We at UMass Lowell want our faculty, staff, students, and fellow species to be as healthy as possible. As such, we have taken great strides to ensure that our cleaning products are as safe as possible. Cleaning products, surprisingly, can often be harmful to the people cleaning them, the people that touch the cleaned products, and the rest of the species that come in contact with the runoff from the cleaning process.

In light of this, we at UMass Lowell aim to purchase cleaning and janitorial supplies in line with AASHE STARS's purchasing guidelines. This means that our products aim to satisfy at least one of, and ideally multiple of, the following requirements:

These priorities are reflected in UMass Lowell’s Green Cleaning Policy. Such measures ensure that custodians are not harmed while using such products, that students, faculty, and other staff stay as healthy as possible while working or studying, and that the surrounding ecosystems are not poisoned!

What These Certifications Mean

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified content in paper indicates that the trees cut down were done so in a sustainable fashion. The Forest Stewardship Council uses 10 principles and criteria to ensure that the trees were sourced in an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable fashion. Feel free to use their FSC Certification database to find FSC certified products!

Green Seal was the first environmental certification certifying nonprofit in the US. Products that they certify with a Green Seal satisfy “credible, transparent, and essential...Environmental Leadership Standards”. Feel free to use their Green Seal certification search to find Green Seal certified products!

Products that are UL ECOLOGO certified have undergone "voluntary, multi-attribute, life-cycle based environmental certifications that indicate a product has undergone rigorous scientific testing, exhaustive auditing, or both, to prove its compliance with stringent, third-party, environmental performance standards." Feel free to use their SPOT database search to find UL ECOLOGO certified products!

The U.S. EPA's Safer Choice program uses their own compliance standards to identify products that "perform and are safer for human health and the environment." Feel free to use their Safer Choice product listing search tool!

Cosmetics' Health Impact Database

Looking to purchase soap, toothpaste, or eyeliner? Don't want a heaping dose of carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) to come with it? Then check out the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, a webpage that the Environmental Working Group developed to help you choose safer cosmetic products!