Tom Branna, Editorial Director12.01.21
Even LeBron James appreciates a clean work environment. When the Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) cleaning and maintenance staff was preparing for the reopening of the arena in April, Ignacio Guerra, VP-operations and parking, alerted the Los Angeles Lakers that his crew would need extra time to make the facility safe and get the court in top condition. But that extra time cut into James’ practice time; the NBA great is known to take to the court hours before tipoff.
“We were sanitizing the backboard and rim and he stood there and said, ‘I like it,’” recalled Guerra, who spoke during a panel at last month’s ISSA Show. “Our staff couldn’t believe LeBron watched them clean the rim.”
King James isn’t the only one noticing a clean work environment these days. Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about cleaning remains paramount for employers, employees and the public. Those concerns have elevated the industrial and institutional cleaning business in the eyes of many.
“I’ve advocated for daytime cleaning in the industry. Most work was usually done at night, because crews could work faster in an empty building,” said Rob Kohlhagen, senior director, sales and marketing, Diversey. “Lawyers and bankers didn’t want to see maintenance crews during business hours. Now, that attitude has been flipped. Businesses want to see the cleaners. Daytime cleaning is more sustainable, too. You don’t need to leave lights on all night.”
And a daytime cleaning job may be more attractive to potential employees. Like so many other businesses, the I&I industry has been hard-hit by a lack of workers.
At last month’s ISSA Show North America in Las Vegas, hundreds of suppliers turned out to welcome thousands of visitors interested in the latest cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting formulas and equipment.
“We’ve been tested in profound ways, with labor shortages, supply chain issues and business closures,” observed ISSA Executive Director John Barrett. “The pandemic hurt, but there are opportunities. The past 20 months have proved that the cleaning industry is essential. The public is making that connection and it is up to us to keep the momentum going.”
The Association’s Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) helps organizations and businesses prepare for, respond to and recover from biological threats, biohazard situations and real-time crises. The GBAC Star Accreditation Program helps facilities establish a comprehensive system of cleaning, disinfection and infectious disease prevention for their staff and building. Now, building service contractors can be accredited, too.
The popularity of the GBAC Star program underscores Kohlhagen’s assessment that, nearly two years into the pandemic, there is still a heightened level of demand for disinfection that goes beyond cleaning. That’s created demand for disinfecting wipes.
“We call it ‘cooperative cleaning,’” he explained. “In the past, all cleaning was done by the janitorial staff. Now, businesses and schools are keeping wipes on hand so people can wipe door handles, shopping carts, etc.”
According to research conducted by Clorox in 2021, Americans have dramatically increased the commitments to their disinfecting regimen in both public and private spaces. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (61%) report they are disinfecting hard surfaces in their home at least once a day. Outside of the home, as many as two in three Americans are regularly disinfecting hard surfaces in public, bringing their own disinfectants with them when they leave their house and disinfecting items brought into their home.
“Many of the behaviors, mindsets and expectations of cleanliness and personal safety that consumers have adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to play an important role in helping to prevent the spread of other illness-causing germs well beyond this period,” said Lynda Lurie, senior director of marketing, Clorox Professional Products.
She said there is a new appreciation for the role cleaning and disinfecting play in public health, and this is not something that will go away as the pandemic subsides.
“There is a role for proper cleaning and regular disinfecting in everyday life—before, during and after COVID-19—but maintaining public spaces that are just clean is no longer enough,” observed Lurie. “As communities and businesses look to reestablish occupancy, it is critical to find better approaches to cleaning and disinfecting surfaces to ensure it’s done effectively and in a way that helps safeguard public health. Clorox is dedicated to creating a cleaner future where we all can thrive.”
Kohlhagen said there is data detailing the impact that better cleaning and disinfection can have on presenteeism. But at the same time, he added, the pandemic may have finally convinced employees to stay home when they are sick.
Sector Strength & Weakness
Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, some I&I sectors are sicker than others. Brett Friedman, CEO of Precision, a B2B data provider, said office and lodging will not get back to 2019 levels in 2022. On the flip side, health care is doing well, especially acute care which is outperforming primary and long-term care. Friedman added that education and food service sales have improved as students returned to school throughout 2021.
John Kelley of JLL, a commercial real estate services company, warned that commercial real estate will continue to be battered by COVID-19.
