by Brianna Crandall — April 21, 2014—ISSA , the worldwide cleaning industry association, recently announced that the City of Toronto Custodial Services-Facilities Operations in Canada has mandated that all future outside service providers will be required to be certified under ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and CIMS-Green Building (GB) program.
Toronto’s Custodial Services-Facilities Operations went through the internal certification processes in 2013 and obtained CIMS and CIMS-GB Certification with honors. Having witnessed the value of certification for its own janitorial operations, the City of Toronto issued the prerequisite for all future requests for proposals (RFPs). The City of Toronto became an ISSA member in 2011.
In achieving certification for its self-performed cleaning services and requiring that all third-party cleaning contractors be certified, the City of Toronto has become the first municipality in the world to make a full commitment to certification for all custodial operations, ISSA points out.
CIMS certification brings benchmarking and validation to operations and to the service provider selection process. According to Toronto Manager of Custodial Services-Facilities Operations Lindsay Bauckham, “CIMS and CIMS-GB offers internationally recognized metrics that the city can use as a benchmark for its own systems and processes.”
Across the country, The City of Edmonton also has begun integrating CIMS into its operations. Robert Kuziw, with Edmonton project management and maintenance services, says, “This [CIMS certification] will establish a recognized management standard and certification program relevant to our industry that is structured to deliver consistent, quality services.”
Both the Toronto City Council and the City of Edmonton see the commitment to CIMS as a key element in the desire to provide clean and healthy environments for their clients, visitors, and staff.
