Jelmar, PurposeBuilt earn EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year awards
Jelmar LLC in Skokie and PurposeBuilt Brands, formerly Weiman Products, in Gurnee are among 18 winners nationwide of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice Partner of the Year award. The award recognizes for achievement in the design, manufacture, selection, and use of products with safer chemicals.
Jelmar, a woman-owned cleaning product manufacturer, is being recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Formulator-Product Manufacturer for the sixth consecutive year. Jelmar manufactures 20 product types across its consumer and professional lines of products, 11 of which are Safer Choice-certified products.
"It's an honor to be recognized as a 2020 EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award winner," said Alison Gutterman, CEO and President of Jelmar. "We have been committed partners with the EPA since 2005 and strive to evolve and develop our products with the safety of the environment and our customers' front of mind. While using EPA-approved ingredients, we've continued to maintain a standard of strong and effective products."
PurposeBuilt Brands, a cleaning product manufacturer, is being recognized for a 2019 sustainability initiative highlighting their new Safer Choice partnership. PurposeBuilt evaluated all products in their seven consumer brand portfolios to determine which products could be submitted as Safer Choice "as is" and which needed to be reformulated for submission. Throughout 2019, they reformulated numerous products and had three products certified as Safer Choice.
"Several years ago, we launched a corporate-wide sustainability initiative. One of our key focus areas is product stewardship, how can we make our products better for not just the environment, but for our consumers too," said PurposeBuilt Brands Marketing Director Heather Gaspar. "Safer Choice was the perfect partner to help in setting guidelines for our products to follow and the Safer Choice team has been an incredible partner in helping us achieve our sustainability goals."