By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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GRAND HAVEN—How safe is that bottle of glass cleaner under the sink?

Amid the list of ingredients that most people would find as meaningless as the year of chemistry they took in high school, there may be lurking a dangerous, possibly carcinogenic chemical, ethylene glycol butyl ether, or EGBE. Found in many household and industrial cleaners, including some that claim to be green and biodegradable, the chemical has been linked to fertility disorders in animal tests.

Biosolutions LLC, a manufacturer and distributor of biodegradable cleaners and industrial coolants, is working to produce greener cleaning products and industrial lubricants to reduce industry’s impact on the environment. Founded in 1997, the 10-person company is looking to grow its market share locally while developing a nationwide sales presence.

The company was recently honored with the Michigan Green Chemistry Governor’s Award recognizing Biosolution’s leadership in the burgeoning field of green chemistry.

Operating out of offices in Grand Haven manufacturer Shape Corporation with a small production facility across the street, co-owner Mark Lackner sat down with MiBiz to discuss the company’s growth and its push to bring safer chemicals into industrial settings. Early on, the company decided to go after the certification of its products as a means to differentiate itself from competitors and to capitalize on growing interest in green chemistry and manufacturing.

As a result, the company invests significantly in its certifications, both with recertifying every two years with the FDA, as well as with ISO 9001—a must-have as Biosolutions develops relationships with the automotive and office furniture industries.

Why recertify?

“It keeps out the greenwashing,” Lackner said. “One of our sales guys recognized that green manufacturing was coming. We needed to verify these products.”

Its Green & Clean line of industrial cleaners, degreasers and window cleaners are certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment (DfE) standard. The standard requires that chemical products must have no aquatic toxicity, that 70 percent of the product break down in the environment within 28 days — “The equivalent of a banana peel left outdoors,” said Lackner — and be as effective as the chemicals it replaces.

While the EPA DfE standard attests to products’ environmental bona fide claims, Biosolutions has run into a major obstacle in convincing buyers and facility managers that green products work as well as, and at as competitive prices as, the existing products they hope to replace. Part of the blame, Lackner said, lies with the first generation of green products, which had the goal of avoiding the harsh chemicals in existing products, but frequently were ineffective and more costly. That perception sticks, despite the DfE standard’s requirement that green cleaners be as effective as traditional compounds.

“We are fighting the old lines of distribution. It’s not easy to sell to the old maintenance guys who say it doesn’t smell like butyl (EGBE) and so it won’t work,” Lackner said. “Price-wise, we know we can beat anyone. Sooner or later, the public will demand green cleaners. Right now, people want to do the right thing, but people just don’t know what is in there now.”

The company invests heavily in its chemistry and keeps a close watch on its carbon footprint. By choosing to package its products in high concentrate, the company can save on 90 percent of shipping costs to customers. Two boxes of its 2-ounce concentrate packets contain the same amount of active ingredient as a 55-gallon drum. Biosolutions recently invested in its own packet packaging machine, eliminating the shipping of totes of the concentrate to a packager in Wisconsin.

“We eliminate 80 percent of the water from the concentrate so we’re not shipping water,” Lackner said. “We are shipping 40 pounds of concentrate to Tiara Yachts, as opposed to a 400-pound drum.”

Lackner envisions growing the company’s production capability both in Grand Haven and around the U.S. The current production facility can support $5 million to $8 million in sales revenue, though the company currently sells approximately a quarter of that. Biosolutions could expand nationally by establishing production facilities near its major customers around the nation.

“The secret is the chemistry, not in the manufacturing of it,” he said.

The company has cracked part of the distribution puzzle, inking a deal with Minnesota-based industrial supplier Fastenal to supply green cleaners and lubricants to the company’s 2,300 stores. Building relationships with customers has been a lengthy process, but it is beginning to pay dividends. Biosolutions develops customized products for clients, as well as finds sales channels for its existing product lines.

“I never appreciated distribution before as I do now,” Lackner said. “The longer it takes to sell, the longer the relationship.”