Customers, Employees Seek Environmentally Safe Products

Ward Prine is also a fan of engineered water. Prine, president and CEO of Corporate Caddie Janitorial, has been using an engineered water product incorporating ozone since 2011, when he first piloted it in one of his facilities. Now, he uses this technology for all his accounts.

Located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the building service contractor’s primarily focuses on the healthcare market, but the company also serves commercial office clients. Prine, who has around 60 team members/employees, became intrigued by engineered water upon hearing the use of these products for facility cleaning was on the rise throughout the country. He decided to give it a try and liked what he saw.

“My clients also liked the results and liked how we introduced an environmentally safe and responsible product to clean with in their buildings,” he says. “But the overwhelming reason why I use the products is because of my employees. This product is extremely safe for them to use and it works.”

Brewer’s desire to go greener drove him to explore engineered water. Sustainability has been a long-standing interest for the district, and of Brewers’, who has been involved in the Healthy Schools Campaign since its inception in 2015. To this end, about six or seven years ago, the school district began using hydrogen peroxide to clean carpets; a greener option than what they had been using previously and one that worked well. Still, he wanted to go greener, hence the adoption of engineered water, which he says cleans the carpets even better and offers a higher level of infection control, whether it’s used on carpets or other surfaces.

Salt Lake City School District’s 200 full-time and part-time custodians have reacted positively to this cleaning tool, finding the odor-free products more pleasant to use than conventional chemicals, says Brewer.

“They also make cleaning easier, faster and more efficient,” he says. “For example, a restroom cleaned with chemical cleaners would require four chemicals and take about 20 minutes. However, with engineered water, it takes one product and when used with new processes or equipment, can reduce the cleaning time.”  

In Krause’s case, it was the staff who asked about trying a water-based product, wanting to do so for sustainability reasons and because of a desire to avoid the undesirable side effects — such as skin rashes and breathing problems — associated with traditional chemicals.

“Quite simply, we wanted something that could eliminate the number of products we used and that didn’t have negative impacts on staff, residents, our facilities or on the environment,” she says.

Krause also touts the efficiency benefits of engineered water: “No more 10-minute dwell times for disinfectants,” she says. The cost savings have proven attractive, too. She estimates the university has saved $25,000 per year on products alone, while also reducing costs associated with storage space, disposal, transportation and training.