“We don’t know when we will get back to business as usual,” he told attendees at ISSA Show. “The concern is that there is a major uptick in COVID-19 cases in Europe and that will set the region’s recovery back to 2023. We’re also concerned that’s what taking place in Europe will come to North America.”
According to Kline Group data, 2020 US sales of foodservice and janitorial cleaning chemicals fell 4.8% to less than $7.5 billion. The good news is that Kline expects sales to increase 7.7% to over $8.0 billion this year, according to Laura Mahecha, industry manager, Kline Group. KlinePULSE offers in-depth I&I reports and hot topic briefs published throughout the year.
“Due to all of the closures and reduced on-premise dining in 2020 the overall market was down,” said Mahecha.
The 2021 comeback has been driven by building reopenings, on premise dining, schools/colleges reopening, increased leisure and business travel. Kline recently published a study entitled, “Six Cleaning Trends Turbocharged by the Pandemic.” The top trends according to Kline include:
So which approach came out on top? Based on Kline’s July 2021 Foodservice Cleaning Products study, 60.6% of survey respondents looked for sustainable ingredients, while 32.2% switched from green products to those that were chemical-based. Clearly, the pandemic hasn’t slowed the march toward green-based cleaning solutions.
Clorox Professional Products executives report a rebound in I&I sales. According to Lurie, there’s been a strong return across key sectors of the I&I market and Clorox Pro is supporting them with products and protocols every step of the way.
“Clorox is collaborating with organizations and iconic brands across these key sectors, including retail, travel, hospitality, sports, entertainment and transportation, to instill confidence in returning to shared spaces and increase safety measures long-term,” said Lurie. “We are committed to helping improve public health and safety as people resume the activities they’ve paused since the start of the pandemic.”
The 2019 edition of ISSA Show North America, which was also held in Las Vegas, set record attendance and featured more than 650 exhibitors. This year’s edition didn’t match the event from two years ago, as some past exhibitors made the decision not to attend. According to Lurie, out of an abundance of caution for its employees, business partners and community, CloroxPro did not attend ISSA.
“While this is not a decision we made lightly, we have decided to heed the CDC’s guidance to avoid large gatherings especially heading into the holiday season,” she added.
Travel decisions haven’t impacted new product launches. CloroxPro expanded its touchless disinfection portfolio with the Clorox TurboPro Handheld Electrostatic Sprayer and a platform of disinfecting chemistries that are EPA-registered for use through sprayer devices.
“Combined with our portfolio of ready-to-use cleaners, comprehensive protocols and educational programs, CloroxPro is dedicated to helping cleaning professionals disinfect public spaces more efficiently and effectively,” said Lurie.
As the consumer standard of clean has increased, they expect the businesses and public spaces they frequent to be properly cleaned and disinfected. This has put a strain on businesses as they are now expected to disinfect more spaces more often than ever before.
“That is why we’ve expanded our touchless disinfection portfolio to include the Clorox TurboPro Handheld Electrostatic Sprayer, to enable businesses of all sizes to disinfect more spaces faster than they can with manual trigger sprays alone,” she explained.
ISSA Innovations
While ISSA Show North America attendance was down, there were plenty of innovative ideas on the show floor.
SC Johnson Professional’s new EZ Care Floor Care System is billed as a fast, economical way to maintain flooring. The system involves two chemistries, a floor coating and a floor coating remover. When used with SCJP’s High-Speed Conditioning and Polish pad, it gives floors a long-lasting, durable shine requiring only four coats of finish. What makes it unique is that the floor coating remover can be used in an auto-scrubber.
Also at ISSA Show North America, the company highlighted Faciliscan, a cleaning maintenance management app that is said to simplify the cleaning auditing process for BSCs. The app helps users perform quality assurance audits in the facilities they maintain, as well as manage employee resources and performance, according to SC Johnson Professional. A robust auditing tool helps ensure clear communication between clients, BSCs and their cleaning staff. BSCs can outline parameters and add unique zones as well as a scoring preference within an audit. Cleaning staff can capture images and write comments for areas cleaned as they go, to quickly address poorly cleaned areas and improve customer service. Faciliscan allows BSC’s and facility managers to easily access historical audit data to gauge the effectiveness and compliance of cleaning programs over time.
