Green Seal®, the nation’s premier ecolabelling organization, gives manufacturers the opportunity to pursue third-party certification through the program designed to advance product innovation for environmental good. In 2019, Entry® became the first Green Seal-certified ice melt on the market, and was featured in Green Seal’s 1989 – 2019 Impact Report. Find us on page 15.
To download the report, please click here
This story originally appeared in The Intelligencer
BY CHRIS ULLERY
Many Bucks County towns and authorities avoided steeper salt prices last year, but the more than 50 member communities of the Bucks County Consortium that go with a Morton’s Salt bid of $
Winter might be a few months away but the more than 50 member towns and authorities of the Bucks County Consortium are facing a slight increase in the cost for road salt for the 2019-20 winter season.
The Morton Salt bid of $48.50 per ton submitted to the consortium in August is a 58-cent increase over last year’s bid, and lower than what the consortium has negotiated for salt for two winters before that.
The consortium is a member organization for cooperative agreements among towns, including joint bidding for salt, heating oil and other supplies or services, according to the group’s website. The consortium had about 60 towns and municipal authorities as members in 2019.
Morton was the lowest of the five bidders who answered the consortium’s legal notice, which included a $65.89 per ton bid from Detroit Salt Co.
Consortium members aren’t automatically taking on the lowest bidder, as the governing boards of each member organization need to vote at their respective public meetings.
The Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority approved the Morton bid Thursday night, while Warrington supervisors made the bid part of its consent agenda Tuesday.
The consortium’s salt bid notice indicated nearly 51,000 tons of salt could be purchased in this bid, which could mean more than $29,000 spent on salt this year overall.
A salt shortage last year saw skyrocketing salt prices for many towns across Pennsylvania — the Associated Press reported a Beaver County town saw a 95% jump in 2018 prices compared to 2017.
In the end, the final cost of keeping the roads clear in Bucks County this winter is going to come down to how efficiently each agency can use its resources.
Since winters span the end and beginning of two calendar years, a blizzard in December could mean less salt to use for the mid-March winter squalls that have hit the county over the past few years.
A Harleysville-based company might have something to supplement a town’s salt reserves in synthetic “ice-melt” that is about a year or so away from being ready for roads.
Nate Clemmer, founder and CEO of Branch Creek, says his company has already developed salt alternatives useful for sidewalks and parking lots, and they’re currently testing a formula that could help keep roads ice free in extremely cold conditions.
“We are developing a product that we’re going to trial and pilot this winter which would be a chloride-free alternative to bulk road salt,” Clemmer said in a phone interview Monday.
Clemmer said his product isn’t going to replace rock salt, but it could cut down in “over-application” of rock salt in extremely cold weather.
“Where we see the biggest issue, where we see the excess, is in particularly cold temperatures … in the outer edge of what road salt can actually do,” Clemmer said.
An early, similar product by Branch Creek called Entry uses a potassium salt that has a freezing point lower than -70 degrees Fahrenheit called potassium formate.
Clemmer added the synthetic ice melt could help reduce the corrosion salt can have on metal and salt levels in groundwater.
This story originally appeared on BASF.com
BY: ANNA SPIEWAK
As wintertime rolls around, most focus on deicing streets and driveways of their properties outside—and less on chloride-salt tracking that follows pedestrians inside the buildings. This outdoor deicing is what some would call the first line of defense.
While traditional, granular-ice-melt solutions may be helpful in melting snow farther from the property—the closer you get to the building and track residue inside—the messier and more damaging the chloride salts become to your floors and property indoors. Ice-melt chemistry Chloride-based ice-melt solutions are generally hygroscopic—they attract moisture from the atmosphere. The chemical property causes the granular particles to dissolve as it would in the ice-melting process outdoors. Indoors, however, these materials create a damp puddle on the floors if not cleaned up effectively and consistently throughout the storm period. The chemical reaction of chloride ice-melting solutions mixed with mildly alkaline all-purpose floor cleaners or carpet cleaners creates a cloudy solution that inevitably leaves streak marks or white crystalline residue on carpets and matting, no matter how many times you clean the floor.
Furthermore, popular chloride melts not only scratch the floor and corrode metals, they get inside vacuums, damaging them. The chlorides that makes up these deicers also pose health risks for pet paws, the surrounding flora and water streams. Additionally, once melted, the indoor tracking residue poses risks to human safety, creating opportunities for slip-and-fall accidents.
