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Subway honors sanitation vendor with social responsibility award

August 21, 2012

CHEMCO Corporation was recently presented by Subway and its Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC) with the brand's 2012 Social Responsibility Award for improving its hand soap product, making it even more sustainable and greatly reducing the product and case packaging materials.

CHEMCO provides hand soap and a variety of other cleaning and sanitation products to every Subway restaurant in North America.

"CHEMCO is continually striving to minimize its carbon footprint," said Paul Lewis, president of CHEMCO Corporation. "We care about the air, the water and the ground and want to do our part to help preserve them all. Our products are effective, safe, economical, and all without being harmful to people or the planet. We are proud of our commitment of being good stewards of the environment and equally proud that we could provide Subway and all its North American franchisees a hand washing program that will accomplish our mutual environmental goals."

CHEMCO's PURE Foaming Hand Soap is Green Seal Certified, which means it has been certified by the independent Green Seal organization, whose mission it is to safeguard human health and the environment by promoting the manufacture, purchase and use of more sustainable products and services. Creating a readily biodegradable product means the product is non-toxic, safe to aquatic life and degrades within 28 days.

By switching to the new Foaming Hand Soap, with improved packaging, the Subway franchisees realize savings from reduced corrugate (28,796 pounds), plastic (26,569 pounds) and freight costs (78,012 gallons of fuel). Additionally, since the soap comes out pre-lathered, hand-washing is more efficient and customers and employees will use less water.

"I'm really pleased CHEMCO won this year because it is a family-owned business that understands the importance of being a socially responsible and sustainable supplier," said Tina Fitzgerald, director of Corporate Responsibility for the IPC, which is responsible for procuring products, equipment, supplies and services used in Subway restaurants. "CHEMCO is constantly looking for ways to improve the efficiency and sustainability of their products."

Its PURE Foaming Hand Soap was introduced this year and is packed in a box that is made from 75-percent recycled material.

Read more about sustainability.