Our Story
Green Solutions Group’s story began in June 1994. GSG’s founder, Larry Kennedy was providing animal specimens for use in biological education. He entered a lab and the first thing he noticed was an overpowering, pungent, suffocating odor. Within 2 minutes, his eyes were running, nose and throat were burning, and he felt a tightness in his chest. He thought he was having a heart attack. His only focus was to get quickly out of the lab. That was his first introduction to formaldehyde and he relayed, “it was the most negative experience I’ve ever had in a laboratory. I reflected what just happened in that lab and thought that nobody I’ve ever known would enjoy what I just experienced. In reflection, this experience changed the course of my life.”
After Larry’s exposure, he began to research the fluids used in tissue preservation. He was amazed to learn that toxic chemicals were the only options in tissue preservation. He also learned that each day, millions of people are exposed to toxic chemicals that have cause both short and long-term health issues.
It became Larry’s passion to create nontoxic tissue preservatives and after twelve (12) years, he and his team broke the toxic code in tissue preservation. According to Larry, “Twelve years is a long time to spend trying to solve a problem. To be totally transparent, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to quit in this journey. But I could not quit. WHY? First, I couldn’t quit on myself, but more importantly, I couldn’t quit on the millions of people who would benefit from the creation of these products. This kept me going until the problem was solved.”
In Larry’s journey, he has spoken with hundreds of medical professionals, and likes to engage doctors and surgeons by asking, “Can you tell me about your most memorable experience in medical school, and specifically in gross anatomy?” Overwhelming, their responses have always been about their initial exposure to formaldehyde. One can see them “living” their own experience as they tell their story, even if the experience happened decades ago. Larry said, “I’ve never heard one story where any doctor or surgeon provided positive information about their exposure to formaldehyde.”
Larry and the GSG team are passionate about GSG’s products. We believe it is time for a positive change in advancing tissue preservation practices into the future with sustainable and environmentally safe products.