Building managers who have caught on to the dichotomy of chloride-salt deicers serving two different purposes for the outdoors and the indoors, have invested thousands of dollars and man hours on internal building maintenance—having someone stand by with a mop and bucket cleaning up indoor tracking of chloride-salt deicers at the same time as another person throws the salt outdoors.
The chemical reaction of chloride ice-melting solutions mixed with carpet cleaners creates white crystalline residue on carpets and matting.
Once melted, the indoor tracking residue poses risks to human safety, creating opportunities for slip-and-fall accidents.
Big expense The cost of special cleaning at entranceways during storms is around $50-$60 per entranceway. This includes labor, cleaning, equipment and tools, according to Mark Warner, Cleaning Management Institute Education Manager for the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA).
“With two to three entranceways and two to three cleanings per day during a storm, the added cost of added cleaning could easily exceed $400-$500 per day, per building,” said Warner. “When you consider a college campus or a corporate plaza, it is easy to see why anything that reduces this cost more than offsets any nominal increase in the cost of material would (actually) reduce or eliminate spending.” The solution/second line of defense Warner has been in cleaning management for 30 years and works for a non-profit. Therefore, he does not endorse any commercial brand. He does admit—when asked—however, that he’s heard of a product that could remedy these pain points while keeping both the inside and the outside of the building safe.
This second line of defense is called Entry. What makes this deicer unique from all others is that it is in liquid form and chloride-free. Its chemistry includes formate salts, a more natural product that’s less corrosive on floors, metals and friendlier on pet paws and the environment. Using BASF’s formic acid, which was transformed into a potassium formate liquid, customer Branch Creek created a biodegradable solution for both commercial and residential deicing, which is urea-free and works immediately. Unlike traditional ice-melt solutions, Entry does not possess any harmful residue and since it has no visible tracking, it eliminates the mess of chloride salts.
“To a lot of people, the cleanliness of the floor helps them determine what they think of the cleanliness of the building and the people inside the building,” said Nate Clemmer, CEO & Founder of Branch Creek. “Entry has a very similar pH to water, so it looks like water on the floor and dries like water. So being a neutral pH, it’s just a softer chemistry that’s used on flooring surfaces.”
While old habits die hard, and no one expects building managers and residents alike to drop granular salts all together, Warner believes there’s a silver lining—being able to use both, just in different distances from the entranceways. As a cleaning-management guru who trains other supervisors, Warner suggests building managers use the chloride salts farther from the entrance, in the parking lots and on the perimeter of sidewalks. But when they get within 50 feet of the building—a liquid chloride-free deicer is the way to go.
“Put it 50 feet out. Don’t throw any granular material closer to the entrance. It’ll tramp all of the granules off as they walk into the building and what comes into the building won’t harm it,” said Warner. “It’ll also create labor savings. Ultimately, this would be a way of increasing the appearance of the building, the safety of the building, while at the same time reducing cost.” Green pioneer Aside from being less harmful to pedestrians and to your floors, Entry liquid ice-melt is also a pioneer green product. It is the first ever ice-melt solution to be Green Seal certified—meeting “a rigorous standard for transformative product innovation with a deicer that is safer for people and the planet while performing more effectively than market competitors,” according to greenseal.org.
Going green is something that is very important to Warner, as a cleaning management expert for the past three decades. But what green means to him is very different than what it may mean to other people.
“The friendliness to the environment goes without saying. But what green means to me is human and health safety,” Warner concluded. “That trumps all. When we talk about human health safety, it’s the use of products that are nontoxic and don’t hurt human beings.”
This story originally appeared on BUILDINGS.com
Chloride-based deicers and anti-icers pose a threat to the environment, to pets and to humans, but you may be wondering why that matters when children and pets don’t typically walk or play on building walkways and stairways?
BY: NATE CLEMMER
(Photo: An application of a liquid ice melt product.)
In addition, most of the surrounding surfaces that must be treated – driveways and parking lots – are areas where the potential for causing harm to children is minimal, and to pets almost non-existent.
However, sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium chlorides are also causing damage in an entirely different location: inside the building on carpeting and flooring.
When tracked into a facility, some chloride deicers leave a white residue that can dull the finish of floors and fade the color of carpets.
