Lisa Chandler and her business partner Tanya Geisler have started a concept called Coach Buffet to help life and business coaches find clients and to help people find good coaches.  They are excited that Coach Buffet was covered in this morning’s Globe and Mail on the front page of the Life section in an article Speed Interviewing: on your marks, get set, hire!  Check out the article and their site.  They are hosting Coach Buffet Toronto again on Jan 26^th and Coach Buffet Montreal on Jan 28th. There are only 30 spaces for each event.

The Natural Step is launching a series of sustainability courses in Canada this fall, including a workshop in Montreal December 2 and 3. After 20 years of working with companies, communities and NGOs, they are offering level 1 Sustainability for Leaders courses for all those seeking sustainability solutions in the face of complex problems. 

 • Sustainability for Leaders: A Transformative Approach to Sustainability Thinking, Strategy and Results is a 2-day intensive course will provide you with a solid grounding in a proven framework that has been used to guide sustainability change efforts around the world. Identify key messages to build buy-in for your organization by focusing on practical examples and opportunities for dialogue and hands-on application. 

As we watch the progression of the 2009-H1N1 flu, commonly referred to as the human swine flu, we need to remember that the average flu kills 50,000 people, and the H1N1 flu is not average. In fact, it seems to attack the healthiest people, causing their extremely healthy immune systems to overreact. It is this overreaction that causes the pneumonia-like condition that may result in death. Many people continue to ask about disinfectants registered to kill H1N1. The official position of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not changed. The EPA continues to support the use of disinfectants registered to kill Influenza A virus as effective against the 2009-H1N1 flu strain. Enviro-Solutions carries the Influenza A virus kill claim on ES64 General Purpose Neutral Disinfectant Cleaner (at 2 oz/gal), ES256 Neutral Disinfectant Concentrate (at 0.5 oz/gal), and ES512 Sanitizer/Disinfectant (at 0.7 oz/gal).

In the United States, the governing body for disinfectants is the EPA. The EPA determines what disinfectants are to be used for specific biological threats. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will defer to the EPA for these kinds of details, since the EPA must approve the products and the manufacturer’s instructions for use. The EPA has released a statement about disinfectants for use against H1N1.

The EPA statement is available on their website at:

http://www.epa.gov/oppad001/influenza-disinfectants.html The statement reads in part: Antimicrobial Products Registered for Use Against the H1N1 Flu and Other Influenza A Viruses on Hard Surfaces

EPA registers pesticide products, including disinfectants. As part of the registration process, EPA evaluates the product efficacy to make sure the public health label claims are accurate. Currently, over 500 disinfectant products are registered for use on hard, non-porous surfaces against influenza A viruses. EPA believes, based on available scientific information, that the currently registered influenza A virus products will be effective against the 2009-H1N1 flu strain and other influenza A virus strains on hard, non-porous surfaces. For safe and effective use of these products, always follow label instructions for these products, paying special attention to the product dilution rate (if applicable) and contact time. Choose a product whose label states that it is effective against “Influenza A virus” and lists your specific site of concern, such as: farm premises, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, schools, offices or homes. These products are widely available and can be purchased at drugstores, supermarkets, and home maintenance/repair stores, among others. In the same article, the EPA offers access to a list of 500 antimicrobial products that are specifically registered for the H1N1 virus. They state that it is .not a complete list since some products may have different distributor or product names.. Enviro-Solutions is represented on the list–you just have to know where to look. Every disinfectant product offered in the United States has an EPA registration number. The EPA Reg number is used to identify the product’s initial registrant and the formula, as well as the location or company that was involved with blending or distributing the product.

Enviro-Solutions ES64 Neutral Disinfectant and Enviro-Solutions ES256 Neutral Disinfectant Concentrate are on the list as subregistrations from Lonza, Inc. Lonza is one of the world.s largest and most respected raw quat suppliers. They are well known to have pioneered a huge number of state-of-the-art quats, which is why Enviro-Solutions uses them as a supplier.

