You can take a breath of fresh air the next time you step into a Zoo bathroom – the Houston Zoo recently made a big switch to environmentally-sound cleaning products. The hero behind this story is Building and Grounds Manager Jeff Frenzel.
“I had an “aha!” moment when I was at home late one night cleaning out my fish tank,” recalled Jeff. “I got a bottle of Simple Green out of the garage and saw how well it cleaned the green scum out of the tank, and it’s eco-friendly. Then I thought – why don’t we use products like this at the zoo?”
Jeff, who is also a member of the Zoo’s Green Task Force, began some in-depth research, even phonecalling several companies to find out what they made that might work best for use at a zoo. He needed new products used clean all the staff buildings as well as the public areas.
“We have 1.7 million visitors a year and many of them are children. That means we clean our public restrooms three, sometimes four times a day and deal with some really serious messes at times,” explained Jeff.
As it turns out there were lots of options; many companies now make cleaners that are nontoxic, biodegradable, Green Seal certified or all of the above. Jeff wanted to let the cleaning staff make the choice rather than trying to decide for them what might be the best alternatives. He set up trials with five different companies so the staff could try out and compare their products.
Sylvia and Christine show off the new eco-cleaners
All sixteen members of the housekeeping staff participated in the trials. Jeff then held a meeting and staff discussed their experiences. The cleaning staff then voted on which products they liked best, and those products are the ones the zoo is now using.
“The graffiti remover product was the most noxious and was the most profound improvement as a result,” Jeff noted. The former solvent staff used to remove graffiti from bathroom walls and other places smelled “horrible” and contained some very strong chemicals. “If you accidentally got the mist on your skin, it burned,” said Jeff. Now staff are using a nontoxic product without the sting or the smell and it works equally well at removing graffiti.
An added bonus to the switch is the zoo will save a substantial sum of money with the new products. “Many of the products are superconcentrated,” explained Jeff. We can now create 64 spray bottles of window cleaner, for example, than the four bottles we could make from a gallon of Windex. The cost of the concentrated eco-cleaner is more than Windex ounce per ounce, but the cost of each of the 64 bottles is significantly less than the cost of Windex.
“We ended up reducing the number of total cleaning products from 28 to just 13” as a result of the vote, added Jeff, which will further add to the savings. The impact on the environment is also further reduced from less packaging of the cleaning products and all the energy used to transport bottles of cleaning supplies.
Jeff hopes that the Houston Zoo might provide an example for other zoos around the country to make a switch to more environmentally sound products.
Many of the new products come from Spartan, and there are also two Simple Green products and one from Motsenbocker’s. For more information:
Spartan Green Solutions: http://www.green-solution.com/greensolutions/grnsol.nsf
Simple Green http://www.simplegreen.com
MotsenBocker’s http://www.liftoffinc.com
More Posts Like This!
- Borneo is Burning, But You Can Help Why do we care? The clearing of rainforests poses a threat to hundreds of animal species, including the Asian rhinos...
- Green Tree Pythons Hatch at the Houston Zoo! Green Tree Pythons (Morelia viridis) are native to New Guinea and northern Australia. They are found in many zoo collections...
- Encounter Our Green Aracari Our members and frequent guests would probably describe Natural Encounters as a place where you can see many species from...
- Photo of the Day: April 12 Green Sea Turtle...
- St. Patrick’s Day Green Animals Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Are you wearing your green? Here’s a look at some Houston Zoo animals that show off...
This is interesting. I really enjoy the Houston Zoo. So much to see, and a real dedication to conservation.
Allen Nyhuis, Coauthor: America’s Best Zoos
Thank you Jeff Frenzel, Green pioneer, for spearheading such a wonderful initiative! Sounds like a great switch all around, for the employees, the guests, the animals and the planet!