Other chloride-based products coat floors with an oily residue that damages wax and urethane finishes. In both cases, the near-term labor costs associated with manual clean-up of residue is roughly $50 per building entrance per day, according to estimates by the Sanitary Supply Association’s Clean Management Institute.
Over time, chloride-based products can permanently damage flooring and carpeting, requiring expensive replacement. And then there’s the safety risk that the oily, slippery residue can pose to a building’s employees and visitors.
An alternative to these granular deicing materials are liquid deicers. One such product based upon potassium formate technology is 100 percent chloride free and it eliminates tracking, leaving no residue.
Potassium formate deicers also provide three benefits outside the building:
Some chloride-based products can burn human skin when contacted. If inhaled, dust particles can cause severe irritation. If ingested, they can cause severe irritation and bouts of vomiting and diarrhea.
When cats and dogs walk on surfaces treated with some chloride-based products, they often experience painful burning, inflammation and cracked pads. If they lick their paws and ingest the salt, they may experience symptoms including excessive thirst, vomiting and diarrhea. Some chloride-based deicers are poisonous to pets.
When most chloride salts spread from sidewalks and driveways into nearby soil, they can have a defoliating effect on trees and other plants, and they interfere with plants’ ability to absorb vital nutrients including water, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
Potassium formate products, on the other hand, are readily biodegradable. They are safer for people, pets, plants, metal, concrete and other surfaces. In fact, their toxicity rate is significantly lower than that of chloride-based products and potassium acetate.
Ease and speed of application combined with reduced transport and loading costs make liquids extremely attractive from a labor perspective.
Granular products can be very labor intensive, slowing the application process and negatively impacting safety in high-traffic pedestrian areas. For example, on stairs, applicators have to carry heavy bags, spreading material by hand, and in larger areas and walkways, push spreaders are often utilized. Liquid applications are far more efficient.
Liquid tanks fill quickly, and today’s spray applicator technologies are convenient and easy to use, providing for very precise application rates.
Potassium formate deicers create a safer environment more quickly than chloride-based deicers. For example, some potassium formate products have a speed of melt of about 30-50 seconds by reducing the freezing point to temperatures as low as -63 degrees F. These deicers quickly and reliably remove thin layers of ice and prevent new snow and ice from accumulating.
By contrast, chloride-based granular deicers take a minimum of 3-5 minutes to achieve an acceptable melt – and as much as 10 minutes.
The low quantity of liquid required to produce an adequate melt combined with the ease and speed of application makes most liquid deicers more cost-effective than granular products.
Most users will achieve a lower application cost per 1,000 square feet with liquids than with granular deicers. And because the liquid achieves ice melt three times more quickly than granular products, it creates a longer-lasting and safer walking surface.
To be sure, the chlorides or salts currently used by many facility professionals to melt snow and ice likely will remain around for some time. Many are familiar with their use. In addition, salt typically requires less upfront investment than some other options.
At the same time, more facility managers are considering ways to adjust traditional snow and ice removal methods to reduce their impact on the environment. They’re also looking into new options that are entering the market. “As buildings have become more sustainable, facilities professionals now are thinking more about their environmental impact outside the building,” says Nate Clemmer, chief executive officer with SynaTek Solutions.
by Joseph N. DiStefano, Staff Writer – Philly.com
Nate Clemmer’s SynaTek Solutions was busy Tuesday in advance of another Nor’Easter storm threatening to drop piles of snow and freezing rain around Philly: He’s shipping his company’s new, high-end Entry liquid ice melt to clients including Amtrak’s 30th Street station and some of Brandywine Realty Trust’s Philadelphia-area offices. The Denver Broncos NFL team is also a client, though Colorado is on a different storm cycle.
Entry, marketed through SynaTek’s Branch Creek organics division, is “non-salt, residue-free,” Clemmer says. It’s not sodium chloride or any other chloride, which tend to eat into pavement and can be tough on fresh-water creatures. Entry uses potassium formate, derived from formic acid, a common and easily-synthesized compound. Its name derives from the Latin word for ants, who use it in self-defense.
Potassium bioformate is “biodegradable” and is “not toxic, not persistent (or) bioaccumulative,” though it will irritate your eyes and other sensitive membranes if you spray it in, according to Material Safety Data Sheets posted by manufacturers under U.S. and European law.
