The focus is still on efficacy and value, but more customers want to know if the I&I supplies they buy are environmentally-friendly. A list of new ingredients from industry suppliers can be found at the end of the article.
Corn, soy, sugar. No, they're not futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade-they're ingredients found in some of today's industrial and institutional cleaners. Most folks probably don't think of floor strippers as environmentally-friendly, but more government groups and school systems have issued a green mandate and Ecolab, JohnsonDiversey and other marketers are filling the need for environmentally-friendly products that still do the job when it comes to finishing floors, cleaning hard surfaces and sanitizing surfaces. In fact, nearly every finished product company told us that getting going on going green has become a No. 1 priority.
"Right now, green cleaners account for about 5% of the market," observed Jim Beard, vice president of marketing, State Industrial.