Monday November 23rd, 2009
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The Politics of Green Cleaning
Posted by Kimberly Delaney on January 28, 2009 - 7:31pm.
You may think that how you clean your home or office is just a personal matter, irrelevant to the world of power and politics. Think again. President Obama’s transition team recently invited Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of the green cleaning product eco-empire Seventh Generation, to give his input on creating a sustainable economy.
In his blog “The Inspired Protagonist,” Hollender makes the point that this was the first time he had been in a federal building since he was jailed for protesting against ex-President Bush’s refusal to take significant action on global warming. Hollender’s presidential invitation marks a dramatic shift from sign-carrying political renegade to policy influencer and political insider.
This shift in the power structure is one hopeful indicator about where we are now as a nation, and here’s another: While other corporations are struggling to the point that they need to lay off thousands, Hollender reports in an interview on Fox News that Seventh Generation had its best year ever with sales up 50%. Not only that but, far from instituting lay-offs, the company has doubled their staff in the past 24 months.
Yes, we know that green cleaning products can cost a little more. And we know that some companies are jumping into the game offering lower cost products that provide a lot more in the way of green washing than they do to washing greenly. AND we know that everyone in America is feeling the economic recession and has been for some time. But something as personal and basic as wanting to clean our homes without negatively impacting our health or our environment has finally trumped price in our collective buying criteria.
That means Seventh Generation’s message about living and making choices with a consciousness of how we impact the larger environmental and social picture matters. Their slogan is: “In our every deliberation we should consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
So once again, the personal is political. If you haven’t already, it’s high time to put your mop where your politics are and join the green cleaning masses!
Kimberly Delaney is the author of Clean Home, Green Home: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Eco-Friendly Homekeeping, published by the Knack imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
Great post--I'm a loyal reader of the Inspired Protagonist and find Hollender to be a great leader in this movement on many different levels.
While it's very important to use green cleaning practices in our homes, it's equally as important to ensure that our offices, schools, hospitals, hotels and restaurants are also being cleaned with green chemicals and products. Many of us spend more time in the workplace than homes, unfortunately, and caustic chemicals used to clean these buildings can not only cause harm to the environment, but also the air we breathe.
I'd encourage all Lime readers to take further action by not only putting our money where our mouths are when it comes to cleaning our homes, but to encourage the individuals responsible for cleaning the buildings in which we work to consider green cleaning chemicals as well!
Am a Reader of LIME...
Not sure how 7th Gen matches up to below type of Products ...
Not sure what "Green" Means in Products.... is it the Product or the Mfgr Process.
More Questions than Answers.... these days.
Asthma :: Household Cleaning & Spray Cleaners Linked to AsthmaOct. 2007: Household Cleaning and Home Spray Cleaners increase the risk of developing Asthma by more than 50 % !
revealed by European researchers, first to investigate the effects of cleaning products on occasional users rather than occupational users, in a new study in Europe.
The epidemiological study appeared in the second issue for October of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.“Frequent use of household cleaning sprays may be an important risk factor for Adult Asthma,” wrote lead author Jan-Paul Zock, Ph.D., of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona, Spain.
Two-thirds of the study population who reported doing the bulk of cleaning were women, about six percent of whom had asthma at the time of follow-up. Fewer than ten percent of them were full-time homemakers.The risk of developing asthma increased with frequency of cleaning and number of different sprays used, but on average was about 30 – 50%t higher in people regularly exposed to cleaning sprays than in others. The researchers found that cleaning sprays, especially air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass-cleaners, had a particularly strong effect.
The research may have also significant implications for public health. “The relative risk rates of developing adult asthma in relation to exposure to cleaning products could account for as much as 15 percent, or one in seven of adult asthma cases,” wrote Dr. Zock.
This is a great article and definitely shows that we are headed in the right direction under the new administration. I have been advocating and teaching individuals how to change over their chemically laced products with all natural ingredients for over 15 years.
I can replace all of the cleaning products you purchase with one simple ingredient, find out more at www.GreenTerpene.com
Rachel A. Markel
eoilco laboratories, llc.