Enviro-Solutions ES64 Neutral Disinfectant has the EPA Reg number 6836-204-68138, which indicates that Lonza is the primary registrant (#6836), it is their formula (#204), and it is subregistered to Enviro-Solutions (#68138). Enviro-Solutions ES256 Neutral Disinfectant Concentrate has the EPA Reg number 6836-205-68138, which indicates that is Lonza.s formula #205 and is subregistered to Enviro-Solutions.

Our position regarding disinfectants for H1N1

Due to the highly contagious nature of this virus, we have been recommending that facilities upgrade from neutral floor cleaners to our ES256 Neutral Disinfectant Concentrate for floors and above-the-floor surfaces (including touch points) as soon as the virus is detected in the community (DEFCON 2). We have been recommending upgrading to our ES64 Neutral Disinfectant Cleaner for floors and above-the-floor surfaces (including touch points) as soon as the virus is detected within the facility (DEFCON 3). Keep in mind, for complete decontamination procedures, we always recommend disinfecting precleaned surfaces to guarantee that the entire surface area has been completely disinfected. Other concerns related to indoor air quality

The other dominant questions and concerns revolve around the impact of disinfectants on the indoor air quality, specifically, the health and safety of the facility’s occupants. These are valid concerns. There are scores of extremely powerful and potentially corrosive chemicals that would have a very negative effect on the indoor air quality. Consider bleach: while it is well accepted that bleach is corrosive enough to kill almost all pathogenic microorganisms, it also has the ability to damage surfaces and cause varying forms of respiratory distress in building occupants.

Incorporate several disinfectant solutions 

It is with this in mind that drives the point that the best disinfectant program will incorporate several disinfectant solutions. An operating room, for example, would benefit from an extremely aggressive disinfectant, whereas certain public areas and private offices could be disinfected with far less corrosive and dangerous disinfectants. Practice Greenhealth (H2E) had this to say in a recent article: …best practices can assure that disinfection is highly effective without involving unnecessary exposure for workers, staff, and patients, and such practices should be encouraged as part of environmentally sound cleaning operations. These include careful classification of areas of the hospital as critical, semi-critical, and non-critical, using the appropriate product for target microorganisms, using products at the appropriate concentration and for the proper residence time. Infection control must also incorporate many essential practices unrelated to cleaning, like increased hand-washing. And… Health care facilities throughout the country have successfully implemented green cleaning programs while maintaining the efficacy of their infection control efforts. Practice Greenhealth encourages health care facilities to continue to adopt environmentally sound cleaning as an overall quality improvement program, carefully considering each aspect of implementation.

http://cms.h2e-online.org/ee/facilities/greencleaning/

The point is that we should incorporate several different disinfectants in a highly efficient program. We can maximize effectiveness where it is critically needed with the use of RTU (ready-to-use) disinfectants and use cost effective disinfectant solutions (1:64 or 1:256) in other areas. By approaching it that way, we will accomplish exactly what we want, while minimizing overall costs.

With the miracle of modern media and the Internet, we have been kept very aware of this emerging threat, much sooner than we would have been just 20 years ago. Back then, the general public probably wouldn’t even know about it yet. Also, keep in mind that the 1918 pandemic hit in three waves, not one, ultimately taking between 50 million and 100 million lives. We have to stay on top of this. Here are some excellent websites that will allow us to closely track this outbreak:

HealthMap.com is a global disease alert map pinpointing each H1N1 flu outbreak location, with a brief description of the event. http://healthmap.org/swineflu The CDC has been providing daily press briefings. The MP3 audio and transcripts will keep you very current. http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/press/ Another very interesting site is PandemicFlu.gov. The site acts as a clearinghouse for current information on H1N1 from the CDC, the World Health Organization (WHO), the FDA, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and others. http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ Also, the WHO is providing daily updates on their site.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/index.htm The website for the Public Health Agency of Canada provides daily updates, also. Very specific to the Canadian threat. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/alert-alerte/swine_200904-eng.php Literally thousands of Web pages provide information on H1N1, and many appear very alert to the ever-present threat of even newer pathogenic threats. I suggest bookmarking key sites and checking them often. Even when this threat is past, we need to stay alert and be prepared for the next biological threat that might be just over the horizon. After all, our customers, our communities, and our own families are counting on us to be their front line of defense.

