Do you have a LEED Certified Green Building? What to use for ice melt ...

Ice Melt Products That Fit LEED Requirements: (0% CHLORIDES)

Granular: Pure CMA (100% calcium magnesium acetate)
Granular: Pure NaAc (100% sodium acetate)
Liquid: Clean Sweep (liquid CMA)
Liquid: Green Earth Winterizer (liquid potassium acetate)

What is LEED ?
LEED is a certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The acronym stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, as the program assists building owners and operators to create and/or adopt environmentally responsible and resource-efficient activities. 
LEED is a rating system for buildings, equivalent to a gas mileage rating for cars. Under LEED, buildings accumulate points for things such as saving energy, having accessible mass transit, and mitigating storm water runoff. Once the points are tallied, the building earns a LEED rating. The higher the tally, the more sustainable a building is.

Updated LEED Interpretation for Deicers
LEED Interpretation 10146, which clarifies the requirements for deicing
products that are compliant under Sustainable Sites credit 2: Building
Exterior & Hardscape Management Plan, was substantially updated on January
1, 2015 and reads as follows:
Projects may use one of the following compliance paths to achieve the deicer
portion of the snow and ice removal requirements for the credit addressing:
Building Exterior & Hardscape Management Plans.

Compliance Path 1:
ONLY USE DEICERS THAT CONTAIN 100% CMA (Calcium
Magnesium Acetate), This CAN NOT BE A BLEND - It has a melting temperature of 10F; because it doesn’t
contain chlorides that would bring the melting temperature down.

Compliance Path 2:
A: Demonstrate that environmentally preferred deicers were used at least 20% of the time during the performance period, measured by weight, volume, or cost.
* Deicers that contain less than 5% sodium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium acetate, ammonia-based products & ferrocyanide products.
B: Implement a deicer quality assurance monitoring plan during the performance period to track ongoing decider use & record its effects for every snow event:
* Monitoring could include: if deicer was applied prior to snow events, if areas were shoveled prior to deicer application, the amount of snow over the season, the temperature when deicer was applied, the time for snow to melt, etc
* Include a plan to phase out all deicers that are not environmentally preferred within 3 years.
Any deicer that contains more than 5% sodium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium acetate, ammonia-based products & ferrocyanide product is NOT considered environmentally preferred. You will NOT qualify for this credit it is used more than 80% of the time.


Please contact us at anytime to discuss... at GreenIceMelt.com 

Are you using liquid chloride for melting ice ?

Clean Sweep liquid anti-icer & deicer is a much better choice than other liquid ice melters, that use chlorides, such as calcium chloride, or mag chloride.  I'm not sure where the idea started saying that calcium chloride is safe for the environment, or non-corrosive ?  Strange, because when they say that a certain ice melt product is "Salt Free" and "Non-Corrosive", those sorts of things... it is really a misnomer.

CHLORIDE.  Chloride, chloride, chloride... no matter how you say it, it is still a type of salt.  There's sodium chloride (table salt, rock salt... cheap stuff that's mined out of the ground).  Calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride... they are all salts.  They all are corrosive to metal, and fairly harmful to vegetation, waterways, etc.  Environmentally friendly ?  Nope.

Another popular liquid is "Beet Juice".  Beet juice comes from canning plants, that can beets.  They have waste that they want to get rid of.  It's not great as a deicer at all.  Mixed with a salt, like sodium chloride (there's that word again), calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride - then, ok, it will melt some ice.  Is it the beet juice or the chloride that's mixed with it ? ... hmmm.

This is a great solution if you really want something that is non-corrosive, and environmentally friendly.  It's called Clean Sweep, and used as an anti-icer you can apply only 1/2 gallon per 1000 square feet and anti-ice your entire parking area for a lower cost, and saving money on damages.

Happy Paws ™ – pet safe ice melter – is the safest for the environment.

A new line of more effective and environmentally safe ice melt products is available for the pet industry from ARB Distributing. For pet owners there is the added benefit that they are safe for pets’ paws and digestive systems. Pete Vercouteren, a chemist by trade, has created Happy Paws ™ to fill the need for an ice melter that is very effective, good for the environment, and safe for application by pet owners and veterinarians.

