Tuesday, June 3, 2014
CleanMed 2014 is hosting leaders and organizations from across the nation interested in healthcare sustainability and greening of the healthcare sector at the CleanMed 2014 Conference & Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio, June 2-5. GOJO Industries, the global leader in hand hygiene and healthy skin and inventors of PURELL Hand Sanitizer, is participating at CleanMed, sharing its long history of creating sustainable solutions in healthcare that benefit people and the environment.
The GOJO Purpose—Saving Lives and Making Life Better through Well-Being Solutions—drives the company’s commitment toward greater social, environmental and economic sustainability. It has created products, processes and programs that achieve results for all three domains.
In 2010, GOJO launched PURELL® Green Certified Instant Hand Sanitizer, which became the world's first green certified hand sanitizer. This product joined a complete portfolio of green certified hand hygiene solutions that encourage healthy habits for people, support green cleaning efforts and reduce negative impacts on the environment. GOJO recently celebrated reaching 2015 sustainability goals to reduce water use, solid waste generation, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) a year early. The company’s commitment to work in more sustainable ways resulted in the reduction of water usage by 40 percent between 2010 and 2013, reduction of solid waste generated by 36 percent and reduction of GHG by 46 percent.
Nicole Koharik, Global Sustainability Marketing Director shared her perspective on the importance of sustainability in healthcare, “GOJO has provided hand hygiene solutions for the healthcare industry for more than 20 years. We know that one of the single most important measures to reduce hospital associated infections is effective hand hygiene. Our job at GOJO is to develop solutions that are safe, effective and sustainable. We do this at GOJO through Sustainable Ways of Working which is integrated into our daily work. This has helped us put this commitment into everything we do—from our green chemistry practices, material selection and product design to the ways our products are produced.”
This commitment has resulted in the innovation of the world’s largest portfolio of highly effective, green-certified soaps and sanitizers certified by EcoLogo, North America’s most respected third-party environmental standard and certification mark, and USDA Biobased certificationSM along with the following innovations:
- Dispenser design through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a “cradle to grave” approach to making sustainable design decisions that enhance the sustainability profile of our products from material selection to end-of-life recyclability
- Touch-free dispensing with smart electronics engineered to optimize energy efficiency and extend battery life, eliminating the need to change batteries during the life of the dispenser in most installations
- Source reduction through sealed PET refill bottles that use 30 percent less material than traditional HDPE bottles and recycle easily, preserving resources without compromise to the bottles’ integrity and durability
“We could not be more pleased to have GOJO, a leader in hand hygiene and sustainability, sponsor the CleanMed conference,” said Bob Jarboe, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Practice Greenhealth. GOJO recognizes the importance of providing education, resources and green certified products to the healthcare sector to protect public health and the environment.”
For attendees of CleanMed, visit GOJO at booth #304 and for more information about GOJO sustainability progress and its complete portfolio of hand hygiene solutions for healthcare, please visit www.gojo.com/sustainability.
About CleanMed
CleanMed (http://www.cleanmed.org/) is the premier conference on environmental sustainability for the healthcare sector. The conference attracts leaders and key decision makers from across the industry, convening healthcare professionals, university researchers, designers of professional buildings, and vendors of cleaner and safer products and services. Its mission is to accelerate the healthcare sector’s commitment to environmental sustainability and regenerative health to improve the health of people and the environment