by Brianna Crandall — May 2, 2016 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is recognizing 24 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners across 12 states, the District of Columbia and Canada for outstanding achievement in the design, manufacture, promotion and use of a range of cleaning and household products that carry the Safer Choice label.
The Safer Choice standards were developed through a multi-stakeholder process, with a range of businesses and public interest groups, including environmental and health advocacy organizations. EPA assesses ingredients for the Safer Choice program based on a full chemical identification. Where necessary, EPA requires studies to prove safety of the chemicals used, and applies the expertise of chemists and toxicologists.
These stringent human and environmental health safety standards mean that consumers can know with certainty that a product’s safety claims are backed by science, says EPA. Safer Choice currently has around 500 formulator-manufacturer partners who make more than 2,000 cleaning products for retail, institutional and industrial customers.
The 2016 Partner of the Year Award winners represent a wide variety of organizations including Fortune 500 companies, small and medium-sized businesses, and nongovernmental organizations. The 2016 awards will be presented on May 9 in Washington, DC.
The winners fall under the following categories:
Safer Formulator-Manufacturer:
- Boulder Clean (Boulder, CO)
- BISSELL (Grand Rapids, MI)
- Case Medical, Inc. (South Hackensack, NJ)
- Clean Control Corporation (Warner Robins, GA)
- The Clorox Company (Pleasanton, CA)
- Futurescape Inc. (Port Orange, FL)
- Jelmar, LLC (Skokie, IL),
- Osprey Biotechnics Inc. (Sarasota, FL)
- RB (Parsippany, NJ)
- Seventh Generation Inc. (Burlington, VT)
Safer Chemical Innovator:
- BASF Corporation (Florham Park, NJ)
- Ecolab (Eagan, MN)
- Osprey Biotechnics (Sarasota, FL)
- Virox Technologies Inc. (Oakville, Ontario, Canada)
Purchaser / Distributor:
- Solutex, Inc. (Sterling, VA)
Retailer:
- Albertsons Companies (Pleasanton, CA)
- Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. (Rochester, NY)
Program Supporter:
- American Sustainable Business Council (Alexandria, VA)
- The Ashkin Group (Los Angeles, CA)
- Consumer Specialty Products Association (Washington, DC)
- Environmental Defense Fund (New York, NY)
- Federal Sustainable Acquisitions and Materials Management Practices (SAMM) Working Group (Washington, DC)
- Healthy Schools Campaign (Chicago, IL)
- ISSA, the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association (Northbrook, IL)
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families (New York, NY)
More on the Safer Choice Partner of the Year Awards and the 2016 winners can be found on the EPA Web site.
