EPA SAFER CHOICE

What is special about the Safer Choice label?

Safer Choice is EPA’s label for safer chemical-based products. Every chemical, regardless of percentage, in a Safer Choice-certified product is evaluated through EPA’s rigorous scientific process and only the safest ingredients are allowed. For over 15 years, the program has certified products that are safer for families, pets, workplaces, neighborhoods, and the environment. The label represents leadership in safer product formulation. Here are some of the reasons why:

• To be eligible for the label, a product must comply with the Safer Choice Standard, which has very stringent human health and environmental criteria. The Standard incorporates safer chemical criteria for individual component class ingredients, like surfactants, solvents, and chelants.
• To help formulate products with safer ingredients and to increase transparency and understanding of safer ingredients, Safer Choice developed the Safer Chemical Ingredients List, which contains over 950 chemicals that meet Safer Choice criteria.
• Safer Choice reviews all ingredients in a product—no exceptions, no de minimis—against safer ingredient pass/fail criteria and thresholds. Safer Choice-certified products contain only the safest possible ingredients.
• In our product evaluation, we can and do go beyond prohibiting ingredients based on lists of chemicals of concern and apply analytical methods—developed here at EPA to compensate for a lack of toxicological data—to prevent the use of problematic chemicals that have not made it to a list.
• Executive Order 13693 directs Federal agencies to select Safer Choice-certified products whenever possible. Safer Choice is also mandated by many state and municipal purchasers and is included in the LEED EB standard for maintenance in green buildings.
• We are a partnership program that harnesses the energy and creativity of product formulators, and especially small businesses, to innovate with products that work and are safer for people and the planet.
• Safer Choice directs formulators to green chemistry alternatives before awarding the label and, under the terms of partnership, requires continuous product improvement to keep pace with innovation.
• Companies must make their formulary commitments in a signed written agreement with EPA, under which false statements constitute criminally punishable fraud. We also have an auditing program that includes annual audits to verify product ingredients.
• We require a first-of-its-kind ingredient disclosure for all products—either on the label or another easily accessible place—that will make the safer chemistry aspects of certified products more visible.
• It is our sole mission to protect human health and the environment; we are sworn to fulfill that mission and uphold the public’s trust; and we are accountable to the American people.

Why does EPA certify products?

EPA's mission is to protect the health of people and the environment. To further that mission, EPA certifies products so that consumers can easily choose ones that are safer for people and the environment. The program empowers consumers to protect their health and minimize impact on the environment through everyday purchasing decisions. Using EPA’s chemical and toxicological expertise, the Safer Choice program applies stringent criteria for health and environmental safety in labeling products with the safest possible chemical ingredients.

What does the Safer Choice label mean?

When consumers see the Safer Choice label on a product, they can be confident that the ingredients have been through a rigorous EPA review. The label means that EPA scientists have evaluated every ingredient in the product to ensure it meets Safer Choice's stringent criteria. When people use Safer Choice-certified products, they are protecting their families and the environment by making safer chemical choices.

GREEN SEAL

What is Green Seal?

Green Seal® is a global nonprofit organization and leading ecolabel. For more than 30 years, Green Seal’s rigorous standards for health, sustainability and product performance have driven permanent shifts in the marketplace, empowering better purchasing decisions and rewarding industry innovators. Green Seal’s flagship certification program and our other initiatives are designed to. accelerate the market adoption of safer and more sustainable products and practices for cleaning and facility care.

What is Green Seal's Mission?

Our mission is to transform the economy for a healthier, greener world. Our vision is a healthy society in balance with nature.

What is Green Seal Certification?

Green Seal certification is a process that ensures that a product or service meets the rigorous performance, health, and environmental criteria in Green Seal’s environmental leadership standards. Green Seal’s scientists and experts comprehensively validate that a product or services meets our science-based standards before awarding certification. Green Seal certification validates a company’s sustainability leadership and helps purchasers and consumers make healthier, greener choices with confidence.

ECO LOGO

UL ECOLOGO^® Certified products and services and are verified for reduced environmental impact. ECOLOGO Certifications are voluntary, multi-attribute, life cycle-based environmental certifications that indicate a product has undergone rigorous scientific testing and exhaustive auditing to prove its compliance with stringent, third-party environmental standards.

These standards set metrics for a wide variety of criteria in some or all of the following categories: materials, energy, manufacturing and operations, health and environment, product performance and use, and product stewardship and innovation.

UL is on a shared mission with our customers and stakeholders to work for a safer, more secure and sustainable world. We are a Signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, upholding the Ten Principles of Responsible Business, and we are committed to progressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We apply our human, brand and financial capital toward positive actions that benefit our planet, its people and the prosperity of future generations.