CSPA Invests in Online Formulation Tool
for Cleaning Products Industry
Growing consumer interest in environmentally friendly products is one of the driving forces behind green chemistry. In the cleaning products industry, manufacturers faced with the complex process of selecting and assessing the health and environmental impacts of alternative chemicals now have a unique tool that enables the flow of information between chemical suppliers and chemical product formulators.
CleanGredients®, a project of the nonprofit institute GreenBlue®, is an online database of chemicals used in cleaning products. CleanGredients includes general product and regulatory information, physical-chemical properties, and human and environmental health attributes and functions as a valuable resource for innovative, environmentally healthy alternatives across the cleaning products industry and as a marketplace of innovative chemicals from leading companies. CleanGredients currently comprises surfactants and solvents for institutional and industrial cleaning products; additional ingredient classes, including fragrances and chelating agents, are currently under development. CSPA has been a longtime supporter of CleanGredients as a member of the project’s Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Committees.
GreenBlue is developing CleanGredients in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment Program (DfE). Through its Formulator Program partnerships, DfE recognizes products that it deems to be both effective and safer than typical, similar-use products. Manufacturers of recognized products may label their products with the DfE logo, an eco-label whose recognition and popularity are growing rapidly. CleanGredients facilitates formulators’ selection of functionally appropriate ingredients that pass the DfE Screen for safer chemicals.
“We don’t evaluate or certify products. We provide independently verified data on ingredients enabling manufacturers to make better formulation decisions for people and the environment,” said Topher Buck, CleanGredients Product Manager at GreenBlue. “Manufacturers are often told what ingredients they can’t use when developing a green product. CleanGredients is designed to help formulators find ingredients that they can use.”
For suppliers, CleanGredients provides a centralized marketing venue for products. Suppliers who subscribe to CleanGredients can list ingredient chemicals in the database and showcase their potential environmental and human health benefits. For formulators, it reduces time spent searching for appropriate ingredients, significantly increasing speed-to-market and decreasing R&D costs. Because key ingredient data are verified by an independent third-party, CleanGredients is recognized as a trusted source of chemical product information and has attracted widespread recognition within the green chemistry and cleaning product industries.
GreenBlue envisions expanding the database in the future to include household cleaning products. When planning this expansion, CleanGredients hopes to engage CSPA and its members in a stakeholder dialogue to discuss how CleanGredients would need to be modified to support formulation of better, safer household products. GreenBlue believes that this model is also extensible to other formulated chemical products.
“We see a lot of potential to aid better design by providing this kind of information in other product categories,” said Buck. “This might include CleanGredients modules for chemicals used in inks, coatings, and adhesives; textiles; or personal care products.”
Since its launch in 2006, subscriptions and chemical listings have grown rapidly.
Subscription to CleanGredients grants suppliers the right to list an unlimited number of ingredient chemicals in the database and formulators unlimited access to search CleanGredients. Annual subscription fees vary, based on a company’s gross annual revenue. For subscription information, please visit www.cleangredients.org.
CleanGredients is made possible through a combination of sponsorship, project-based grants, and in-kind donations. Current sponsors include CSPA members Reckitt Benckiser and Henkel (Dial Corporation). Seed funding from the U.S. EPA enabled the initial development of modules for surfactants and solvents. CleanGredients is currently seeking additional sponsors to support the development of other ingredient classes and begin expansion to other product categories. For more information on sponsorship opportunities and benefits, please visit the CleanGredients website (http://www.cleangredients.org/about/sponsorship) or contact info@cleangredients.org.
For further information, please contact Beth Law, 202/833-7307, blaw@cspa.org.
