Giant Cleaning Supplier Ecolab Pushes Green Certification for Car Washes

March 22, 2008 —

Ecolab, the top gun car wash manufacturer/supplier (world largest sanitizer company with $5 billion in sales), announced its new program to certify car washes in the US as green. The company is looking for a two-tier improvement in the car washes it supplies: make them green and market them as green to eco-aware consumers. The program is called Blue Coral Beyond Green. Modern Car Care reported the new rollout as Ecolab’s effort to move a laggard car wash industry into the green era.

Ecolab already has a good track record for its own products and sustainable practices: wash and cleaning products made with less pollutants and with less energy and water, using recyclable materials in packaging. They recycle their drums to curb waste. Now they want to bring the industry they serve up to a more eco-conscious par. The Blur Coral Beyond Green (“hard on dirt but easy on the earth” is the slogan) certification means the car wash is using car wash cleaners from manufacturers that are free of harmful chemicals—phosphates and VOC’s (volatile organic compounds).

Ecolab’s vice president of corporate technology, services and emerging business, John Rolando, commented, "Our industry is trailing others on sustainability so we are drawing a line in the sand and defining what it means for a wash to be sustainable."