MEDIA RELEASE

Green Worx becomes the first cleaning manufacturer in Africa to have products certified as healthy to use under the Global GreenTag International PHD™ program.

South African company, Green Worx Bio Cleaning Solutions, has proven to be a dedicated green manufacturer in the African market in the production of environmentally safer cleaning products. The company's latest product certifications by independent, third-party, certification body, Global GreenTag International, has resulted in the Bio Tech range of Green Worx cleaning products now also becoming the first in Africa to be awarded for their healthiness-in-use for humans to use.

A total of 13 product categories with 111 products in the Green Worx Bio Tech range, were submitted to the Global GreenTag Product Health Declaration™ (GreenTag PHD™) program. In addition, they were submitted to the extended version of the Global GreenTag HealthRATE™ certification process.

The GreenTag PHD is a rating tool recognised by the world leading green building programs, like WELL™, LEED® and Green Star® and a compliant Material Health transparency tool that recognises progressive manufacturers who fully disclose the ingredients of their products and then goes on to rate the healthiness of the products in use under a HealthRATE™ "Healthiness in Use' rating scheme.

Dr Nana Bortsie, Ayree, Program Director of Global GreenTag International, who lead the GreenTag PHD assessment of the Bio Tech range, congratulates Green Worx for their commitment to submit their full Bio Tech cleaning range, which includes products for laundries, kitchens, bathrooms, carpets, footwear and animal house cleaning.

Dr Bortsie-Ayree commented, "Green Worx are to be commended, and especially for having their products assessed and rated separately for their safety in use for people with asthma and allergy sensitivities. This level of accountability in providing third party assessed product information to consumers is both responsible and ethical – and particularly for the benefit of people who need to manage asthma and allergy health related conditions."

John Coetzee, CEO of the South African based Green Worx, said the cleaning company was first attracted to Global GreenTag to certify their products using the Global GreenTag's LCARate™ program. This was a few years ago when GreenTag was the only product certifier, locally in the region. He said:

"I learnt about Global Green Tag and the offering was overwhelming – the main reason is the ISO accreditations that Global GreenTag have.

"My take on going down the path of product certification is simple 'you cannot vet someone if you are not being vetted yourself and here, I am together with many other companies from South Africa, who I had an influential role to play in them seeking GreenTag certifications, as well."

Deciding this year to put the Bio Tech products through the Global GreenTag PHD and HealthRATE programs, Mr Coetzee adds "we have a saying in our company that you can eat most of all our products, but they taste like yuck. We pursued the GreenTag PHD program because it made great sense to us. We are the only company in South Africa whose product portfolio is 100% eco-friendly and that we source only green accredited ingredients. It stands to reason that our products are as healthy as can be. The result of our PHD report certainly now assures our clients of just that."

The GreenTag PHD program essentially pushes the boundaries of product health certification to address human health concerns directly – it is the first system globally to assess the health impacts of the final product – and not just the hazards of the ingredients. Behind the development of the program were the worrying statistics from studies that make connections between toxic products and human health issues, and the need for firmer risk mitigation strategies to be brought into the supply chain to help prevent toxic products being used in workplaces and homes.

Lizette Swanevelder, CEO of Global GreenTag Africa who first brought Green Worx into the GreenTag family said:

"The decision by Green Worx to submit their products to the GreenTag PHD program, we hope will be a model for the future of cleaning product manufacturers in the region. They are sustainability champions. People deserve to know what is in products. Not only for the health of the environment but their families, too. We are very proud of manufacturers like Green Worx. Our certification programs are scientific and robust, and our standards are high. Well done to John Coetzee and Green Worx."

For more information, or to seek further comment from Global GreenTag or Green Worx.

Please contact:

Lizette Swanevelder, CEO and Director of Global GreenTag Africa

mailto:?subject=Green%20Worx%20Bio%20Tech%20products%20receiving%20Global%20GreenTag%20PHDs[John Coetzee], CEO of Green Worx Bio Cleaning Solutions

MORE ABOUT GREEN WORX CLEANING SOLUTIONS

Green Worx Cleaning Solutions is ISO 14001 and Global GreenTag certified and supplies innovative, environmentally responsible, biotechnology products based on the use of natural microbes and enzymes. In such, Green Worx supplies green cleaning and sanitation consulting and solutions, pollution control and environmental remediation products to industrial and commercial entities, as well as to consumers. Green Worx prides itself on its associations with global leaders providing innovative, effective and high-quality products and solutions to meet specific customer needs.

The Green Worx products contain a Bacillus consortium, which produces the following enzymes:

• Protease - breaks proteins (e.g., meat, excreted/secreted proteins) down into amino acids.
• Lipase - breaks fats/grease down into fatty acids and glycerol; if not broken down, fats can go rancid and lead to malodours and blocked drains/fat grease traps.
• Amylase - starch acts as a glue for dirt; amylases catalyse the breakdown of starch into sugars which are then further used as a food source by the bacillus.
• Cellulase - breaks down cellulosic material.
• Urease - catalyses the hydrolysis of urea into breakdown products.
• Esterase - splits esters into an acid and an alcohol in a chemical reaction with water (hydrolosis)
• Xylanase help in breaking down plant cell walls.

In 2016 Green Worx was presented with the Award for runner up in the Green Technology Innovation category of the Mail & Guardian (M&G) Greening the Future Awards. In the same year, the company won the 2016 South African Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation.

MORE ABOUT GLOBAL GREENTAG AFRICA

Global GreenTag Africa provides green product certification, declaration and verification services to progressive manufacturers throughout Africa, with a certification system developed by Global GreenTag International, which simplifies the selection of sustainable products for the green cleaning, building, interiors, infrastructure and personal care sectors, using Global GreenTagCertTM one of the most scientifically advanced, sustainable product certification systems in the world.

Launched in South Africa in 2013, the GreenTag system formally became recognised first by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA). Since then, Global GreenTag's services in sustainable product assessments have become the longest established and largest ecolabel program in South Africa, certifying products and materials for some of the region's finest sustainable manufacturers and playing an important role to highlight local, exemplary, ethical product manufacturers and supporting the growing needs of conscious buyers in the market with trusted, third-party assessed, certified and verified product information.

The Global GreenTagCertTM system assesses and then ranks products through leading LCA based product ecolabelling and rating schemes. GreenTag also provides third party, assessed product declaration programs, including an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), a Product Health Declaration (PHD) and a Modern Slavery Declaration (MSD) program, the first product level declaration of its kind in the world, designed to help manufacturers and procurement teams eliminate incidences of modern slavery in global supply chains.

GreenTag's certification programs operate against three technical standards (building, cleaning and personal care) with a new and fourth technical standard and product declaration becoming available in 2023. The Global GreenTag NaturePositive+ Standard™ and NaturePositive+ Declaration™ will be another first in the product certification field and will close the nature gap to certify products for the Circular Economy by providing metrics that engage nature restoration and regeneration.

Around the world, Global GreenTag has over 16,000 products under certification in over 22 countries and for over 230 world-leading green manufacturers.