Although green cleaning products represent less than 3 percent of a $150 billion global market, there is huge potential for growth as consumer awareness, regulations and stakeholder pressures increase -- and the market has already grown at about 20 percent per year.

That growth, and that potential, has brought all kinds of big players to the market, notably Clorox's Green Works, as well as backlash about the market's growth potential.

Seventh Generation has arguably been the leader in the green cleaning industry, with more than two decades' of history in transforming the market and uncovering the business opportunities in the consumer cleaning segment. Martin Wolf, the company's director of product sustainability and authenticity, recently came to Boston College as a guest lecturer, and he met with Net Impact students to share some of his insights into the greening of the consumer cleaning product segment.

Despite the historic growth of the market, and the potential for more growth ahead, Martain said three main obstacles remain to increasing the green cleaning products on offer by manufacturers.

1) Cost. The number one barrier is cost -- conventional product companies have worked for decades to optimize their supply chain; developing new ingredients or finding new suppliers can be very costly.

2) Willingness to pay. With a few exceptions, the majority of consumers are not willing to pay more. In cases where green cleaning products cannot be priced competitively with conventional products, manufacturers may need legislation or further optimization of their supply chain in order to bring the cost of their products down.

3) Consumer skepticism. Rooted in the sub-optimal performance of green products in years past, many consumers still have the perception that green cleaners will not do the same job cleaning their clothes or dishes as conventional cleaners despite a decade of significant progress in improving product performance.

As with most environmental problems today, promoting safer cleaning products for people and the environment requires industry collaboration. In this regard, the American Cleaning Institute (formerly known as The Soap and Detergent Association) has been a key player in changing the status quo.

"I have been impressed with how the industry has embraced sustainability," Wolf said. While "each step is a battle," the institute has worked to re-write its mission which presently includes a commitment to sustainability.

The institute includes about 120 companies -- from small green product manufacturers to $80 billion corporations such as P&G -- but each member has equal opportunities to bring ideas about making the industry more sustainable.

The technical and cost barriers around reformulating cleaning products are one thing that most companies know how to address, but changing consumer preferences is a totally different story.

"Consumers are not always ready to embrace innovation," Wolf explained. "It takes a large company's effort to be able to push a truly innovative product and educate consumers to use it."

Examples include P&G's introduction of the Swiffer -- a sweeping, dusting, and mopping solution -- and Walmart's adoption of concentrated laundry detergents, a move that Unilever tried to push in the 1990s but had minimal success with.

Smaller companies like Seventh Generation do not have the power to propel such innovations; indeed, their innovations are typically "invisible" to consumers. But Wolf said those innovations are critical in educating peers and moving the entire industry toward greater sustainability.