We are pleased to be working with VShips Canada, a leading international ship management company, to replace hazardous chemicals on board their fleet in Canadian waterways. We will be introducing plant based products which have been tested for aquatic toxicity and are EcoLogo certified to replace cleaners, solvents, and degreasers

This summer started out cold and wet in Eastern Canada while the West was burning up. Normal weather fluctuations, or indicators of climate change? There seems to be consensus among the scientific community that both those trends are more likely to be the norm as parts of Canada see an increase in precipitation and other areas experience drought.
What does that have to do with BioCanadian? We maintain that our role as an environmental company is helping our customers make changes to the way they do business, while saving them money.
Recently, Canadian Business Journal profiled BioCanadian (click here) for their summer edition and in it we had a chance to discuss our philosophy on change. We know that change is seen as uncomfortable, whether it is a change in your golf swing, or a change in business process. We always work with our customers to make change comfortable over time. What that means is, we expect hiccups, we expect resistence, and we expect an uphill battle. But we are persistent, and at the end of the day, if our customers feel comfortable knowing they have a trusted supplier they can rely on for highly certified environmentally preferred products that work and save them money  then we have done our job.
When it comes to protecting our health, our environment, and our bottom line, we work together with our customers to make change comfortable.

A short note to speak to the need to challenge green claims made without recognized 3rd party data. Many customers ask us about the degree of security we offer in our green claims. BioCanadian offers the highest level of reliable test data through recognized organizations such as EcoLogo, GreenSeal, and EPA Design for the Environment.
For example, the logo at left is a a GEMTEK Products logo, which we proudly distribute. It has no merit on its own except to identify us as using renewable resources in lieu of petroleum based chemicals. Who says? That is information we help guide out customers to in our safety data sheets, lab testing results, certifications which allude to biodegradability, reactivity, toxicity, etc. Don’t take our word for it - the data speaks for itself.

Ironically, of greater importance to all our customers is performance.  As an environmental company, it is our stated goal that we always work towards the elimination of hazardous chemicals in the workplace. For that to happen, our end users need to be satisfied with the results. Several municipalities, utilities, animal care facilities, food processing companies, aerospace manufacturers, etc. have entrusted us to help transition away from traditional petro-based chemicals with great results for both safety and bottom-line imrovements.

Hospitals all over the world are slowly but surely jumping on the Green bandwagon. Some facilities have investigated new, more sustainable power sources such as wind power, which can help to reduce a facility’s carbon footprint and fossil fuel usage. Others have developed elaborate recycling programs, installed water-reducing or no-water restroom fixtures, and taken other steps to minimize their impact on the environment.

All of these steps are significant because hospitals are 24/7 facilities that use huge volumes of natural resources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, estimates that hospitals use twice as much energy per square foot as office buildings.

However, when it comes to the use of Green cleaning chemicals, hospitals, as well as many other health-care facilities, have been a bit slow to come onboard. There are several reasons for this. Among them are:

•       Federal regulations require the use of certain types of chemicals, specifically disinfectants, in certain areas of hospitals. In the United States, these products can not be recognized as environmentally preferable.

•       Some hospital administrators question the effectiveness of Green cleaning products in general, feeling they may not be safe to use in situations where health is paramount.

•       Concerns about costs and acceptance of the products by administrators and custodians have also stymied Green cleaning efforts in hospitals.

Nevertheless, some hospitals are transferring to Green cleaning.

The experience of one Green-cleaned hospital, Bloomington Hospital, Bloomington, Indiana, and its Director of Environmental Services, John Freeman, provides a glimpse as to how the process can evolve and be implemented.

John, when did you first start the process of transferring to Green cleaning at Bloomington Hospital?

We have been considering this for a while and actually started the process in 2008.  The hospital had been looking to upgrade its cleaning systems. This opened the door for us to investigate Green cleaning and see if it would work for us.

What concerns did you have about Green products?