Diversey notes that potent disinfectants can be quite toxic. The company’s goal is to remain potent and minimize toxicity. Diversey’s Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP) is a patented formula of hydrogen peroxide that has been synthetically accelerated to dramatically increase its cleaning performance. AHP is said to deliver the perfect balance of potent germicidal kill, cleaning efficiency, fast-acting capabilities, safety and environmental accountability.
According to Kohlhagen, peroxide, of late, is making inroads as a replacement for quats and quaternium ammonium compounds. AHP can be found in a variety of Diversey formulas including Oxivir Tb Wipes and RTU. Both formulas kill common pathogens in one minute. Alpha HP is an all-in-one, multipurpose disinfectant cleaner based on AHP. One product cleans and brightens surfaces safely and easily, according to Diversey.
“The real focus is in health care, a sector that needs alternative technology to reduce healthcare-associated infections,” noted Kohlhagen. “Improved peroxide can replace phenolics, which replaced quats and bleach.”
At ISSA, Spartan Chemical highlighted its patented Profect HP hydrogen peroxide disinfectant for hard, non-porous surfaces. The formula is available in convenient, RTU quart sizes.
“The landscape for hydrogen peroxide has changed,” agreed Cali Sartori, director of marketing, Spartan Chemical. “Hydrogen peroxide is fast, it doesn’t require PPE. More school systems are recommending hydrogen peroxide. We will take this technology and expand it.”
To help businesses overcome the acute labor shortage, Diversey is rolling out the Taski Aero 3500. The flexible, ride-on machine delivers up to 70% more productivity over traditional vacuums while delivering excellent results, according to the company.
Even the best formula won’t clean and disinfect if it’s not applied properly. During ISSA, Kinnos promoted Highlight colors for EPA-registered bleach wipes. The device dyes nonwoven materials a non-staining blue so that maintenance staff can easily see where they’ve hit and where they’ve missed. Highlight’s patented blue fades completely to prevent staining. In tests, Highlight colors were found to have a 63% improvement compared to controls.
“Less than 50% of surfaces are thoroughly disinfected in healthcare settings,” explained Kinnos CEO Jason King. “Patients face a 5-6 times greater risk of infection when exposed to contaminated surfaces. And 40-80% of surface transmitted infections could be prevented with better disinfection techniques.”
According to King, devices such as UV lights and misters will never replace manual cleaning, which provides the necessary friction to remove bacteria, viruses and debris. Bleach efficacy is maintained when the dye is added. Moreover, because the Kinnos formula contains a lubricant, bleach is less corrosive. Next year, the company will introduce a quat and later, a peroxide.
Programs in Place
CloroxPro developed the Pathogen Transmission Risk Assessment Tool to enable janitorial professionals to strategically execute cleaning and disinfecting protocols and reduce wasted time in the process.
Similarly, CloroxPro’s Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Protocol Guides for K-12 educational facilities and offices provide BSCs with hard-to-compare visualizations and graphics, comprehensive instructions and detailed processes breakdowns.
The guides clearly define the difference between cleaning and disinfecting, including why this difference is important, according to Lurie. Further, CloroxPro is launching two comprehensive online interactive certificate courses within a new training platform called CloroxPro HealthyClean.
“These courses are designed specifically for frontline cleaners and managers to give them the information and skills they need to deliver a healthy clean on an on-going basis,” she explained. “The courses follow the ASTM E-2659 Standard Practice for Certficate Programs and the courses are currently under review by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) National Accreditation Board for compliance to ensure the highest standards for training comprehension and quality program delivery.”
Smarter Cleaning
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked broad awareness about how germs spread, resulting in higher expectations when it comes to the standards of cleaning and disinfecting shared spaces, noted Lurie.
“While cleaning for health is not a new concept, the pandemic highlighted the need for a more balanced approach to disinfection that can be sustained long term,” Lurie explained.
As formulators launch new formulas and cleaning systems to help the economy return to some level of normalcy, they’re fighting much more than COVID-19. The pandemic has caused disruptions in the supply chain that industry veterans say they have never seen during their 30-year careers. Those who spoke to Happi at ISSA said they don’t expect any return to business as usual this year. Even the most optimistic don’t expect improvement until, perhaps the end of Q1 2022. There are shortages across the board, with prices doubling and tripling. Clearly, business unusual will continue into 2022.
“We were sanitizing the backboard and rim and he stood there and said, ‘I like it,’” recalled Guerra, who spoke during a panel at last month’s ISSA Show. “Our staff couldn’t believe LeBron watched them clean the rim.”
