The Fluid Sealing Association, an international trade association of sealing device manufacturers, has established an educational initiative called Sealing Systems Matter. A primary objective of the initiative is to influence the decision-making process applied to the purchase, specification, and upgrade of sealing systems used in the process industries and municipalities. In today’s highly competitive market, an increasing number of users and specifiers are buying sealing systems on the basis of initial cost, at the expense of higher lifetime costs to their operations in terms of energy consumption, water usage, effluent treatment, chronic maintenance cost, and perhaps reduced ability to keep abreast of their safety and environmental responsibilities.