Industrial and institutional cleaning
- Abbreviation
- I&I
- Also known as
- I&I, HI&I, institutional cleaning
Industrial and institutional (I&I) cleaning is the market for cleaning products and systems used by businesses and institutions rather than households, such as hospitals, schools, hotels, restaurants, food plants and factories. It covers hard surfaces, floors, laundry, warewashing and industrial degreasing.
What is I&I cleaning?
Industrial and institutional cleaning, usually shortened to I&I, refers to cleaning products made for commercial and institutional users. When household products are included, the market is often called HI&I. I&I products are typically sold as concentrates and diluted on site, often through dispensing systems, and are used by professional cleaning staff under demanding conditions.
Main segments
- Hard surface cleaning in offices, schools, hospitals and hotels.
- Floor care, including cleaners, strippers and finishes.
- Warewashing, meaning commercial dishwashing.
- Commercial laundry.
- Food service and food processing sanitation.
- Industrial cleaning and degreasing of equipment, parts and facilities.
- Vehicle care.
What I&I formulators prioritize
- Performance at dilution. Concentrates must deliver strong detergency on heavy soils after dilution, often in hard water and with short contact times.
- Cost in use, measured per diluted gallon rather than per container.
- Worker safety, with less corrosive, less irritating and lower-hazard products.
- Environmental credentials, such as EPA Safer Choice certification and USDA BioPreferred labeling, which institutional buyers increasingly require.
- Compatibility with dispensing equipment and surfaces.
Surfactant selection sits at the center of these trade-offs, balancing wetting, soil removal, foaming, rinsing and biodegradability.
I&I cleaning at Locus
Locus supplies its Amphi glycolipid biosurfactants to I&I formulators as co-surfactants, describing them as improving wetting, soil penetration and residue suspension, and lists credentials including EPA Safer Choice and USDA certified biobased content.
Frequently asked questions
Household, industrial and institutional. It extends I&I to include consumer household cleaning products.
I&I products are usually more concentrated, used by trained staff, dispensed through dilution systems, and designed for heavier soils and higher-volume use, with cost measured per use rather than per bottle.
Sources
- Cleaning product science and industry resources, American Cleaning Institute
- Safer Choice Standard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency