In the early 1970s, Bruce FaBrizio was enrolled at Mt. San Antonio College studying comparative literature, competing in track and field and playing football. He was also working with his father to develop a safer alternative to the toxic cleaners then being used to remove tannic acid from coffee roasting machinery.
It took three years to perfect the biodegradable, non-toxic, non-flammable, non-abrasive formula, but they succeeded, and they called it Simple Green. After his initial success, FaBrizio began selling Simple Green to automotive and industrial customers in 55-gallon drums for use as a cleaner on equipment and floors. Today, his company, Sunshine Makers, Inc., is headquartered in Huntington Beach with satellite offices around the world, and Simple Green has grown to include a wide variety of both consumer and industrial products that are part of everyday life in millions of homes and commercial and industrial sites.
In 1989, FaBrizio founded the EGBAR Foundation, an acronym for Everything’s Gonna Be All Right. The foundation is funded by a percentage of Simple Green sales, which goes toward a national education curriculum that teaches children about the environment and how to care for it. Funds also support community clean-up projects, and partnerships with local conservation groups.
FaBrizio continues to support Mt. San Antonio College through his donations to various programs, as well as participating in speaking engagements, including the commencement ceremony upon the school’s 50th anniversary in 1996.
