Tornado's Commitment To Environmental Sustainability
by Mike Schaffer
President, Tornado Industries Inc.

Tornado Industries, Inc. is committed to creating a clean, safe and healthy workplace environment through the use of innovative cleaning technology developed to minimize the impact of cleaning on indoor and outdoor environments. At Tornado, we care deeply about our planet and realize the cleaning industry is in a position to make positive and profound contributions to the environment, ensuring that our children and our children’s children inherit a sustainable and healthy planet. That’s why we carefully design our machines to deliver not only the latest innovation, but also green features to enhance indoor air quality (IAQ), use less water and chemicals, create less noise, and contribute to source reduction. Tornado embraces the following ecological and corporate values through the green and healthy practices listed below:

1. Water conservation: Our products, such as our carpet extractors deliver adjustable solution control for safe, healthy and fast-drying floors that eliminate mold and mildew. Our cylindrical brush floor machines use 30% less water. The design of cylindrical brush machines minimizes splashing and over spray by containing water within the machine housing. Cylindrical brush machines have six times the contact pressure of a conventional rotary brush machine, which not only helps reduce water usage, but also improves worker productivity and reduces labor costs.

2. Less chemicals: Due to recent green legislation and the development of new cleaning standards, all of our cylindrical brush machines and carpet extractors are designed to use less chemicals as well as provide increased rotations per minute (RPMs). The adjustable head pressure helps to minimize the need for powerful and potentially harmful chemicals. Our carpet extractors have enhanced vacuum systems helping to eliminate the possibility of mold and mildew from developing and carpet-drying time becomes faster. The result? Areas cleaned are ready for use faster and are safer for building occupants.

3. IAQ Enhancement: Vacuum cleaners including uprights, backpacks and canisters can release dust and debris into the air if they are not designed with advanced infiltration systems. That’s why Tornado has developed a comprehensive product family of high-filtration vacuums with true HEPA filtration to minimize dust and exhaust from escaping the vacuum. All of our carpet care cleaning equipment has been tested and approved for green cleaning by the Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI) or by leading manufacturers of commercial carpeting. What’s more, many of our UHS Ultra High Speed equipment have passive vacuum systems to trap contaminants before they become airborne.

4. Reusable and Recyclable: Our machines are designed with durable polypropylene tanks, housings and other components that are recyclable after the machine is no longer in use. All Tornado machines proudly display the recyclable logo. Our long lasting, deep cycle, rechargeable batteries increase run time and minimize down time as well as time spent on battery maintenance. Our cylindrical brush technology creates less environmental waste by utilizing one set of cylindrical brushes to every 100 traditional rotary pads, increasing the productivity of your maintenance staff due to less time spent on pad maintenance and replacement.

5. U.S.Green Building Council Member: We support standards and the criteria established by
certification bodies such as the U.S. Green Building Council, The Carpet and Rug Institute’s (CRI) Green Label Certification program, the Green Seal GS-37 standards, and more.