Presently, the most frequently used products in the winter to keep our sidewalks and parking lots safe and clear of ice and snow are salt and chloride based ice melters. Rock salt or halite is the most common and is corrosive and harmful to vegetation as well as dangerous for children and pets. Recently, calcium chloride products have become popular. This is a particularly harsh chemical that heats up and can actually burn skin and kill vegetation, is extremely harmful to children and pets.



Tests show Happy Paws is the safest for the environment - Happy Paws ™ is a derivative of Calcium Magnesium Acetate, which is the safest deicer on the market–safe for concrete, lawns, shrubs and other vegetation. No more corrosive than tap water. It is safe for lakes and streams runoff under normal usage, and safe for animals.


Urea is a bio-degradable chemical that is most commonly used in fertilizers. While urea may not harm your pet’s paws, it also won’t melt your ice very well. An over application of urea is inevitable as you struggle to melt ice with it. This will have damaging effects to the surrounding vegetation and contamination to water runoff. Urea is basically fertilizer, and large amounts of nitrogen from fertilizer is harmful to vegetation, lakes and streams – causing high algae growth and low oxygen. Also the price per pound of urea makes it a very expensive due to the amount needed to try to melt ice. It is a highly impractical ice melter.

Our product, Calcium Magnesium Acetate, is safe for the environment. Now that we are all thinking “green” we realize the importance of caring for the environment. Happy Paws™ biodegrades to carbon dioxide and water. It is essentially non-toxic to aquatic species, thus safe near lakes and streams. Calcium and magnesium in Happy Paws™ increase soil permeability causing slow mobility and is unlikely to reach groundwater. Happy Paws™ does not contain nitrogen or chlorides making is safe for vegetation. Our tests prove that 100 percent Happy Paws™ is the safest for the environment. Happy Paws™ works at lower temperatures than standard rock salt, but with a lasting effect, longer than either salt or urea, so it requires fewer applications, saving money in the long run.

No other ice melter on the market today is as safe and effective. Testing information is available upon request.

Ice Dam Blaster - popular product at large quantity discount, with Free Shipping

After many requests for larger quantities of the popular Ice Dam Blasters, they are now offered at discounted pricing, and Free Shipping, in the United States. Quantities of 4 cases, 6, 8, or a full pallet of 16 cases can be ordered at a discount. There are 15 Ice Dam Blasters per case. For large buildings or contractors that have many buildings to take care of these are a great way to save money on damages and can be ordered easily online or at fine hardware stores, and home landscaping stores.

The Ice Dam Blaster is a specialized sleeve of deicer that can be safely placed above and near the area where ice dams form. Ice dams create havoc when ice forms on the roof above the eves and water backs up behind it seeping into the interior of the building through cracks and crevices. The non-corrosive, biodegradable deicer contains NO CHLORIDES, like some others. It is environmentally safe, and works to under-cut the ice giving a place for the water to drain, thus preventing water from backing up and causing damage. The Ice Dam Blaster then has time release action preventing a future dam from building up.

Green Earth Ice Melter - higher performance, lower cost

An eco-friendly ice melting product, Green Earth Ice Melter, from Icex is the best performing deicer we have found, at a reasonable price.

Testing has shown that compared with standard rock salt, and the popular alternative calcium chloride, Green Earth Ice Melter out-performs.

Compare with calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride - at a much lower cost. Each crystal granule of ice melter is blended with a liquid de-icer, which gives Green Earth Ice Melter superior performance. A unique blend using the latest technology in anti-corrosion gives this de-icer increased corrosion protection to equipment, and reduced environmental impact. Green Earth Ice Melter also has less bounce and scatter when applying which reduces application rates, resulting in fewer chlorides being released in the surrounding earth.

An environmentally friendly ice melter that is also affordable.

At only around $17 per 50 lb bag, you can reduce your salt usage by up to 50%.

Extremely cost-effective, high-performance de-icer

• Safer roads and sidewalks
• Low toxicity (LD50)
• Less damage to concrete and vegetation
• Quickly penetrates and dissolves snow and ice
• Green color makes spreading the material easily visible
• Non-staining to concrete, asphalt, and shoes when used properly
• Non-tracking
• A unique blend uses the latest anti-corrosion technology
  

Green Earth Ice Melter is a brand new product available a fine hardware and landscaping stores, or online and GreenIceMelt.com. Try some today and compare for yourself.

