches, and impaired mental focus. Chronic exposure to hazardous VOCs is associated with neurological disorders, including dementia and tremors. The World Health Organization estimates 3.8 million deaths occur each year due to indoor air pollution, including VOCs. The worst offenders include:

• Formaldehyde
• Terpenes, toluene
• Glycol ethers
• Acetaldehyde
• Phenol
• Methylene chloride
• BTEX benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX)
• Flame retardants – PBDEs

Green Seal strictly limits these and other VOCs in certified products.

How VOCs Affect the Environment

VOCs interact with nitrous oxides in the atmosphere to form ozone — a greenhouse gas that can cause temperature increases when found in lower layers of the atmosphere. Because of this, VOCs also indirectly contribute to the formation of smog and particulate matter.

Cleaning products, paints and coatings, and several other product types are required to have low VOC content if they are sold in California. The Golden State also leads the nation on VOC restrictions in products in part because it’s a critical public health issue for the region: California’s geography and climate leads to greater air pollution than the rest of the nation, especially in urban areas where 95% of its population resides. The U.S. federal government also sets restrictions as a way of enforcing the Clean Air Act.

VOCs in Cleaning Products

VOCs are most often found in cleaning products in the form of solvents and fragrances. Green Seal sets limits on the VOC content of cleaning products that are based on, but even more restrictive than, California’s regulatory limits. Green Seal is more restrictive because our calculations of a product’s total VOCs include fragrances, whereas California’s regulations currently exclude them. This means that many widely available household cleaning products cannot yet meet our standards because they have high concentrations of fragrances, such as when essential oils make up more than 1% of the product.

VOCs in Paints and Coatings

State purchasing laws and the global green building community have greatly increased the demand for low-emitting paint products to address indoor air quality.

What is VOC in paint? In general, low- or zero-VOC paints tend to be water-based and have significantly lower odor than oil/solvent-based paints. Flat (or matte) paints with fewer than 50 grams of VOCs per liter are generally considered to be low-VOC, while a zero-VOC paint is one with fewer than 5 grams per liter. Nonflat paints (such as satin and semi-gloss) are considered low-VOC if they have fewer than 100 grams of VOCs per liter. It’s important to note that the VOC content on the paint label does not include the VOCs added in the paint colorant at the point of sale, which can significantly increase VOC levels.

Green Seal sets limits on VOCs in two ways: content and emissions. We restrict VOC content in the product formula, and we also require an emissions evaluation to verify that the product does not off-gas hazardous chemicals during a specified period after the initial application, providing an indicator of safer air quality for building occupants.

Green Seal certification also restricts the VOC content of colorants added at the point-of-sale. Any colorants used with Green Seal-certified paints cannot cause the final product to exceed the category VOC limit by more than 50 grams.

How to Reduce Your Exposure to VOCs

To protect your health, open windows, turn on a fan, or cover your nose and mouth with a mask or other fabric when applying cleaning products, fragranced products, paints, and coatings. Whenever possible:

• Choose fragrance-free products.
• Choose Green Seal-certified paint, cleaning, and personal care products.
• Use low-emitting paints and low- or zero-VOC content paints that comply with California Air Resource Board limits.
• Avoid aerosol products.

By choosing safer paints and cleaning products and taking simple precautions when applying them, you can protect yourself and those around you from the negative health effects of VOCs.

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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. 

When is disinfecting appropriate? The CDC now says to disinfect when someone confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 has been in the building within the past 24 hours.  

This is the same guidance Green Seal provided last Summer in our Safer Guidelines for COVID-19 Disinfecting for Schools and Workplaces, a free public resource that is now being implemented in more than 1 billion square feet of building space, including by Green Seal-certified cleaning services. 

Why Disinfecting Can Harm Instead of Help

It has been clear for some time that dousing a space in hazardous disinfecting chemicals won’t do much to prevent the spread of COVID-19. There are two main reasons for this: COVID-19 is much more likely to spread through person-to-person and airborne transmission than it is through surface-to-person transmission, and coronaviruses are relatively easy to kill on surfaces with plain old soap and water (or regular cleaning solutions).