King James isn’t the only one noticing a clean work environment these days. Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about cleaning remains paramount for employers, employees and the public. Those concerns have elevated the industrial and institutional cleaning business in the eyes of many.
“I’ve advocated for daytime cleaning in the industry. Most work was usually done at night, because crews could work faster in an empty building,” said Rob Kohlhagen, senior director, sales and marketing, Diversey. “Lawyers and bankers didn’t want to see maintenance crews during business hours. Now, that attitude has been flipped. Businesses want to see the cleaners. Daytime cleaning is more sustainable, too. You don’t need to leave lights on all night.”
And a daytime cleaning job may be more attractive to potential employees. Like so many other businesses, the I&I industry has been hard-hit by a lack of workers.
At last month’s ISSA Show North America in Las Vegas, hundreds of suppliers turned out to welcome thousands of visitors interested in the latest cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting formulas and equipment.
“We’ve been tested in profound ways, with labor shortages, supply chain issues and business closures,” observed ISSA Executive Director John Barrett. “The pandemic hurt, but there are opportunities. The past 20 months have proved that the cleaning industry is essential. The public is making that connection and it is up to us to keep the momentum going.”
The Association’s Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) helps organizations and businesses prepare for, respond to and recover from biological threats, biohazard situations and real-time crises. The GBAC Star Accreditation Program helps facilities establish a comprehensive system of cleaning, disinfection and infectious disease prevention for their staff and building. Now, building service contractors can be accredited, too.
The popularity of the GBAC Star program underscores Kohlhagen’s assessment that, nearly two years into the pandemic, there is still a heightened level of demand for disinfection that goes beyond cleaning. That’s created demand for disinfecting wipes.
“We call it ‘cooperative cleaning,’” he explained. “In the past, all cleaning was done by the janitorial staff. Now, businesses and schools are keeping wipes on hand so people can wipe door handles, shopping carts, etc.”
According to research conducted by Clorox in 2021, Americans have dramatically increased the commitments to their disinfecting regimen in both public and private spaces. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (61%) report they are disinfecting hard surfaces in their home at least once a day. Outside of the home, as many as two in three Americans are regularly disinfecting hard surfaces in public, bringing their own disinfectants with them when they leave their house and disinfecting items brought into their home.
“Many of the behaviors, mindsets and expectations of cleanliness and personal safety that consumers have adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to play an important role in helping to prevent the spread of other illness-causing germs well beyond this period,” said Lynda Lurie, senior director of marketing, Clorox Professional Products.
She said there is a new appreciation for the role cleaning and disinfecting play in public health, and this is not something that will go away as the pandemic subsides.
“There is a role for proper cleaning and regular disinfecting in everyday life—before, during and after COVID-19—but maintaining public spaces that are just clean is no longer enough,” observed Lurie. “As communities and businesses look to reestablish occupancy, it is critical to find better approaches to cleaning and disinfecting surfaces to ensure it’s done effectively and in a way that helps safeguard public health. Clorox is dedicated to creating a cleaner future where we all can thrive.”
Kohlhagen said there is data detailing the impact that better cleaning and disinfection can have on presenteeism. But at the same time, he added, the pandemic may have finally convinced employees to stay home when they are sick.
Sector Strength & Weakness
Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, some I&I sectors are sicker than others. Brett Friedman, CEO of Precision, a B2B data provider, said office and lodging will not get back to 2019 levels in 2022. On the flip side, health care is doing well, especially acute care which is outperforming primary and long-term care. Friedman added that education and food service sales have improved as students returned to school throughout 2021.
John Kelley of JLL, a commercial real estate services company, warned that commercial real estate will continue to be battered by COVID-19.
“We don’t know when we will get back to business as usual,” he told attendees at ISSA Show. “The concern is that there is a major uptick in COVID-19 cases in Europe and that will set the region’s recovery back to 2023. We’re also concerned that’s what taking place in Europe will come to North America.”
According to Kline Group data, 2020 US sales of foodservice and janitorial cleaning chemicals fell 4.8% to less than $7.5 billion. The good news is that Kline expects sales to increase 7.7% to over $8.0 billion this year, according to Laura Mahecha, industry manager, Kline Group. KlinePULSE offers in-depth I&I reports and hot topic briefs published throughout the year.
“Due to all of the closures and reduced on-premise dining in 2020 the overall market was down,” said Mahecha.