Roof ice melt - that's safe !!

http://www.greenicemelt.com/products-roofmelt.htm
Dreading winter ? New eco-friendly Icex Products available through ARB Distributing, (on the web at GreenIceMelt.com) could make life easier and more economical. With over 2/3 of the United States having to fight the winter elements every winter, a huge amount of Sodium Chloride, or Rock Salt, is used each year. Rock salt products are very corrosive and are not environmentally or economically friendly when we look at the damage to our rivers and lakes from runoff and damage to roofs, siding, driveways, sidewalks and lawns due to the harsh chemicals. You should never put any chloride on your roof as it can damage the roofing materials, and kill any shrubs or landscaping vegetation you have down below where the chemicals drip as it melts the ice.

Recently 5 new Icex Products have come on the market for commercial and home use:


The Ice Dam Blaster ™ is a specialized sleeve of deicer that can be safely placed above and near the are where ice dams form. Ice dams create havoc when ice forms on the roof above the eves and water backs up behind it seeping into the interior of the building through cracks and crevices. The non-corrosive, biodegradable deicer is environmentally safe, and works to under-cut the ice giving a place for the water to drain, thus preventing water from backing up and causing damage. The Ice Dam Blaster™ then has time release action preventing a future dam from building up.

Other forms of deicers that are safe for the roof, and vegetation below, are the solid granular NAAC sodium acetate, that works faster than the Ice Dam Blaster ™, and a liquid concentrate, CF-7 ™, that can be sprayed on the roof, for very fast melting action at cold temperatures. Both can be used in conjunction with the Ice Dam Blaster ™ for maximum performance. Solid granular CMA, calcium magnesium acetate, or SubZero 20 ™, can both be used on the sidewalk and driveway below for very effective deicing and snow melting, using the safest and “greenest” products on the market today. Also available as a discounted "Package", which includes 3 Ice Dam Blasters, 2.5 gallons of CF7 liquid deicer, and a 6 lb bag of NAAC solid deicer. The Green Roof Melt Package can be used to really attack those ice dams quickly. These Icex Products biodegrade in warm weather making them a safe “green” product that is also child and pet friendly. All Icex roof melter products are non-corrosive, non-damaging to roofs and vegetation, safe for new concrete, wood and deck materials, and won't stain flooring and carpeting from tracking it indoors. Another great solid deicer for sidewalks that is available at a much lower cost is Green Earth Ice Melter ™.

When fighting the elements, it is good to know that there are eco-friendly products to get the job done in a convenient and responsible manner. To find more about these products, check out the website at www.GreenIceMelt.com or contact Andy Busse at ARB Distributing, LLC in Grand Rapids, Michigan, toll free 1-866-398-9598.

Snow removal companies save money on rock salt

Snow and ice removal contractors are in high demand during the wintery months. As a contractor, you are up at all hours of the day, plowing, and salting roads and parking lots. Your job is extremely important to keep our economy running. Without snow removal companies, we wouldn't be able to get to our jobs and live our lives for, at the very least, 5 months out of the year. With some of the harshest winters in the last few years, rock salt is used by the ton. Last year there was even a shortage of rock salt and many companies found themselves out of salt and nowhere to find any, with the winter still raging on !

A new liquid solution just hit the market that will save snow removal companies, cities, counties and municipalities thousands of dollars in salt costs, and is less harmful to the environment. Salt Saver is a unique solution that is used as a rock salt stockpile treatment. It will make the standard rock salt much more effective, significantly reducing the amount of salt required to effectively de-ice your location. It makes the salt work faster, longer, and to colder temperatures. You use less salt, saving you money, and reducing the harmful effects on the environment.

By applying a small amount of Salt Saver liquid, only 7 gallons per ton of salt, you will be able to spread up to 50% less salt, cutting your salt expense in half. Depending on how big of an operation it is, this can add up to thousands of dollars ! Salt Saver can also be added to salt in tailgate spreaders and effectively hand-mixed in seconds. With a small 23 oz application, it can even be added and mixed in with general consumer sized 50 lb bags of rock salt.

Available exclusively at GreenIceMelt.com - Save salt, save money, and help save the environment.