Historically, green floor finishes were considered inferior to conventional floor finishes. That belief was generally based on the durability of green floor finish. Third-party floor finish certifications, such as Green Seal GS-40 or ECOLOGO UL 2777, contain many stringent requirements, but eliminating metal compounds from the floor finish is the most significant factor.
Conventional floor finishes generally utilize zinc for “crosslinking” within the formula. This creates a strong and durable bond, helping with durability, wear, scuff resistance, etc. Some early green floor finishes used calcium for crosslinking instead of zinc. While they met third-party standards, they didn’t meet customer standards. It wasn’t as durable, and the finish “walked off,” leading to more maintenance and expense for facility operators.
Today, more progressive chemists have designed a method that enables polymers within floor finish to interlink with each other within the formula. They don’t require zinc or calcium crosslinking. This interlinking creates a more robust platform than anything we’ve ever seen, and they meet all third-party green certification standards.
Why does this matter?
New green floor finishes, like our regional company WAXIE Sanitary Supply’s WAXIE-Green Armor II and WAXIE-Green Advantage Plus, create a more durable, scuff-resistant finish than ever before. Based upon this new advanced polymer technology, it is now possible to use these low VOC third-party certified floor finishes and achieve the same results as you would expect from a high-quality "traditional" floor finish.
Most importantly, these finishes last longer, which means less burnishing, less scrub and recoats, and less stripping. Labor, material, energy, and waste savings are significant, contributing to a triple bottom line payoff for your facility, safer for people, less impact on the environment, and cost savings to operations.
Developing your hard floor care program
The best way to get started is to define your desired objectives by category:- Performance/customer expectations
- Health & Safety
- Environmental impact
- Operational cost
Then set a baseline from your current program. Finally, work with your staff, peers, and industry experts to develop the best program to improve floor care maintenance. You may be surprised how technology and processes have advanced to allow you to improve your operations while using more sustainable products.