There is a natural instinct to turn to the harshest chemicals available to attack a nasty virus, but the CDC’s new guidance should reassure us all that we can follow the science to avoid a dangerous reliance on disinfection. Doing so will avoid health risks ranging from cancer to serious respiratory disease – an especially grave risk for vulnerable populations such as children and the 1 in 13 Americans with asthma.

Not All Disinfectants are Created Equal

For the times when disinfecting is appropriate, some disinfecting products are safer than others. Green Seal has curated U.S. EPA’s List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus to help you identify safer ones.

Unlike other active ingredients commonly found in disinfectants, the active ingredients we recommend are not linked to asthma, cancer, endocrine disruption, DNA damage or skin irritation. Find our list of recommended ingredients and products here. 

With our new certification program, Green Seal is providing consumers, purchasers and facility managers a simple way to identify hand sanitizers that meet the highest standard for health, safety and performance.

The Highest Standard of Clean

Formulating with healthier ingredients is vital for a product that people apply to their skin dozens of times a day. Our new certification standard, created with input from public health and industry experts, screens 100% of alcohol-based hand sanitizer product formulas for:

• carcinogens
• reproductive toxins
• skin irritants
• phthalates
• parabens, and
• contaminants

And as always, consumers can be confident that Green Seal-certified products meet uncompromising performance standards, do not pollute waterways, and use environmentally preferable packaging materials.

Verification By a Trusted Authority 

Our new hand sanitizer certification program is part of our commitment to leverage our expertise in healthy and sustainable cleaning and facility care to help protect people from both COVID-19 and negative health impacts from toxic chemicals. 

• Green Seal’s Guidelines for Safer Cleaning and Disinfection for schools and workplaces have been adopted by commercial cleaning companies servicing more than 1 billion square feet of space.
• We’ve partnered with SEIU 32BJ, the largest union of property service workers in the U.S., on COVID-19 training for its members.
• More than 30,000 Green Seal certified products are used in offices, schools and homes each day, including cleaning products and hand soaps critical to de-contaminating buildings and protecting people.

Learn more about Green Seal certification for hand sanitizers here. 

Our Focus on Health

Since entering the US marketplace in the 1980s, hand sanitizers have provided an effective and efficient option for hand hygiene. US and international health organizations have called the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers the second-best hand hygiene option, after hand washing with soap and water. Hand sanitizers are now critical to public health worldwide as governments and healthcare groups work to slow the spread of COVID-19. 

However, hand sanitizers available on the US market are sometimes formulated with hazardous ingredients linked to cancer, allergies, skin and eye irritation, and other harmful health effects. 

In addition, with sudden demand spurring many first-time producers to enter the market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers to beware of incorrectly formulated hand sanitizers. As of now, the FDA has listed 75 hand sanitizer products to avoid because they contain high levels of hazardous ingredients, like methanol. 

Given the strong demand for these products and their critical role in providing safer, healthier spaces from schools to grocery stores, Green Seal has developed a health-protective framework for alcohol-based hand sanitizer certification.

Our Requirements 

Green Seal’s proposed criteria for hand sanitizers set protective health requirements to provide purchasers and consumers a simple way choose safer and effective products. 

Because people apply hand sanitizer directly to their skin up to 30 times a day, it is vital that products are formulated with healthier ingredients. Under the proposed requirements, certified hand sanitizers must be free of carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxins and endocrine disruptors, with additional ingredient restrictions to prevent skin irritation, eye damage and allergies.

As always, consumers can be confident that Green Seal-certified products:

• meet uncompromising performance standards
• conform to rigorous health requirements
• do not pollute waterways, and
• use environmentally preferable packaging materials

Final Criteria Coming Soon

Green Seal’s reputation for credibility and market impact rests on an open and transparent process for developing our science-based standards. All of our major standard revisions are open for review and public feedback. Green Seal publishes all formally submitted comments, as well as a response to each substantive issue identified by commenters.

Green Seal accepted public comments on the proposed criteria between July 30 and August 13. All comments are now under review, and Green Seal will publish a Response to Comments before issuing the Final Criteria for alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

The Proposed Criteria and supplementary documents can be reviewed on Green Seal’s Standard Projects page.

Growing consumer awareness of the health risks of methylene chloride and 1,4-dioxane, both of which are found in common household and personal care products, has begun to prompt action by the federal government, states and retailers.  It’s encouraging that regulation and market behavior are beginning to catch up with the science on these two toxins. However, setting regulations is a lengthy process, and consumers shouldn’t be expected to police hazardous substances in household products in the interim.  