Formate is produced and licensed as a deicer by BASF, the German chemical giant. BASF sells the stuff “as an airport runway de-icer in Europe, but it was not available here until 2015″ when he licensed it for home and business applications, Clemmer says. BASF produces the stuff at a plant in Louisiana, then ships it by tanker rail car to Souderton, where SynaTek packages it as a liquid spray. “It’s like ‘their flour, our chocolate chips’,” Clemmer told me. “No nasty granulars. It keeps every floor and sidewalk from turning into a mess. It does not track into buildings. It is residue free.”
It’s more expensive than salt or potassium chloride; the company says a single application to a typical home walkway and front sidewalk costs about $5.50, or 90 cents just for front steps, compared to pennies for salt. “It’s not a parking-lot product, it’s an entry-way product you use in the first 15 or so feet when you enter or leave a building,” to avoid damaging landscaping or tracking white salt onto rugs and into offices, Clemmer added.
Branch Creek is the latest product line for a hometown family business that dates to 1869. “Souderton was four corners then — a bank, a bar, a church, and a feed mill,” Clemmer told me. “We owned the [Mennonite] church and the feed mill. I wish we’d had the bank and the bar,” he cracked. The bank grew up to be Union Trust (Univest), one of the largest lenders still based in the Philadelphia area. The feed mill in its current iteration is SynaTek, still in Souderton, with branch offices and warehouses in Wisconsin, North Carolina and other states.
Brooks Dodson is the Director of Sports Turf & Grounds for The Denver Broncos Football Club and that is no small feat. He is responsible for approximately 26 acres of property at The UCHealth Training Center—the corporate headquarters of the Denver Broncos.
Therefore, when winter rolls around, he is the one responsible for the highly valued football stars’ safety, players who cannot afford any slip-and-fall accidents and sit out the entire season. Add to that mix the amount of media, staff and fans that visit the property and come through the center’s doors—and walkway safety is a must.
“Getting everyone in/out and around the facility safely is our responsibility, and we take that seriously. We don’t want anyone hurt,” said Dodson.
As a result, every year, Dodson’s facility staff would bring out the calcium chloride—various salt deicers—and apply it with a spreader or a cup to prevent slippery walkways. However, the rock-salt product residue would be dragged indoors, damaging carpets, tiles and concrete in and around the buildings.
“When you are handling or spreading bags of ice melt … you can smell it and if the wind is wrong it’ll get in your mouth and you can taste it. I don’t know about you, but I prefer not putting that type of stuff in my body,” he added.
Dodson decided it was time to seek out a more environmentally friendly product—in the form of a liquid.
He attended the Sports Turf Managers Association tradeshow last winter and found just that in Entry. Entry breaks down hydrogen bonds formed when water freezes. As a result, once the product is sprayed, it removes thin layers of ice and snow, and prevents new snow from accumulating or icing. Entry reduces the freezing point of water to approximately minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit.
After meeting the manufacturer of the product—SynaTek Solutions—at the tradeshow, which uses BASF’s chemistry, Dodson tried out the liquid product and never went back to the bagged granular salt again.
“Entry performed exactly how we had hoped,” Dodson added. “Application is very simple and there is no residue. Entry is environmentally friendly and performs faster than the granular products we have used in the past.”
In addition to the newer liquid form of deicing being cleaner and faster acting, it is also environmentally friendlier—since Entry is easily biodegradable, and chloride and urea-free, so it doesn’t damage the ecosystems—which is important to the Denver Broncos facility manager.
“We try to be good stewards of the environment. We are very cognizant of the products and chemicals we use around our facility and the impact they have on our environment, not only on-site but downstream as well,” said Dodson. “Colorado is a beautiful state and water is one of our most valuable natural resources, specifically groundwater. The products we use ultimately run off into our creeks, rivers and reservoirs. We want to make sure we are doing all we can to eliminate or minimize any negative impact on our environment and our water sources.”
Entry is used all around the UCHealth Training Center, specifically at entryways, concrete steps and sidewalks, and in front of the team store that garners a high amount of traffic. In fact, although the Denver Broncos stadium is located 25 miles north of the UCHealth Training Facility, its operators caught wind of Dodson’s use of this new liquid deicer and its benefits, and now they are picking up the product to use for the stadium, according to Dodson.