Of course performance was at the top of our list, as were costs. In selecting Green cleaning products we considered:

•       how they could impact the hospital’s infection rate (positively or negatively)

•       how frequently we would use the product

•       the performance of the product

•       if there would be a cost increase or savings involved in using the product

•       the product’s impact on time and labor

•       vendor and distributor serviceability and assistance

We found several products that worked well; in fact, we did not find any that I would say performed poorly. Ultimately, we settled on one manufacturer’s Green chemical product line.

As to costs, we initially budgeted a cost increase of about 6.5 percent to cover the costs of the environmentally preferable cleaning chemicals, but we now think we will actually lower our chemical and labor costs by 8 to 13 percent by using the Green cleaning chemicals.

Are there areas of the hospital where you are not using Green cleaning chemicals?

There are government regulations requiring the use of conventional disinfectants in certain areas such as surgery suites, emergency departments, patient bedsides, and bathrooms, where there is a potentially higher vulnerability to the spread of germs.

Once you started using the Green chemicals, was there any initial reaction from the staff or patients?

Yes. Throughout the facility, there was a much more pleasant scent. Our patients noticed it, as did administrators and our Environmental Services team.

As to the cleaning staff, can you tell us more about their reaction to the Green cleaning products?

There is always some hesitance to change to new cleaning products of any kind. But we made sure our Environmental Services team was involved with the process from the start, testing the products and evaluating them. As they came to realize the products were as good as, if not better, than what we were using before, they took ownership of the products and actually became our most enthusiastic supporters for them.

And the administrators?

Of course they liked the more pleasant scent, as I have already mentioned. We also found that we could release the [hard surface] floor areas back to the nursing staff in as much as half the time using the environmentally preferable sealers and finishes—this really delighted them. Now we are starting to see a much greater collaboration between administrators, our Environmental Services team, and bedside caregivers because they all like the Green cleaning products.

Do you think more hospitals will follow your lead?

Definitely. I think more hospitals will begin selecting Green cleaning chemicals and use them wherever they can.

What more advice do you have for other hospitals and those cleaning professionals involved in hospital cleaning as to Green cleaning?

Get everyone onboard when considering the transfer to Green cleaning chemicals. This includes the cleaning staff, most importantly, because they are the ones that will be using the products every day, but also administrators and staff. If there is an infection control committee or product review committee at the hospital, they also must be involved with the process from the start.  Also, finding a distributor that is well versed in Green cleaning and really knows the products available, which work best in which situations, and how to use them can be invaluable. The distributor is your guide, educator, and conductor, orchestrating the Green Cleaning process

Marc Trudel, President of BioCanadian, will be attending a global summit in Nashville with Mr. Al Gore, Dr. David Suzuki, and others from the Climate Project global community on May 14-16. The meeting will offer a chance for volunteers from around the world to share ideas about how best to mobilize action within their various government, industry, and community sectors towards the withdrawal from a fossil fuel driven economy.

Happy Earth Day to all. A recent article on the front page of the National Post (Tuesday March 31) spun a precautionary tale about how the recent flood of green cleaning products and disinfectants are often ineffective against the spread of infections in hospitals across Canada.
The article highlights what is essentially a longtime misconception within the cleaning industry concerning what constitutes effective cleaning, and how hospitals, and a host of other institutions (e.g. schools, food service, agricultural production, daycares) can reduce infection rates within their facilities.Kim Kristoff, President of GEMTEK Products, responded to the National Post with an explanation regarding the difference between cleaning and disinfecting.

Read his response here.

Further to that, there is an excellent article on the great debate between the use of soap and sanitizer contained in the recent Cleanlink newsletter. Read it here.

BioCanadian focuses on green solutions for their customers. The emphasis is on fully engaged green process, as opposed to simply changing one product for another. At the end of the day, whether you are cleaning hands, or aircraft parts, green cleaning involves first and foremost, proper procedures. Without strict guidelines in place, green or not, the rate of infection will increase at hospitals, and hazardous chemical use will continue to be falsely seen as necessary when in fact over 90% of the time, we can effectively lower the ability for harmful bacteria to proliferate through effective cleaning with SC-1000 Aqueous Cleaner Concentrate which saves our customers time, effort, and money.