A Sustainable Approach to the COVID-19 Pandemic
It is relatively easy to measure the economic benefits of implementing sustainable systems into our business model. It’s a bit more difficult to measure our environmental impact, but that data can be gathered through our reductions in water, waste, energy, etc. It’s even harder yet to quantitatively measure the social impacts our company and our products have on our community and our customers around the world.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, social equity and public health have become the major focus of our lives. We recognize our potential to extend our Company’s positive impact by identifying the cleanest chemistry available for our raw materials.
Len-Tex Wallcoverings are designed and manufactured with focus on indoor air quality. Our wallcoverings feature Clean Vinyl Technology®️ formulations, UltraFresh biocides, and AquaClear water-based inks and protective coatings. (You can find more information on all of these elsewhere on our Sustainability page.) But now we must address not only what is in our wallcoverings, but what is on them. With the increased usage of institutional disinfectants and cleaners in response to COVID-19, we want to make sure our products can stand up to repeated exposure. To do so, we have been rigorously testing our products with applications of various institutional disinfectants via contact testing, and now electrostatic spray testing commencing in mid-July.
In May of this year, we published a white paper with results for various disinfectants for our original contact testing procedure. Since then, we have modified our procedure to include a development time period, allowing for any potential changes to take place. (You can find this protocol and our white paper on our COVID-19 webpage.) With this new protocol, additional cleaners were tested and we found very similar results, in that our products are durable and experienced no changes. The following disinfectants had no effect on our wallcovering via contact testing:
- Neutral-Q Disinfectant Cleaner
- Isopropyl Alcohol Solution (60% and 70%)
- Avistat-D Disinfectant Cleaner
- Virex TB Disinfectant Cleaner
- Clorox Wipes (non-bleach)
- Clorox Bleach Solution (50%)
- Nixall Disinfectant/Sanitizer
In recent weeks, we have been able to acquire an electrostatic sprayer, which produces a positively charged fine mist of the desired cleaner which enables it to cling to the wallcovering surface. Our protocol, that we have developed and have since been using for testing since mid- July, is also available on our website. Our results are still pending, so stay tuned for updates on our electrostatic spraying protocol and results next week!
For any questions or inquiries, feel free to contact our Sustainability Coordinator at: mackenzier@lentexcorp.com.