Unified Green Cleaning Alliance

Meeting I Summary

  
 
 
 

 

Meeting I Summary

Unified Green Cleaning Alliance

PGE Earth Advantage National Center, Portland, OR

October 3, 2002

The meeting started at 8:40 am with an introduction and welcome to the first meeting of the Unified Green Cleaning Alliance (UGCA) by Roger McFadden, Vice President Product Research and Development for Coastwide Laboratories.  Roger emphasized his role in the UGCA as a member, not a facilitator.  Roger recognized the diversity in the group, i.e. formulators, purchasers, policy makers, users, etc. and then introduced Lauren Heine, Director of Green Chemistry and Engineering for Zero Waste Alliance.

Lauren began by extending a thank you to all the members for attending, to Portland General Electric including Kim Hughes and Charlene Edwards for hosting the first meeting, and to Coastwide Laboratories for hosting lunch.  Lauren introduced Larry Chalfan, Executive Director of Zero Waste Alliance, David Kimball, Green Chemistry Research Assistant, Zero Waste Alliance, David DiFiore, Senior Project Manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Design for Environment Formulator Initiative, and Marsha Willard, UGCA Facilitator and Principal Axis Performance Advisors.  Lauren explained that invitations to participate in the UGCA were extended to individuals in the Pacific Northwest who had expressed an interest in the goals of sustainable community development and the role of cleaning products in reaching those goals; and who currently work as professionals in relevant sectors.  The UGCA was formed because of a need to establish credible and reliable criteria to distinguish cleaning product formulations that perform and are preferable with respect to human and environmental health.  She noted that we will be building on work done by others in creating cleaning product criteria.  The goal of the UGCA is to reach consensus on criteria, validation methods and a verification methodology in order to meet the needs of manufacturers who want to know what to manufacture for those who desire green cleaning products, for purchasers who need to trust that the products have the characteristics they say they have, and users who want to know that the products will perform and be benign to human and environmental health.  Lauren emphasized that we don’t know what the result of the UGCA meetings will be.  Six meetings are planned for the UGCA, with four in Oregon and two in Washington.  Lauren then outlined the objectives and content of the six meetings.  The objective of the current meeting was to cover the goals of the UGCA and discuss cleaning products in general.  The next two meetings will feature guest speakers and are aimed at educating the UGCA on relevant issues including human and environmental toxicology and alternative certification models.  Meetings four through six will be used to decide and come to a consensus on cleaning product criteria, testing and validation methods.  Lauren then introduced David DiFiore.

David began by explaining that in his role in EPA he usually only gets to work on an individual basis with formulators.  He is happy for the opportunity to work with a large and diverse group and EPA is happy to sponsor the event.  David acknowledged the importance of formulators like Coastwide in improving the cleaning product formulations with respect to human and environmental health.  He then shared a personal story about his grandmother who experienced negative health impacts from the daily use of a cleaner containing ammonia.  In sharing the story, David emphasized the opportunity UGCA has in helping people.  David then presented an overview of Design for Environment Formulator Initiative (See attached).

At 9:15 am Lauren introduced Marsha Willard.  Marsha identified her role in the UGCA as a facilitator and as such, wants to keep things moving and on task while encouraging robust and equitable conversation by participants.  Marsha emphasized the desire to reach consensus on criteria for cleaning products.  She then gave key points to describe what would be needed in order for consensus to be reached.  The key points are:

  • Consensus is difficult but important.

  • Consensus does not mean unanimity.

  • We want to come to a conclusion that everyone can move forward with.

  • We need to identify all of the needs and interests.

  • Minority views will be acknowledged.

  • Participants are asked to focus on the needs of those areas they represent.

  • Need to follow ground rules:

  1. Start on time and end on time

  2. Attend and participate

  3. Every view is valid

  4. Don’t let perfect get in the way

Marsha then gave a chance for anyone to object or add anything.  One member pointed out that not all in the group are chemists and asked that the technical language be kept simple enough for all to understand.  Several supported the request. 

Marsha proceeded to talk about sustainability.  Sustainability was defined as living well within the limits of nature while saving the principle of natural resources for future generations.  Three key elements for sustainability were outlined and discussed.  They are:

  1. Environment – the system conditions of the Natural Step System were discussed
  2. Economy – needs are:  opportunity to compete fairly and make a profit, accountability to public and the law,
  3. Society – equal opportunity to survive and thrive

The group took a break from 9:30 am to 9:45 am.

Marsha then explained we would be starting the consensus process.  The attendants were asked to divide into smaller groups based on interest.  The groups were Users, Environmental Groups / Policy Makers, Purchasers, and Formulators / Manufacturers.  The attendees divided up and each group spent twenty minutes  discussing their preferred answer to completing the statement, “A successful outcome of this project is one that meets my need for…”.  The list of needs for each group is attached.  The presentation of group needs led to discussion on sensitivity to multi-lingual users of cleaning products and reasons for higher costs associated with green cleaning products.  Marsha explained that the list of needs would be kept in mind for future meetings and that the list would be made available to all participants. 

At 10:50 am Roger gave a presentation on greening the cleaning process (atttached).  After Roger’s presentation, group discussion centered on how formulators test and formulate products, use of dyes and fragrances, and use of disinfectants.

The next meeting is scheduled for November 19, 2002 and will be held at the Tiger Woods Center at Nike, Inc. Directions to Nike were distributed.  The meeting concluded at 11:40 with a tour of the PGE Earth Advantage facility followed by lunch catered by Farmbytes.