This continues our series on selling green products.  Now that we have completed the tips on selecting and selling cleaning chemicals, it is time to move on to our next product category – janitorial paper products.  This will be a two part series and this particular article will lay out some of the basics and then get into the recycling issue.  Part 2 which will be published next month, will cover source reduction strategies and dispensers, along with bleaching and other issues to complete what you should know to succeed when selling green janitorial paper products.

In the previous “Selling Green Products” articles we spent time discussing what truly makes a product green.  And some of this has been pretty straightforward especially when building your bundle of cleaning chemicals because the standards have been clearly established. 

To refresh (or if you are a first time reader), I recommend that you go back and read some of the past issues of DestinationGreen including Building your Bundle (Issue 2) and several others early issues on the green selling process in general (for the complete list of achieved articles, click here).

But perhaps the most important thing for you to remember is that a green product is NOT merely one that has been “certified” by a not-for-profit organization or the government.  Certification programs are simply intended to make it easier for everyone (including yourself) to identify green products including purchasers, manufacturers, distributors, service providers, product users, building occupants, etc.

For you to succeed at selling green products and services, it is important to make sure that you clearly understand the big picture and the definition of a green product which is one that will “reduce the health and environmental impacts compared to similar products used for the same purpose.”  This definition comes from Presidential Executive Order 13101 and is one of the most important definitions that you not only should know, but should easily flow from your lips when asked to define a green product. 

Thus when we are trying to reduce the health and environmental impacts associated with janitorial paper products there are a number of specific issues to keep in mind.

Recycled Content
While the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) hierarchy is reduce, reuse and recycle – most environmentalists and green building people (which in this article I will simply refer to as the “green community”) are going to be interested in the recycled content of your paper products.  And to quickly put this hierarchy issue to rest – the green community indeed wants to reduce consumption (which we will talk about next month), but they want it ALL!  The green community from their experience now know that they can both buy products with recycled content AND reduce consumption at the same time – it is NOT an either/or situation.  And by purchasing products with recycled content they are helping to build the infrastructure for recycling at the same time. 

There are many reasons to buy (and for you to sell) recycled paper.  For example, did you know that every year the commercial and institutional cleaning industry consumes approximately 4.5 Billion pounds of janitorial paper products (i.e. towels, tissues, toilet paper and napkins)?  And if all of this was made from virgin tree fiber, it would require the cutting of approximately 35 million trees – EVERY YEAR!  And while the paper companies do in fact plant 2 or more trees for every one they cut, using paper made from virgin fiber would nonetheless have huge impacts on our forest and the environment in general.

Did you know that for each 80 cases (approximately one ton) of virgin-fiber janitorial paper that was replaced with 100 percent recycled fiber we could save:

• 17 trees
• 4,100 kwh of energy (enough to power the average home for six months)
• 7,000 gallons of water
• 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space

And of course this does not comment on the positive impacts that this would have on our forests and biodiversity, nor does these saving address the reductions in pollution to the air and water – issues that can directly affect health.

Two additional issues about recycled products. 

1. The green community while concerned about the total recycled content of the product will be particularly interested in the “post-consumer” content.  This is the recycled content that has been picked-up at curbside primarily from municipal recycling efforts as part of the green community’s efforts to help build the recycling/collection infrastructure.  So while the total recycled content is important, you will need to know the post-consumer content levels because this is what they will ask you for.
2. For minimum recycled content levels the green community is typically using EPA’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines which establishes the recycled content requirements for a variety of products including janitorial paper products.  Information on this program and the specific percentages of post- and total recycled content for each type of janitorial paper can be found at http://www.epa.gov/cpg/products/tissue.htm

You should also be aware when selling recycled janitorial paper products that your customer and his/her occupants may have some pre-existing biases – and not all of them are positive.  Dating back to the 1970’s, janitorial paper was typically brown, scratchy and non-absorbent.  As a result, many people had very bad experiences with them. 

Today when selling recycled paper products it is important to recognize that manufacturers offer a wide range of products from that old low quality stuff to products that perform very well compared to virgin products.  And be prepared to “educate” your customers about the improvement in recycled paper technologies and explain to them that this is the time to give it another try.

Thus when selling green janitorial paper products, the first step is to look for products with the highest amount of recycled content that will meet your customers performance and cost requirements.  And be prepared to help your customer “sell” the value of using recycled paper products to their occupants.

Next month we will continue with Part 2 of this Green Selling Tip of Janitorial Paper Products by discussing dispensing, bleaching and other issues.

Good luck selling your Green Cleaning program.  Remember, customers are going to buy green products from someone, and we’d prefer that it’s from you!