Interview with GenEon Technologies

Rinexii found out about GenEon Technologies through a press release they sent to us. This business has been working to try and reduce plastic pollution, air pollution, and harmful chemicals through their products. The GenEon Mineral Electrolyte just received EPA List N registration, and they’re trying to get the word out.

Products are not our main focus on Rinexii, but sustainable companies and the people who got them started always are. We spoke with the owner of the company about how they got their start. Here’s a little more information about their work.

1. There’s always a great story behind how companies get started. Does yours have one?

Geneon was founded in San Antonio, Texas. The original founders had worked at a company that was one of the first to manufacture portable onsite generation technology. The company they worked for prior to starting GenEon had developed a product with tap water to create sanitizer and cleaner in the early days when companies were just getting started developing sustainable cleaning products after recognizing how toxic and harmful traditional chemicals were. There was incredible interest from companies who wanted it, especially because it was portable. Prior to this, the systems on the market were wall-mounted systems that were typically massive. Because they were able to make a portable version, they became less cost prohibitive and easier for companies to adapt.

GenEon was one of the earliest companies that had portable onsite generation that could produce sanitizing and disinfecting solutions as well as cleaning solutions that were toxic-free, eco-friendly and sustainable.

GenEon is rapidly becoming the place to go for safe cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting solutions for the professional and consumer markets. We create solutions utilizing Electrochemical Activation technology (ECA), which is recognized worldwide to be sustainable, more effective and safer than traditional chemicals and disinfectants. GenEon’s solutions are comprised of natural minerals, water and energy – an ideal solution for commercial and professional operations so they can meet and exceed health and safety standards, since they are non-toxic and have little to no volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

2. Sustainable disinfectants are really uncommon. What made you decide to create a sustainable disinfecting solution?

Traditional chemicals are incredibly toxic. There are many studies that have shown how traditional chemicals can lead to birth defects and respiratory problems by users and people who enter establishments after these chemicals have been sprayed. Many studies have also shown how traditional chemicals can increase the likelihood of ADHD, autism, cancer and allergies and that the effects of certain cleaning chemicals was equal to smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

We wanted to create sustainable solutions to protect the people and the planet. The damage of toxic cleaners has been tremendous to the environment and to people’s health. The sanitizing and disinfecting solution that our products generate is called hypochlorous acid (HOCl). It is naturally produced in the human body so it is non-toxic as well as eco-friendly and sustainable.

What is the benefit of HOCl? It has been around for over 150 years but not accessible until recently because it was too expensive. It has long been used in health care for wounds and burns, dating back to World War I and II when it was used to treat injured soldiers. It has been widely studied for its efficacy, toxicity levels and safety profile. HOCl has many broad applications, making it an ideal disinfectant for many different circumstances. It can be used to disinfect surfaces, surgical instruments and medical equipment, food production equipment and in grocery stores it is used to sanitize and prolong the life of produce. It is also a great disinfectant to use in educational facilities as well as commercial and residential properties.

3. How many plastic bottles etc. do you estimate you’ve helped prevent through your product?

While we don’t have an exact approximation on the amount of plastic bottles we have helped prevent through our products, the impact is significant. In addition to just plastic, if safer solutions, such as GenEon’s Mineral Electrolyte, became more widely used, air quality would greatly improve along with a drastic decrease in pollution as corrugated packaging would no longer be needed. This has a carryover effect and would result in a decrease in the amount of lumber used for pallets that ship cleaning products around the world, thereby increasing our natural air purifiers. It would eliminate so many of the trucks on our highways delivering from the manufacturing plants to regional warehouses and then on to distributor warehouses before making their way to end-user sites. This would also decrease the amount of petroleum fueling these vehicles.

Studies have shown that if half of all educational facilities adapted Electrical Chemical Activation technology, which is what our products use, that over a five-year period, it would be equivalent to 15,450 tons of coal, 2,873,700 gallons of gasoline, and the equivalent energy to power 111,000 homes, for only half of schools. That is a major impact.

4. Have you faced any challenges on your company’s sustainable journey?

One of the biggest challenges that we’ve faced as a sustainable company is competing with large chemical companies. It is a true David and Goliath story. We’ve gone to universities and companies to show our products and our technology and everyone loves it, but then a big chemical company will catch wind of this and go in and offer those same universities and company’s free products to block the little guy from getting into these establishments. These large chemical companies know it’s in their best interest to try and block out potential competition and they have the budget to be able to do so. It can be tough, because at the end of the day, the decision makers at most companies are going to go with the free option. It comes down to us educating and reinforcing the benefits of our products and that the free or reduced-price product today, will have a much higher cost tomorrow.

5. Sustainability is a journey, any plans in the future to improve even more?

Absolutely. It is incredibly important to us that we make sure to keep improving and making our products more accessible to people. We are constantly updating our technology and delivery systems to make sure that they become more and more intuitive and cost effective. We are constantly refining and testing how we kill pathogens, what pathogens we kill and where we kill pathogens.

We loved how up front and open this company was about their business. For more information about GenEon Technologies, you can visit them here. Rinexii isn’t affiliated in any way, we just like cool sustainable companies.