The 2021 comeback has been driven by building reopenings, on premise dining, schools/colleges reopening, increased leisure and business travel. Kline recently published a study entitled, “Six Cleaning Trends Turbocharged by the Pandemic.” The top trends according to Kline include:
- Touch-free Dispensers
- UVC Light Cleaning Devices
- Electrostatic Cleaning Sprayers
- IoT Sensors
- Autonomous Cleaning Robots
- The Dilemma—Chemical or Green?
So which approach came out on top? Based on Kline’s July 2021 Foodservice Cleaning Products study, 60.6% of survey respondents looked for sustainable ingredients, while 32.2% switched from green products to those that were chemical-based. Clearly, the pandemic hasn’t slowed the march toward green-based cleaning solutions.
Clorox Professional Products executives report a rebound in I&I sales. According to Lurie, there’s been a strong return across key sectors of the I&I market and Clorox Pro is supporting them with products and protocols every step of the way.
“Clorox is collaborating with organizations and iconic brands across these key sectors, including retail, travel, hospitality, sports, entertainment and transportation, to instill confidence in returning to shared spaces and increase safety measures long-term,” said Lurie. “We are committed to helping improve public health and safety as people resume the activities they’ve paused since the start of the pandemic.”
The 2019 edition of ISSA Show North America, which was also held in Las Vegas, set record attendance and featured more than 650 exhibitors. This year’s edition didn’t match the event from two years ago, as some past exhibitors made the decision not to attend. According to Lurie, out of an abundance of caution for its employees, business partners and community, CloroxPro did not attend ISSA.
“While this is not a decision we made lightly, we have decided to heed the CDC’s guidance to avoid large gatherings especially heading into the holiday season,” she added.
Travel decisions haven’t impacted new product launches. CloroxPro expanded its touchless disinfection portfolio with the Clorox TurboPro Handheld Electrostatic Sprayer and a platform of disinfecting chemistries that are EPA-registered for use through sprayer devices.
“Combined with our portfolio of ready-to-use cleaners, comprehensive protocols and educational programs, CloroxPro is dedicated to helping cleaning professionals disinfect public spaces more efficiently and effectively,” said Lurie.
As the consumer standard of clean has increased, they expect the businesses and public spaces they frequent to be properly cleaned and disinfected. This has put a strain on businesses as they are now expected to disinfect more spaces more often than ever before.
“That is why we’ve expanded our touchless disinfection portfolio to include the Clorox TurboPro Handheld Electrostatic Sprayer, to enable businesses of all sizes to disinfect more spaces faster than they can with manual trigger sprays alone,” she explained.
ISSA Innovations
While ISSA Show North America attendance was down, there were plenty of innovative ideas on the show floor.
SC Johnson Professional’s new EZ Care Floor Care System is billed as a fast, economical way to maintain flooring. The system involves two chemistries, a floor coating and a floor coating remover. When used with SCJP’s High-Speed Conditioning and Polish pad, it gives floors a long-lasting, durable shine requiring only four coats of finish. What makes it unique is that the floor coating remover can be used in an auto-scrubber.
Also at ISSA Show North America, the company highlighted Faciliscan, a cleaning maintenance management app that is said to simplify the cleaning auditing process for BSCs. The app helps users perform quality assurance audits in the facilities they maintain, as well as manage employee resources and performance, according to SC Johnson Professional. A robust auditing tool helps ensure clear communication between clients, BSCs and their cleaning staff. BSCs can outline parameters and add unique zones as well as a scoring preference within an audit. Cleaning staff can capture images and write comments for areas cleaned as they go, to quickly address poorly cleaned areas and improve customer service. Faciliscan allows BSC’s and facility managers to easily access historical audit data to gauge the effectiveness and compliance of cleaning programs over time.
Diversey notes that potent disinfectants can be quite toxic. The company’s goal is to remain potent and minimize toxicity. Diversey’s Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP) is a patented formula of hydrogen peroxide that has been synthetically accelerated to dramatically increase its cleaning performance. AHP is said to deliver the perfect balance of potent germicidal kill, cleaning efficiency, fast-acting capabilities, safety and environmental accountability.
