GreenLab

Helping to Ensure a Safer and More Sustainable Future

GREENLAB HISTORY + OVERVIEW

Promoting Products with Verifiable Environmental and Safety Attributes

Our GreenLab was founded in 2007 so that KGI could become the leading distributor of sustainable chemicals and packaging materials throughout the Americas. In an age when consumers, not to mention big box stores, are demanding safer and more environmentally friendly products, we realized that many brand owners were confused and ill-prepared to deliver. We launched the GreenLab in response to calls from our customers to provide them with sustainable alternatives, as well as the knowledge to evaluate and utilize such alternatives in their finished products. We are therefore committed to helping our customers first understand, and subsequently mitigate, the environmental footprint and potential health harms of their products and operations. We do so by providing reliable educational resources from trusted parties and by offering products whose environmental and safety claims can be substantiated with scientific evidence.

Some of the environmental and safety attributes we look for when evaluating products for inclusion in our GreenLab portfolio are as follows:

Biodegradable: The product must completely break down and decompose into elements found in nature within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal.
Renewable: The product must be made from an organic natural resource, which can replenish to overcome usage and consumption. Examples include products derived from plants, as opposed to products derived from fossil fuels, which are considered non-renewable resources.
Recyclable: The product can be collected, separated or otherwise recovered from the waste stream through an established recycling program for reuse, or use in manufacturing or assembling another item.
Recycled Content: The product must be composed of materials that have been recovered or otherwise diverted from the waste stream, either during the manufacturing process (pre-consumer content) or after consumer use (post- consumer content).
Non-Carcinogenic: The product must not be listed as a carcinogen by any federal, state or local authority and, for purposes of GreenLab inclusion, should serve as a replacement for a carcinogenic product.
Source Reduction: The product must reduce the volume or toxicity of waste generated by a similar product. Examples include packaging materials that are lighter in weight compared to similar products, thereby generating less waste.

A NOTE ON ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH CLAIMS

Marketers Should Avoid Making Potentially Deceptive or Misleading Green Claims

It should be noted that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued important guidance on the use of environmental marketing claims in order to prevent deception and misrepresentation in the marketplace. Since there is a fine line between a legitimate claim and one that is considered deceptive or misleading, the FTC's “Green Guides” should be consulted before making any green claims about your products. In a nutshell, marketers should:

Avoid making general or sweeping environmental claims;
Carefully qualify their claims, including through disclosure of important facts; and
Ensure that their claims are based on competent and reliable scientific data