Many school districts are transferring from traditional cleaning practices to Green Cleaning, which means replacing older, conventional products with environmentally preferable ones.

Cost, including whether Green Cleaning chemicals are more expensive, is an initial concern to many facility managers. However, with today’s testing and certification by Green Seal® or Canada’s Environmental Choice Programм, end users can rest assured that environmentally preferable cleaning chemicals are cost competitive when compared to traditional product counterparts. But, how do the Green Cleaning chemicals compare with each other when it comes to price? Is one product more expensive to use compared to another Green product? Bill Blosser, Certified Director of Facilities for New York’s Minisink Valley School District, recently decided to find out. Using a metered system, Blosser compared the cost of using environmentally preferable chemicals produced by Enviro-Solutions, a leading manufacturer of only Green Cleaning products, with Green products produced by a mammoth chemical manufacturer, famous for its traditional cleaning chemicals. The products tested were similar in quality and were certified-Green. The experiment included a glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and a neutral all-purpose cleaner. To Blosser’s surprise, there was quite a price difference: • The Enviro-Solutions glass cleaner was 6 cents per quart less expensive to use. • The bathroom cleaner manufactured by Enviro-Solutions was a whopping 14 times less expensive per quart. • Enviro-Solutions’ neutral all-purpose cleaner was half the price per quart.

“These price differences really add up,” says Blosser. “We have to justify our decisions and the products we choose. We decided on Green Cleaning because it is healthier and now we know Enviro-Solutions gives us more Green for the money.”