Green Seal fills a critical market gap by taking a precautionary approach – purposefully setting requirements beyond those of the U.S. federal government to empower consumers to choose the safest products on today’s markets and reward the industry innovators who are moving the market to safer, healthier product chemistry. Let’s take a closer look at the two examples of hazardous chemicals that Green Seal has prohibited for decades in our certified products. 

Methylene Chloride

In 1993, when Green Seal first launched our standard for paints and coatings, methylene chloride was one of the first chemicals we prohibited. More recently, methylene chloride has made its way into headlines for all the wrong reasons. Earlier this year, two women sued the EPA to ban methylene chloride after their sons died from using products containing this chemical. 

This colorless liquid evaporates easily, and its vapors can be irritating to skin, eyes, and the respiratory tract. Exposure to very high concentrations, usually in areas with poor air ventilation, can result in unconsciousness and death.  Since 1980, there have been more than 60 reported accidental exposure deaths due to the use of paint strippers containing methylene chloride.  

As a member of a class of chemicals called organochlorides, methylene chloride is in the company of other known bad players, including vinyl chloride, the pesticide DDT, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Methylene chloride continues to be used because it is an extremely effective solvent. This chemical is used in paint strippers and in the manufacturing processes for other products, including pesticides, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Consumer products that contain methylene chloride include paint strippers, household cleaners, and acrylic adhesives used by hobbyists.

The European Union voted to ban the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers for consumers and most professionals in 2009, effective beginning in 2010. Almost a decade later, in 2017, the U.S. EPA proposed a similar ban in both consumer and commercial products. The final rulemaking was delayed until March of this year, when a scaled back version was passed, which only bans methylene chloride in consumer products. In the interim, several major retailers – including Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot and Amazon – committed to phasing out methylene chloride products due to consumer concerns.   

1,4 Dioxane

Green Seal doesn’t only prohibit harmful active ingredients from certified products – we also have strict requirements for any impurities and byproducts that may make their way into a finished product. 1,4-dioxane is a probable carcinogen that has also been prohibited from all Green Seal-certified products since 1993. 

Unlike methylene chloride, 1,4-dioxane does not play a role in chemical products. Rather, it is an unintended by-product of a common chemical reaction called ethoxylation. In this process, ethylene oxide reacts with any number of chemicals, including alcohols, phenols, and polyethylene glycols, to create surfactants and other chemicals. These surfactants are used in cleaning products, laundry detergent, and shampoos to remove dirt and stains. Ethoxylated ingredients are also added to cosmetics as thickeners, skin conditioning agents, and emulsifying agents. Because it is a by-product, manufacturers may not even know if their products contain trace amounts of 1,4-dioxane. 

Twenty-five years after Green Seal first acted to prohibit this chemical, state legislators are beginning to address growing consumer concern about 1,4-dioxane. California now requires that this chemical be disclosed if it is present in cleaning products, even as an impurity. The New York State legislature recently passed a bill limiting 1,4-dioxane to 1 part per million (0.0001%) in detergents and other cleaning products and California has announced plans to consider setting a threshold as well. 

Green Seal and Safer Alternatives

It can be challenging for manufacturers to find alternative substances that are safer for human health and the environment and that still perform to industry standards. Sometimes, in an effort to avoid one substance, the market moves toward regrettable substitutes: N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), once widely used an alternative to methylene chloride, has its own toxicity issues and has also recently been banned for consumer use by the U.S. EPA and retailers. 

Similarly, manufacturers that want to replace ethoxylated surfactants in their products to eliminate 1,4-dioxane will need to carefully select safer alternatives. Filling in data gaps can prevent the unintentional introduction of a dioxane-free replacement with its own set of health and environmental hazards. 

Consumer demand will continue to drive market change and innovation, especially among market leaders. When you see Green Seal’s certification mark on a product, you can trust that we’ve screened that product against these and all other known hazardous chemicals, and that the alternatives are not known to have associated health and environmental risks.  And because we have strict performance requirements, you can rest assured that these alternatives will still work as you expect them to. 

