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Environmental Protection Agency

LightHouse for the Blind Wins Top Environmental Award

LightHouse for the Blind Wins Top Environmental Award

We are so proud and honored to announce that LightHouse Sirkin Center, our social enterprise dedicated to furthering the employment opportunities for people who are blind or have low vision, has been recently named one of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice Partners of the Year for 2021.
 
The team at Lighthouse Sirkin Center have broken records over the past 18 months with their tireless work throughout the pandemic. LightHouse had record sales for its Safer Choice-certified products in 2020 and in the same year was awarded a contract to supply the entire United States Navy Fleet with two of its Skillcraft Safer Choice-certified products. LightHouse also partnered with NIB, a federal agency which organizes government contracts for nonprofits who employ blind workers to sell its Safer Choice-certified line to federal agencies across the United States.

Now our staff has been nationally recognized by the EPA as an “outstanding Safer Choice formulator-product manufacturer” of products with ingredients or chemicals that are safer for families, pets, workplaces, communities, and the environment. They are in grand company along with Apple, Home Depot and the Procter & Gamble Company.
 
The EPA Safer Choice program helps consumers and purchasers for facilities, such as schools and office buildings find products that perform and are safer for human health and the environment. 
 
From our state-of-the-art brand-new facility in Alameda, LightHouse Industries is a social enterprise dedicated to increasing the participation of people who are blind or have low vision in the workforce. 90% of all direct labor in producing  LightHouse’s Safer Choice products is provided by blind workers.
 
Through LightHouse Industries, jobs and experience are gained in many areas, including chemical manufacturing, chemical blending, and quality assurance and control. In this way, pathways have been developed for blind employees to become future blind leaders, scientists and skilled tradespeople.
 
Bryan Bashin, LightHouse CEO, says:

“The recent EPA award is a great acknowledgement that blind people can design, produce and distribute industry-leading environmentally-safe products that benefit all people. Businesses and governments who use older and more-toxic formulations can do a double service by switching to Lighthouse products, improving the environment and supporting blindness services at the same time.”
 
Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff says: 

“I’m excited to see that the work done by many of this year’s awardees support the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals of addressing climate change and advancing environmental justice.”
 
Congratulations to everybody at LightHouse Sirkin Center and thank you to the EPA for its recognition of this outstanding team effort.
 
For Safer Choice product sales inquiries, contact Product Manager Al Ahlm: AAhlm@lighthouse-sf.org or phone: 916-825-7491

Pure Bioscience and LightHouse Win FAA Approval

Pure Bioscience and LightHouse Win FAA Approval

PURE Bioscience and LightHouse announce the approval and use of PURE Hard Surface sanitizer and disinfectant by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Succeeding a vetting process which took several weeks the FAA approved and announced that PURE Hard Surface was the only antimicrobial on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) List-N Antimicrobial Approved for use Against Corona Virus authorized to be used in the FAA locations: Control Towers, Radar Centers and Regional Control Centers.

The lead scientist on the evaluation committee for the FAA stated:

“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors, meaning their assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, or national public health or safety. The arrival of COVID-19 presented unique challenges to keeping FAA personnel and equipment safe and functional and planes moving safely through the skies. Rigorous chemical and physical testing identified only one product out of hundreds on EPA List N that met all FAA criteria (no harm to people or equipment, no warning labels or PPE required, no odors, 30-second contact time for human coronavirus, product volume available on demand, rated for Emerging Viral Pathogens, secure supply chain and ease of use. PURE Hard Surface met and exceeded all required criteria.”

Following the initial use rollout of an FAA pilot testing program the FAA is requiring its janitorial service providers for these locations to sanitize daily after cleaning using PURE Hard Surface. This test was successful and to date there are 85 FAA locations that are sanitized with PURE Hard Surface including major airports.

PURE’s Chief Operating Officer and President Tom Y. Lee said, “We are proud that our technology met the needs and requirements for the Federal Aviation Administration’s antimicrobial use. PURE Bioscience is honored to be a part of the overall effort to maintain critical US infrastructure. The chemistry and it’s attributes that lead to approval by the FAA committee are the same that we offer to all our customers for their effective antimicrobial requirements.”

75% of the workforce employed to ship, bottle, and blend Pure Bioscience chemistries is blind or has low vision.

“Our expanding social enterprise at our Sirkin Center will provide dozens of jobs for Bay Area blind employees,” said LightHouse CEO Bryan Bashin. “With the FAA’s large orders we’ll be hiring blind line workers, supervisors, technicians and supporting jobs, at our new Alameda plant. And we’re only beginning”