We as a team couldn't be happier that we've taken steps toward making the Food Network Kitchen more eco-friendly! Last week, we welcomed Haven Fricano from EcoLogic Solutions, who announced, along with sous chef Miriam Garron, that we were ditching most of our old cleaning agents in favor of EcoLogic's all-natural products made of ingredients such as corn, salt, citrus, sugar cane and aloe. The decision was made after a months-long search process to find products that would be better for the health of both our employees and the environment. We’ve been making small changes for the last few years — most recently switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs in our pantry and using rubber mats in lieu of disposable paper towels to keep our cutting boards from sliding around — but this is a big change for us.

Not only are the new cleaning agents themselves better for the environment, but some also cut down on plastic waste, since they’re diluted onsite and placed in refillable bottles. The majority of typical store-bought spray cleaners are mostly composed of water, so you’re paying for water and also wasting fuel having that water shipped around the country. A 1-gallon bottle of EcoLogic’s concentrated degreaser replaces more than 2,000 standard 32-ounce spray bottles — that's a whole lot of saved plastic and water we’re not shipping around! EcoLogic's offices and production facilities are also headquartered in New York City, so it’s a short commute to us, meaning much less fuel used for transportation.

During our meeting, Haven brought up an interesting point about the psychology of cleaning: Most of us are trained to need bubbles or certain smells as evidence that a cleaner is working, but those are false indicators. Most of EcoLogic's products work just as well as their traditional competitors, without the toxic fumes. A few may require a bit more elbow grease, but even so, "maybe the new norm is scrubbing a little bit harder and not killing yourself," as Miriam so aptly put it, and we couldn't agree more.