Titanium dioxide is a colorant that is included to whiten and brighten many types of products – from food to paints and personal care products. In enzyme-based cleaning products, like with paints and makeup, consumers show preference for whiter and brighter options and this is why manufacturers see titanium dioxide as a key ingredient.

Titanium dioxide was previously prohibited in all cleaning products because it is classified as a “Group 2B” carcinogen, i.e., “Possibly Carcinogenic” when inhaled¹ (and only when inhaled).  Because we’ve seen this ingredient in a wide range of enzyme-based cleaning products, we conducted several health impact analyses and identified a meaningful solution. We developed a set of requirements that ensures that titanium dioxide particles will not become airborne when the product is used. Below we’ve walked through this framework of requirements and summarized our key considerations, but you can find the full technical proposal on our website.

 Our Open and Transparent Process

As always, we published this proposal for public comment and actively solicited feedback during a six-month period in order to ensure that we heard perspectives from all interested groups. This open process and our evidence-based decision-making is at the core of Green Seal standard development.

Green Seal Focuses on What Matters

We take our role seriously as an environmental organization that sets the bar for sustainability and defines meaningful health protections for products and services. We work to advance industries toward healthier, safer, and greener practices, and also to ensure a wide range of certified products so that conscious consumers can have their pick.

In this case, the results of our health impact analyses demonstrated that we could confidently allow manufactures to provide certified products that are formulated with titanium dioxide. With this move, we ensure that these certified products can be just as white and bright as their conventional counterparts while being significantly healthier and greener. It’s a minor change for our standards; this is one of more than 65,000 chemicals that we scrutinize during our certification processes – however, it’s a meaningful change for our product manufacturing community and a reminder that we focus on real-world health and environmental impacts instead of simply checking the boxes.  

 Protecting the Health of the User

In our proposal, we demonstrated that titanium dioxide can be present in an enzyme-based cleaning product without any risk of the product user inhaling this compound.

• For foam, gel, and liquid products – the product itself does not become airborne. Therefore, we set no conditions on allowing titanium dioxide as an ingredient.
• For solid products, dust can be generated by the product that could be inhaled during the use phase. Therefore, in order to include titanium dioxide as an ingredient, the manufacturer must provide evidence that the titanium dioxide particles are bound within the product matrix or to bonded to other product ingredients. This protective requirement aligns with the protections stated by the State of California’s Proposition 65 program, which only considers titanium dioxide carcinogenic when it is airborne and unbound.
• For liquid products, there is an existing Green Seal requirement that states that enzyme-based cleaning products cannot be sold in spray packaging; therefore, we’ve already set requirements that prevent liquid from becoming airborne via dispersed spray and inhaled by the product user.

Within this framework, Green Seal has maintained a strict level of health protections for product users. As always, when Green Seal appears on a product label, consumers can be confident that these products will work effectively, will protect their family, workers, and our environment – and now, thanks to this revision, these products might be a bit whiter.

“It’s a generational shift, in my opinion,” said Glenn Hasek, publisher and editor of Green Lodging News. “Gone are the days when you had travelers who grew up smoking cigarettes and breathing smog in dirty cities. Travelers are increasingly interested in experiencing a healthy stay and being offered health and wellness options, from spa experiences at high-end hotels to something as simple as a bike sharing program that offers the opportunity to see the city on wheels instead of with a carbon-emitting vehicle.”

For the lodging industry, this shift means guests increasingly treat travel as a chance to demonstrate their commitment to health and sustainability, rather than escape from it. Figures from the Global Wellness Institute show wellness tourism growing twice as fast as tourism overall, reaching a $639 billion market in 2017. And contrary to popular belief, relatively few wellness trips are to destination spas or meditation retreats. Nearly 90 percent are regular leisure or business trips where travelers choose to participate in wellness experiences.

“Having green-friendly practices and wellness services and amenities are no longer a ‘nice to have,’ they are an expectation, particularly from the luxury traveler,” said Dant Hirsh, general manager of the Dominick Hotel, an independent luxury hotel located in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. The company underscored its commitment to health and sustainability by earning a Green Seal Bronze certification in 2018, meeting rigorous benchmarks in areas including minimizing waste, preventing pollution, conserving energy, managing water resources and purchasing greener products. For wellness travelers, the Dominick offers partnerships with several local fitness boutiques and an on-site fitness center with Peloton bikes, and it is revamping its spa with updated suites and custom amenities that appeal to the fitness and wellness traveler.

