June 16, 2008 - The O’Dell Corporation Reaches its 2008 Cleaning Industry Climate Initiative Milestone

WARE SHOALS, SC—The O’Dell Corporation is pleased to announce it is the first company to complete the Cleaning Industry Climate Initiative audit, earning Green Level certification. The audit is offered through Leonardo Academy’s Cleaner and Greener Program and the Green Cleaning Network. The CICI was designed specifically to help Jan/San Industry members reduce their impact on the environment by their day-to-day operations. 

Through emissions reductions from the company’s 1,000 acre tree farm, over 99 million pounds of carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere over the life cycle of the trees. Thanks to our trees, The O’Dell Corporation is technically carbon negative. With the purchase of 100% green power, O’Dell has offset other greenhouse gasses, such as sulfur dioxide, mercury and nitrogen dioxide, by at least 50%. 

Says Chip O’Dell, COO, "I had confidence our tree farm, which we planted in 1995, would go a long way towards making our factory carbon neutral. What surprises me is that our trees make us carbon negative in such a big way. The trees, during their lifetimes, will remove 167 times the amount of CO2 that our company produces in one year."

"It’s exciting to know that our efforts have such an overall positive impact," states Tim Hodges, Vice President Sales and Marketing, "and to have them officially validated by Leonardo Academy truly substantiates our corporate environmental commitment. While we are very pleased with these results, it is our intention to continue with our initiatives to improve the environment. We are increasing the scope of our in-plant recycling program, and replanting more young trees."