GaiaClean Brings Green Cleaning Solutions to Bigger Stage

The past decade has seen an explosion in both the production and use of green cleaning products. As a result, brands like Seventh Generation and Simple Green have assumed a household notoriety on par with – and arguably exceeding – their old-fashioned, chemical-laden counterparts.

But what about the offices and hospitals, hotels and restaurants, stores and schools – the proverbial homes away from home where we spend almost as much time as our own abodes? In places like this, where various health codes demand more rigorous and regular cleaning regimens, are we being forced to betray our eco-friendly instincts for the sake of sterile surroundings?

No longer, says Tara Phillips, President of Rye-based GaiaClean. Launched last fall under the parent company DBL Values, GaiaClean – which boasts a satellite office in California – manufactures green cleaning products for commercial, government and institutional applications. With an international client list that includes myriad entities public and private, GaiaClean aims to show how large-scale operations can learn to clean green – and do so without breaking the bank or skimping on performance.

The company’s inventory features nine cutting-edge products, each of which touts its own unique, earth-friendly features. From disinfectants that kill 99.9% of germs without jeopardizing human health, to plant-based all purpose cleaners and a unique slip-resistant floor solution that prevents slip and fall accidents, GaiaClean is well on their way to realizing their goal of eliminating the use of poisonous chemical cleaners and creating a healthier and safer workplace.

“We often take for granted how much exposure we have to these harmful chemicals, and it’s not something that people tend to think about,” explains Phillips. “But if you had a choice between two products, where one is just as effective as the other and poses far fewer health risks, which would you chose?

The question may be a rhetorical one, but for Phillips the question is as crucial as the answer is clear. To date, two of GaiaClean’s products have been certified plant-based by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the others set to come on board by the end of this year.

But GaiaClean’s green features don’t start and stop with the ingredients themselves, they have gone to great lengths to assure each step of the business is ecologically sound; their concentrated formulas eliminate unnecessary packaging and storage requirements, while the packaging itself – which Phillips hopes to render completely bio-degradable in the future – is already 100% recyclable.

While part of her business involves selling directly to clients – restaurants, hospitals, hotels, and the like – Philips has also forged relationships with janitorial service providers for businesses looking to outsource their facility maintenance.

Take Mike Lalime, Owner of the Portsmouth-based First Response Cleaning and Restoration. In the past week alone, Lalime’s company has done work helping restore and render safe a biohazard cleanup in Newmarket, and a Portsmouth restaurant inundated with water from malfunctioning sprinklers. Traditionally, the work carried out by companies like First Response – mold, biohazards, fire and water damage being chief among them – required chemicals and cleaners not exactly renowned for being clean or gentle.

“Some of the chemicals we use require protective eyewear, gloves, all of that – and some of them can even be deadly,” says Lalime. “But I’ve always been of the thought that if there’s a greener product out there that works, we’ll use it.”

Enter Tara Phillips, to whom Lalime was introduced by a mutual friend and business associate. Since teaming up with Phillips, First Response has incorporated all nine of GaiaClean’s products in various applications and job sites. And Lalime says all of them – from the disinfectant to the floor stripper to the sanitizer – have been more than up to snuff.

“Our clients request green and chemical-free alternatives pretty regularly, so we’ve used a number of different brands, and GaiaClean’s are rare in that they’re often even more effective than the chemical-heavy brands,” he says. “There’s always that concern that the green product won’t work as well, but it’s just not true in this case.”

In fact, some of GaiaClean’s products are so safe, masks or gloves need not apply.

“I still make my guys wear gloves sometimes,” notes Lalime, whose green shift has included the adoption of a paperless billing system. “but it’s just so they don’t have to constantly wash their hands – that’s how safe they are,” says Lalime

When it comes to landing on the greater green radar, partnerships like GaiaClean and First Response might not first register as the brightest of blips – at least not to the general public. But when you take into account how many hundreds – if not thousands – of people will come into contact with restaurants, hotels, and other oft-frequented entities, the incorporation of green cleaning and maintenance products has an effect far beyond what the naked eye might notice.

“The demand for green needs to go beyond our home cleaning regimens, and has to begin to include where we work, where we send our kids to school, and even where we play,” exclaims Phillips. “We hear it all the time – green costs more and does not work as well. This is just fundamentally not the case and we’ve proven that.

“From our perspective, as long as our schools, hospitals, recreation facilities and corporate offices are being so called cleaned using harmful chemicals, our job isn’t done. But we think we’re off to a pretty good start.”

Learn more at www.gaiaclean.com

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