However, hotels don’t need to offer expensive spa services to facilitate wellness for their guests, Hasek said. Simple steps like providing maps of local trails and eco-conscious soaps and amenities also contribute to a healthier stay.

Several health-related features already are mainstream at hotels worldwide. According to Greenview’s 2018 Green Lodging Trends Report, the majority of hotels now use low-VOC or VOC-free paints in renovations and additions, provide eco-conscious amenities for guests, and conduct annual carbon monoxide and radon testing. A growing number of hotels also are evaluating suppliers in human rights areas, providing portable air purifiers, and designating more than 90% of guestrooms as non-smoking.

Hasek said hotels increasingly are embedding health and wellness programs in their overall sustainability strategies, as they go hand in hand with initiatives already underway on the properties. At the Dominick Hotel, for example, equipping rooms with iPads cuts down on paper use and also allows the company to offer guests custom digital workouts.

The most successful health and sustainability programs often have staff-wide buy-in, and hotels that involve associates in their green and wellness initiatives report positive culture shifts and happier employees. At the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites, a Green Seal Silver certified property in Los Angeles, associates formed a “green team” comprising representatives from each department who champion specific sustainability initiatives. Some were so inspired by the mission that they began implementing the practices at home as well, said Claudia Lambaren, the hotel’s senior sales and marketing coordinator.

Today, Westin Bonaventure associates are integral to projects including targeting zero-waste in the cafeteria, implementing a water reclamation system in the laundry facility, installing trash sorting and recycling bins throughout the property, purchasing from sustainable local vendors, recycling unused amenities through the Clean the World program, and offering business customers Westin Clutter-Free Meetings with socially conscious amenities and green features including energy efficient light bulbs, double-sided meeting pads and water pitchers instead of bottled water.

Hotel executives stress that their sustainability and wellness programs reach both to the front and the back of the house. At the Dominick, employees enjoy discounts with neighborhood fitness partners and healthy meal options at the staff cafeteria. “The employees are the heart of the house, so we strive to ensure that any benefit we launch at the hotel benefits both guests and associates.”

The Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, a Green Seal Silver certified hotel, offers a wellness food section in their cafeteria and a free charging station for employees who drive electric vehicles. The hotel also hosts awareness campaigns employees to participate in throughout the year and celebrates Earth Hour, Earth Day, World Food Day and other national days.

“We emphasize the fact that our daily gestures have a real impact on our community, and that going green also involves a social responsibility,” said Cecile Sandral-Lasbordes, the hotel’s marketing and public relations manager. The hotel’s “green team” is dedicated to using sustainable, recyclable, energy efficient and non-toxic items throughout every aspect of the hotel’s day-to-day operations, and ensures a minimum of 50 percent of the hotel’s food purchases are from local or regional vendors. The hotel also implements a WATCH program that trains employees to recognize signs of child sexual exploitation and coordinate with local partners and law enforcement to respond.

With their Green Seal certifications, all of the hotels committed to using cleaning products that are free of harmful chemicals that can exacerbate asthma and other health conditions, a measure that is especially beneficial to cleaning associates. In fact, employers that prioritize employee health often find they are rewarded with more productive associates who take fewer sick days and cost less to insure.

“Healthier employees cost less in the long run,” said Hasek. He pointed to the innovate, self-insured employee healthcare model developed by Rosen Hotels & Resorts in Florida. The company’s health offering includes its own medical center for employees and their dependents, same-day appointments, low premiums and a strong focus on preventative health and wellness (a mandatory stretching program for housekeeping staff and other employees prone to musculoskeletal problems reduced injuries by 25 percent). The plan has already saved the company $340 million and contributed to a low annual employee turnover rate of less than 15 percent, compared to the industry-wide average of 60 percent.

Hotels are also seeing sales and marketing benefits from their health and sustainability investments as both leisure and business guests make green a requirement. “Questions regarding our green practices and wellness benefits are standard from decision-makers at companies that are looking to hold a group program here or assign a corporate account,” said the Dominick Hotel. “Having a strong stake in these initiatives gives us a competitive advantage.”

At the Westin Bonaventure, Lambaren said many of the hotel’s customers include green recycling requirements in their proposal requests. “We have seen an increase with requests for information, and we have had several groups stay with us because of our green efforts,” she said.

