Transparency is our way of life
We're proud of the ingredients we use and the products we make. You have the right to see and understand the products you bring into your home. That's why we fully list all our ingredients. Our sustainable chemists are constantly exploring new ways to create safer, more effective cleaning products for your family.
We have over 120 Safer Choice certified products
That’s more than any other company, and we’re proud to have been named Safer Choice Partner of the Year seven times, including most recently in 2023.
Find Out MoreNo Nasties: see our Never-Ever list
There are 500+ human and environmental toxins we promise to never use in our products, and the more we discover, the more our list evolves. Learn more about these chemicals and why we’ve banned them.
Research The NastiesOur foundational ingredients
Get to know some of nature’s best and brightest. These key ingredients are the foundation of many of our products.
Coconut oil is pressed from the inside meat (copra) of the coconut and is the raw material used to make many of our surfactants. The hard outer shell of a coconut preserves the copra and keeps it especially pure. The resulting surfactants have excellent cleaning properties and are exceptionally gentle. You can find surfactants that are made from coconuts usually by the “coco” in their name, such as “Sodium Coco-Sulfate.” Coconuts are also highly renewable—a single coconut tree can produce over 50 coconuts annually and will produce fruit for up to 80 years.
This superfood is packed with antioxidants and also makes for an excellent source of cleaning power. Beets have the highest sugar content of any vegetable, and this sugar is used to create surfactants. Alkylpolyglucosides, or APGs, are surfactants made from sugars, and you can find them with names that include “glucoside,” such as decyl glucoside.
Made from fermented natural sources, vinegar has been used for cleaning since ancient times. We use vinegar in our household cleaners for its powerful ability to cut through grease and stains. In our ECOS Window Cleaner, vinegar helps to make sure nothing but a streak-free shine is left behind.
Minerals are naturally occurring materials from the earth’s core. From calcium chloride to sodium carbonate, we use minerals for the awesome boosting effect they have on performance. Minerals can help lift stains, remove hard-water scale, and help both surfactants and enzymes work better.
Vitamin E can be found in many fruits and nuts, such as avocados, sunflower seeds and almonds. It’s a powerful antioxidant that calms skin and reduces inflammation. It also makes our hand soap distinctly soothing; you’ll feel the difference each time you wash.
Good, clean chemicals
Sometimes chemicals get a bad rap. The truth is, not all chemicals are cut from the same cloth. Here are some of the safer, clean chemicals we use.
Solvents are chemicals that break down solutes and allow them to become part of a homogeneous solution, effectively stabilizing our formulas. They also can assist in breaking down the oils contained in the soils you’re trying to clean up.
Water softeners bond to and hold onto metal ions, preventing everything from discoloration to hard-water buildup.
We use pH adjusters so that all our products are pH balanced in a range that is safer for you and your family.
Surfactants are the active agents that do the heavy lifting of soil and stain removal. Surfactants bust through water’s strong surface tension, ensuring that soils can be carried away.
Our natural fragrances include a mixture of essential oils and aromatic chemicals that are all naturally derived and sourced to improve your sensory experience.
Preservatives are used in our formulas to ensure that our products stay fresh and free of bacteria. In the absence of refrigeration or preservatives, water promotes bacterial growth. So, the more water we have in a formula, the higher the “water activity” and the more important preservatives become. Preservative chemistry has seen a lot of innovation in the last decade, and we’re constantly working to find the best and safest preservatives to use.
Enzymes can provide a deeper fiber-level clean than most surfactants are able to do alone. We use enzymes to effectively break down protein stains, fats and starches.