“Entry is a cleaner, safer, effective product that does not destroy your concrete or building interiors,” he concluded.
SynaTek Solutions is an innovator and producer of turf products and technologies in the golf, landscape, agro and ice melt industries. The company manufacturers Entry and distributes it through their Branch Creek and Secure Winter Products brands.
The 2018 Farmer’s Almanac, which published in mid-August, predicts cold temperatures and above-average precipitation from the Great Lakes to the Northeast U.S.: “Snowier-than-normal conditions are expected,” the annual periodical predicts in its famous long-range weather forecast.
Even if you doubt the veracity of this 200-year-old publication, the fall season’s arrival brings with it one certainty: it is “prep time” for snow and ice removal, meaning now is the time to investigate the array of de-icing materials to ensure the greatest possible efficacy at the lowest possible cost.
Retail and restaurant business managers must consider how to de-ice areas requiring careful attention: wheelchair ramps, wider sidewalks and decorative — sometimes delicate — stone or other custom walkways — while being mindful of de-icers’ impact on metals in light fixtures and railings as well as nearby plant life. And, understandably so, retailers and restaurants are increasingly unwilling to accept stained and damaged floors and carpeting due to de-icing material being tracked into their establishments.
As we all know, preventative action is much more cost-effective than restorative efforts. So, here are the five key performance criteria we believe retailers and restaurants need to consider when evaluating de-icing materials:
As a retail or restaurant business manager, you know the primary reasons to clean: appearance; health and human safety; and asset preservation. When it comes to preparing for and cleaning during a snow event, you can now accomplish all three.
There are four keys to running a successful snow removal operation according to David Ross, president of Snowscapes, a commercial snow removal company based in Hackensack, New Jersey:
Snowscapes began 30 years ago as a lawn care company. Like many such enterprises, the company added snow removal services in the winter months, but soon began to focus only on snow removal. After providing these services to both commercial and municipal customers, Ross made the decision to focus solely on commercial accounts.
The speed and efficacy of Entry along with low application labor costs make using Entry far more advantageous than applying a pellet or flake.
In 2016, Ross learned about Secure Winter Products’ Entry, a de-icing and anti-icing fluid based upon formic technology. Entry quickly and reliably removes thin layers of ice and prevents new snow and ice from accumulating. In fact, Entry’s speed of melt is 30 to 50 seconds faster than the liquid the company was using previously. At a 50 percent concentration, the freezing point is reduced to approximately minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius).
Like other liquid de-icers and unlike most granular de-icers, Entry is readily biodegradable, does not contain chlorides that can damage ecosystems and eliminates the sticky, slippery residue on floors and carpets that is common with granular products and some liquids. And Entry has a virtually neutral pH of 7.8, lower than other liquid products which can cause damage to flooring and concrete surfaces. It is safer for pets, plants and metals and provides rapid and reliable results.
Snowscapes used Entry during approximately 80 percent of the company’s 2016-2017 winter events. “The speed and efficacy of Entry, along with low application labor costs, make using Entry far more advantageous than applying a pellet or flake,” Ross notes. “We achieved greatly reduced application costs per 1,000 square feet compared to when we applied solids only.”
When we switched to a liquid de-icer, we chose one of the leading brands. We were pleased that it provided all the advertised advantages of liquid de-icers over granular products, and we felt that using a liquid enhanced our reputation.
As for the speed of melt, Ross says, “Most granular products take a minimum of five minutes to achieve an adequate melt, while some liquids take less than two minutes. Some liquids are more effective at lower temperatures than most granular de-icers, too.
“When we switched to a liquid de-icer, we chose one of the leading brands. We were pleased that it provided all the advertised advantages of liquid de-icers over granular products, and we felt that using a liquid enhanced our reputation. But, we’re always looking to improve our company’s processes. So, we kept the door open to finding another effective liquid de-icer.”
Now that Snowscapes focuses solely on its snow removal service, much of the summer months are spent training drivers/applicators and doing dry runs. “Because our typical customer has more complex surfaces—not simply large, square parking lots—we believe training helps us do the best job possible in the winter months,” Ross says. “High-traffic, high-liability areas are where the site’s employees and visitors might suffer a fall. It’s also where they might track de-icing materials into buildings, damaging the flooring and carpeting.”