At the Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, the hotel’s green and wellness standards align the property with the meetings criteria of prime businesses, Sandral-Lasbordes said. “Big corporations and technology pioneers like Google or Microsoft have substantial environmental charters in place and want their partners to be the same.”

But the ultimate business benefit of the hotel’s health and sustainability initiatives, says Sandral-Lasbordes, is the engagement of employees. “The excitement and satisfaction they portray when helping the community and the planet is beyond rewarding.”

Editors Note: This article was reprinted with permission from the Hotel Business

The bill was signed into law on June 22, 2016 by President Obama, and was widely proclaimed a success. Soon after the signing, the usual political chatter began: cheers (a rare show of bipartisanship!), grumbles (the law was decades overdue), jitters (could the EPA handle the ambitious time lines?), shrugs and yawns (too many compromises). We, in Green Seal’s Washington, DC’s headquarters, sometimes enjoy the political opera, especially since we remain happily seated in the mezzanine. I, and my friends in the DC environmental community, were heartened by the news: the EPA now had greater authority, strict time lines for progress, and dependable funding sources for implementing effective chemical regulation.

Chemical Safety, The Previous Version

The law is an update and expansion of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (“Ta-Ska”), which defined the federal regulation of chemicals. Unlike the other major environmental legislation of the 1960s and 70s (The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, CERCLA, RCRA, etc.) which responded to pollution and hazardous chemical releases after the fact, TSCA was intended to prevent hazardous chemicals from entering the market. The EPA was authorized and required to track chemicals that were being manufactured or processed, to evaluate new chemicals for health and environmental impacts, and to regulate (restrict, ban or in some way control) those chemicals that were identified as hazardous. TSCA implementation was slow and often ineffective because of legal loopholes, an overworked and underfunded agency, and general disinterest among members of Congress. Pushed to fill what they saw as a public health protections gap, state health departments and legislative bodies established state-wide chemical regulation programs, which sometimes caused confusion and frustration for product companies and chemical suppliers. With a goal of simplifying and re-nationalizing US chemical regulation, TSCA reform became a priority for businesses and chemical manufacturers. From 2009 to 2016, members of Congress, environmental advocates, and industry groups worked on the reform bill, and ultimately passed the Lautenberg Act in the House of Representatives with a vote of 403 to 12, and passed the Act in the Senate with a voice vote.

About the Lautenberg Act (TSCA Amendment)

• The EPA no longer needs to identify a regulatory action that is “least burdensome” to industry when carrying out a chemical ban, restriction, or exposure reduction measure.
• The EPA is no longer required to conduct a cost-benefit analysis along with its chemical assessments, and is, in fact, prohibited from factoring in the financial impacts of a regulatory action.
• The Act requires the EPA to protect vulnerable populations: “”the health of children, pregnant women, the elderly, workers, consumers, the general public, and the environmental from the risk of harmful exposures to chemical substances and mixtures.” One year in, the EPA has made real progress.
• June 22, 2017: The EPA issued Final TSCA Framework Rules (National Law Review)
• Announced the scopes of the risk evaluations for the first ten chemicals (EPA)
• Dozens of new chemical determinations were completed in June 2017 and nearly 1,000 new chemical determinations were completed from June 2016 to June 2017 (EPA – Actively updating the number of completed determinations).

Green Seal’s Chemical Considerations

The ongoing implementation of the Lautenberg Act has had no direct effect on Green Seal, our standard development, or our product evaluation processes. In their chemical assessment process, the EPA is identifying and regulating the most harmful chemicals; Green Seal is defining and validating the qualities of environmental leadership products – that they are formulated with safer chemicals, perform effectively, and have an overall lower environmental and health impact. However, TSCA Reform may eventually lead to a change in Green Seal’s standards. If the floor for chemical safety rises in the US market, we may see a significant shift in the formulations of all products, and further improvements to leadership products. If this shift takes place, Green Seal will update our standards in order to accurately reflect the new levels of leadership.

A Different Level of Scrutiny: While the EPA conducts risk analyses, Green Seal emphasizes chemical hazards. One of our major goals of product certification is to encourage the elimination of hazardous chemicals on the US market.