According to Kohlhagen, peroxide, of late, is making inroads as a replacement for quats and quaternium ammonium compounds. AHP can be found in a variety of Diversey formulas including Oxivir Tb Wipes and RTU. Both formulas kill common pathogens in one minute. Alpha HP is an all-in-one, multipurpose disinfectant cleaner based on AHP. One product cleans and brightens surfaces safely and easily, according to Diversey.
“The real focus is in health care, a sector that needs alternative technology to reduce healthcare-associated infections,” noted Kohlhagen. “Improved peroxide can replace phenolics, which replaced quats and bleach.”
At ISSA, Spartan Chemical highlighted its patented Profect HP hydrogen peroxide disinfectant for hard, non-porous surfaces. The formula is available in convenient, RTU quart sizes.
“The landscape for hydrogen peroxide has changed,” agreed Cali Sartori, director of marketing, Spartan Chemical. “Hydrogen peroxide is fast, it doesn’t require PPE. More school systems are recommending hydrogen peroxide. We will take this technology and expand it.”
To help businesses overcome the acute labor shortage, Diversey is rolling out the Taski Aero 3500. The flexible, ride-on machine delivers up to 70% more productivity over traditional vacuums while delivering excellent results, according to the company.
Even the best formula won’t clean and disinfect if it’s not applied properly. During ISSA, Kinnos promoted Highlight colors for EPA-registered bleach wipes. The device dyes nonwoven materials a non-staining blue so that maintenance staff can easily see where they’ve hit and where they’ve missed. Highlight’s patented blue fades completely to prevent staining. In tests, Highlight colors were found to have a 63% improvement compared to controls.
“Less than 50% of surfaces are thoroughly disinfected in healthcare settings,” explained Kinnos CEO Jason King. “Patients face a 5-6 times greater risk of infection when exposed to contaminated surfaces. And 40-80% of surface transmitted infections could be prevented with better disinfection techniques.”
According to King, devices such as UV lights and misters will never replace manual cleaning, which provides the necessary friction to remove bacteria, viruses and debris. Bleach efficacy is maintained when the dye is added. Moreover, because the Kinnos formula contains a lubricant, bleach is less corrosive. Next year, the company will introduce a quat and later, a peroxide.
Programs in Place
CloroxPro developed the Pathogen Transmission Risk Assessment Tool to enable janitorial professionals to strategically execute cleaning and disinfecting protocols and reduce wasted time in the process.
Similarly, CloroxPro’s Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Protocol Guides for K-12 educational facilities and offices provide BSCs with hard-to-compare visualizations and graphics, comprehensive instructions and detailed processes breakdowns.
The guides clearly define the difference between cleaning and disinfecting, including why this difference is important, according to Lurie. Further, CloroxPro is launching two comprehensive online interactive certificate courses within a new training platform called CloroxPro HealthyClean.
“These courses are designed specifically for frontline cleaners and managers to give them the information and skills they need to deliver a healthy clean on an on-going basis,” she explained. “The courses follow the ASTM E-2659 Standard Practice for Certficate Programs and the courses are currently under review by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) National Accreditation Board for compliance to ensure the highest standards for training comprehension and quality program delivery.”
Smarter Cleaning
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked broad awareness about how germs spread, resulting in higher expectations when it comes to the standards of cleaning and disinfecting shared spaces, noted Lurie.
“While cleaning for health is not a new concept, the pandemic highlighted the need for a more balanced approach to disinfection that can be sustained long term,” Lurie explained.
As formulators launch new formulas and cleaning systems to help the economy return to some level of normalcy, they’re fighting much more than COVID-19. The pandemic has caused disruptions in the supply chain that industry veterans say they have never seen during their 30-year careers. Those who spoke to Happi at ISSA said they don’t expect any return to business as usual this year. Even the most optimistic don’t expect improvement until, perhaps the end of Q1 2022. There are shortages across the board, with prices doubling and tripling. Clearly, business unusual will continue into 2022.
Winners of the 2021 ISSA Show Innovation Awards were announced during the in-person show held last month in Las Vegas. The awards program recognizes the latest advancements for the commercial, institutional and residential cleaning industry. “While this past year has been an especially challenging one for the cleaning industry, it has also presented opportunities to innovate and overcome obstacles,” said ISSA Board President Steve Lewis. “This year’s awards recipients are dedicated to bettering the industry and making cleaning safer, more efficient, sustainable and consistent.” The recipients of the four Innovation Industry Choice Awards are:
The five Innovation of the Year Award Honorees are:
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