For narrow sidewalks, Snowscapes uses sidewalk specific machinery equipped with spray tanks. For large walks, tank sprayers are attached to utility vehicles, pickup trucks or agricultural tractors, which apply the liquid de-icer from a spray nozzle extended from the side of the vehicle while driving parallel to the sidewalk.
Each year, environmentally friendly ice melt products claim a larger percentage of the ice melt and de-ice market. A variety of products claim to be environmentally friendly, and some of them have found particular success in the consumer market where environmentally conscious homeowners with children, pets or gardens often are willing to pay a little more for a safer product.
In the commercial snow and ice removal business, the demand for environmentally friendly products also is growing – enough so that many products lay claim to the green label with some pretty creative logic — e.g., chloride-based products are safe because they are “naturally occurring elements;” salt mining is “safer for the environment” than other forms of mining; the transportation of bulk materials by barge minimizes emissions versus transportation by truck).
The fact is, however, that most chloride-based products cause some form of harm to humans, pets, plants and aquatic life. Sodium chloride products, or rock salt, cause irritation and burns to the skin and eyes and, if swallowed, to the mouth, throat, and digestive tract. The products’ deleterious effects are true for dogs, too.
Calcium chloride-based products can burn human skin when contacted. If inhaled, dust particles can cause severe irritation. If ingested, they can cause severe irritation and bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. They irritate dogs’ paws and, worse, are poisonous to canines. When spread into gardens and onto vegetation, calcium chloride products can have a defoliating effect on trees and other plants.
Magnesium chloride-based products are considered better for the environment than those made from sodium and calcium chloride, but they cannot be considered child and pet friendly ice melts. All three chloride-based products are hygroscopic. They absorb moisture from the air, and they pull moisture from hands, skin and vegetation.
Finally, if chloride-based products leach into waterways, they reduce the water’s available oxygen levels, leading to the death of aquatic life.
Beyond health and environmental concerns, chlorides also are corrosive to metals and, in varying degrees, to concrete, asphalt and stone walkways, and they will reduce the functional life of structures, such as railings and doors.
Liquid de-icers are a new alternative to chloride-based ice melt products. One such product based upon formic technology is 100 percent chloride free and is readily biodegradable. It is safer for pets, plants, metal, concrete and other surfaces. In fact, its toxicity LD-50 oral rate is 81 percent lower than calcium chloride and approximately 46 percent lower than calcium magnesium acetate, rock salt and potassium acetate.
Ice and snow removal contractors have been attracted to liquid ice melt and de-ice products in recent years largely because these products are much easier to apply. There is no need to lug a bag of granular product across walkways and up and down stairways to apply and no need to continually dip a gloved hand or a scoop into the bag. Spray applications are far more efficient and easy to use, and they provide for very precise application rates.
For many maintenance and engineering managers, consumer concerns about child and pet-based eco-friendliness are viewed as of secondary importance. After all, children and pets typically are not traversing or playing on the grounds of office buildings and office parks. But an office’s indoor environment can be negatively impacted by some ice melt and de-ice materials.
When tracked into a facility, sodium chloride de-icers leave a white residue that can dull the finish of floors and fade the color of carpets. Calcium and magnesium chloride-based products coat floors with an oily, slippery residue that damages wax and urethane finishes, posing a safety risk to employees and visitors.
By contrast, the neutral pH formulations of formic technology de-icers eliminate tracking and leave virtually no residue. This reduces near-term labor costs associated with manual cleaning and provides for a safer environment.
Outdoors, formic technology de-icers create a safer environment more quickly than chloride-based de-icers. For example, some formic technology de-icers have a speed of melt of about 30-50 seconds by reducing the freezing point to temperatures as low as minus 63 degrees. These de-icers remove thin layers of ice and prevent new snow and ice from accumulating. By contrast, chloride-based granular de-icers take a minimum of 3-5 minutes – and as much as 10 minutes — to achieve an acceptable melt.
Most users will achieve a lower application cost per 1,000 square feet with liquids than with granular de-icers because of the ease and speed of application and the reduced amount of product needed to produce an acceptable melt.
Facilities maintenance personnel are finding that the benefits of liquid de-icers based upon formic technology – environmental friendliness, no damage to carpets and floors indoors or to surfaces outdoors, safer environments indoors and out, and cost-efficiency – make it easier for them to create a clean, safe environment.