Identifying New Chemicals of Concern: In our product reviews, Green Seal ensures that products are not formulated with persistent / bioaccumulative / toxic substances (“PBTs”) and one way that we accomplish this is by noting the chemicals of concern that are listed in the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory. As the EPA gathers and reports the results of toxicological evaluations, new PBTs may be identified, which would better inform our evaluation.

A Clearer Evaluation Process for Companies: Companies with Green Seal-certified products will benefit from a clear and consistent framework for the evaluation of chemical substance and the associated risks, and from the new data that will result from the evaluation process. (Looking through rose-colored beakers…) Perhaps TSCA Reform will also spur green chemistry innovations, increasing the numbers of safer substitutes, and simplifying the process of developing safer formulations.

To learn more about TSCA Reform, the Lautenberg Act, and EPA’s progress since June 2016, check out the following links:

• TSCA Reform: One Year Later
• Pace and Outcomes of EPA new chemical reviews appear to be on track
• How EPA Evaluates the Safety of Existing Chemicals
• For Manufacturers, Passage of TSCA Reform Legislation Increases Transparency, Certainty and Safety

Green Seal recently collaborated with the Bren School of Environmental Sciences and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on a year-long study to quantify the environmental benefits (in terms of greenhouse gas [GHG] reductions) for hotels in the City of Los Angeles that are certified under Green Seal’s hotel standard (GS-33).

Let’s go back a few years to get the full picture…. in 2008, the City of Los Angeles recognized the role hotels can play in reducing the city’s overall GHG emissions, and created the Los Angeles Green Lodging Program (LAGLP) to meet its Climate Action Plan goals.  Green Seal was selected as the official certifier for the LAGLP, which now has 7 certified participating hotels including: JW Marriott Los Angeles LIVE, Hilton Universal City, Hilton Los Angeles Airport, Sheraton Gateway, Crowne Plaza, Westin Bonaventure, and Westin Los Angeles Airport. Los Angeles now has more Green Seal-certified hotels than any city in the nation (over 6 million square feet certified), with a number of additional hotels in the process of getting certified.  Until the recent Bren Study, however, neither the City nor Green Seal had a quantitative metric of the environmental benefits of the LAGLP.

The Bren team used electricity consumption data from 6 certified hotels in Los Angeles, and found that on average:

• entering at Bronze level saw 2.8% reduction in GHG emissions,
• those progressing to Silver saw an added reduction of 8.8% (hotels entering directly at Silver would see a 2.8% + 8.8% = 11.6% reduction)
• those progressing to Gold saw a further reduction of 18.2% (hotels entering directly at Gold would see a 11.6% + 18.2% = 29.8% reduction)

The Bren team took this study one step further to see how Green Seal certification benefits a hotel itself. They conducted surveys of over 1000 participants and found that consumers were willing to pay $6.50 more per night for hotels with demonstrated sustainability measures.

A case study by the Bren team showed that meeting the most basic requirement in the GS-33 standard of upgrading lighting (mandated by the Bronze level), can reduce a hotel’s emissions by a total of 1,066 MT CO2 annually, which is equivalent to emissions from 225 passenger vehicles driven for a year. Furthermore, these replacements reaped financial benefits as well: over a 20-year project cash flow period, the hotel would see $1,562,157 in cumulative savings from avoided utility costs.  Hotels can target lighting upgrades as “low-hanging fruit” thatyield higher benefits than costs. 

Finally, the Bren team also created a user-friendly Excel-based tool that can be used by an individual hotel to calculate its GHG reductions and financial savings from different energy and electricity reduction projects undertaken because of Green Seal certification. This tool can be used by hotel managers and engineers to calculate their GHG and long-term financial savings.

As hotels across the globe increasingly embrace green practices, it is important for the lodging industry to pursue practices with real environmental benefits. Hotels can be one of the most energy and GHG intensive buildings, as they tend to keep lights on throughout hallways at night or run thermostats even when there are no occupants in the room. Green Seal’s GS-33 Hotels and Lodging Properties standard requires hotels to upgrade their energy intensive equipment and to integrate sustainability practices in their daily operations.

The Bren study strengthens the findings of an independent study by Washington State University, which stated that:  “The single most important thing is to become certified by an independent and credible agency such as Green Seal and Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), the major certification programs in the lodging industry.”