By Stephen Ashkin
AshkinGroup
March 2009
It is undeniable that “green” is an idea whose time has come. Whether it is driven by concerns over climate change, global population growth, the economy and the opportunity to reduce energy costs or other drivers — green is happening. And as building owners, facility managers and even legislators accelerate the demand for green buildings, so too is the demand for Green Cleaning.
To help make Green Cleaning easy to define and more importantly, easy to implement the IFMA Foundation recently released its newest book titled The Business of Green Cleaning . While much of the book focuses on background information and concepts that facility managers need to successfully implement a Green Cleaning program, it also features an appendix with practical tools and a collection of 25 public- and private-sector case studies from around the world.
Defining Green and Green Cleaning
The book makes the case that Green Cleaning is among the “lowest hanging fruits” for facility managers working to green their buildings and defines green based on U.S. Presidential Executive Order 13101. This executive order defines green (which is used interchangeably with environmental preferability) as “reducing the health and environmental impacts compared to similar products and services used for the same purpose.”
Based on this definition, Green Cleaning in its most simple form can be defined as cleaning to protect health without harming the environment.
The definition characterizes green as simultaneously addressing both environmental and health impacts. This is particularly important because cleaning is labor intensive; thus, there is a need to reduce harmful exposures to both cleaning workers and building occupants, in addition to reducing environmental impacts.
The definition further characterizes green as a comparison. It does not suggest that the traditional cleaning products purchased by facility managers are inherently bad for health or the environment. Rather, the definition aligns with the process of continual improvement where the emphasis is on health and the environment improvements, rather than a more traditional selection criterion which places performance and cost as the highest priorities.
Impacts From Cleaning
Those who specify and purchase products and services (e.g. facility managers) can make an important contribution to addressing environmental impacts relating to the cleaning industry because suppliers will provide conventional or greener alternatives based on what the customer is requiring. While the cleaning industry is certainly not the primary culprit responsible for major global environmental problems, however due to the sheer size of the industry, these impacts are significant.
For example in the United States, the commercial and institutional cleaning industry (nonresidential) is comprised of approximately 100,000 companies, many of which have multiple buildings and numerous trucks, cars, and other delivery and service vehicles, all of which consume energy and fuels which contribute to environmental impacts.
From the perspective of the impacts from the actual products used to clean those same commercial and institutional buildings, each year the U.S. cleaning industry annually manufacturers, uses and disposes:
- 6.2 billion pounds of chemicals, most of which are made from valuable but limited and nonrenewable natural resources and some of which can be harmful to both human health and the environment during the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, use, and disposal.
- 4.5 billion pounds of janitorial paper products (e.g. hand towels and toilet tissue). Most of these products are made from virgin tree fiber, which requires the annual cutting of approximately thirty million trees. Additionally, the manufacturing of these products, bleaching and disposal can have large environmental impacts and offer many important opportunities for improvement.
- 1 billion pounds of janitorial tools, supplies, and equipment (e.g. mop buckets and vacuum cleaners), filling approximately 40,000 garbage truck loads heading to landfills. Furthermore it contributes additional impacts from the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, and transportation of the products used to replace those that were disposed.
Beyond just the impacts from the products used for cleaning, the industry employs approximately 4.2 million cleaning personnel and affects many more due to the high level of turnover in some sectors. These workers may have long-term exposure to cleaning chemicals, some of which are known to cause acute and chronic health problems such as eye and skin burns, respiratory irritation, trigger asthma, reproductive and developmental problems, and more. Plus janitorial workers use equipment such as vacuum cleaners and mopping systems, and lift and move heavy objects, all of which can cause musculoskeletal problems, such as back injuries.
As stated earlier, neither the cleaning industry nor any individual facility manager is responsible for our global environmental problems. However, collectively facility managers are the drivers of the economic engine that directs the cleaning industry. As a result, Green Cleaning is in fact a terrific example of how an informed and motivated facility manager can use the marketplace to drive health and environmental improvements. Facility managers can make an important difference.
What Can Be Done
Operationally, facility managers utilize three basic approaches to cleaning:
- In-house cleaning. The use of direct employees and responsible for purchasing all products.
- Out-sourced cleaning. Contracting with a services provider. Typically the service provider is responsible for purchasing all products.
- Combination. Splitting between in-house and out-sourced. For example, carpet, window and exterior cleaning may be out-sourced. However, even when out-sourcing, the facility manager may purchase products especially those that are high volume or fluctuate in price (e.g. paper products and plastic liners) or items deemed critical such as floor care.
The Business of Green Cleaning provides several different strategies that can help facility managers identify Green Cleaning service providers and appropriate products, many of which are designed to comply with existing “roadmaps” such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) Rating System . Following existing “roadmaps” is an excellent strategy to help facility managers efficiently identify the products and approaches that should be used and also allows progress to be made with confidence knowing that the right path is being followed without “reinventing the wheel”.
Identifying Green Products
Whether the cleaning is in-house, out-sourced or a combination of the two, facility managers can specify “green” products. As stated previously, the strategy should follow an existing “roadmap” such as LEED-EBOM which provides information to identify standards such as those from Green Seal, Environmental Choice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and more. For example:
- All Purpose Cleaners shall meet the requirements of Green Seal’s GS-37 and/or Environmental Choice’s CCD-146 and/or EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) program.
- Washroom Cleaners (non-disinfecting) shall meet the requirements of Green Seal’s GS-37 and/or Environmental Choice’s CCD-146 and/or EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) program.
- Floor Care Products (Finishes and Sealers) shall be durable and slip resistant. In addition, the finish shall be free of zinc (metal-free) OR shall meet the requirements of Green Seal’s GS-40 and/or Environmental Choice’s CCD-147 and/or EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) program.
This same language can be used in traditional products procurement specifications that the facility may currently be using.
The Book also addresses products where no standards exist. It suggests that facility managers and other specifiers simply apply the definition of green and consider how the product or process could reduce health and environmental impacts. Furthermore, it addresses purchasing from manufacturers chose not to have their products certified by a third-party by simply requesting that the supplier provide third-party documentation on the various claims it is making, which should align with one of the existing standards to demonstrate that their products are indeed “green”.
The RFI / RFP Process
For those facility managers out-sourcing their cleaning, The Business of Green Cleaning provides some examples of a two-step contracting process that increases the potential that an appropriate service provider will be identified and one that is prepared to implement a Green Cleaning program that meets the building’s needs.
The following are some of the most important areas of information that should be requested in the first step (Request for Information [RFI]):
- Mission or Vision Statement
- Corporate Environmental Policy or Sustainability Statement
- Company Strategic and Succession Plans
- Organizational Chart(s)
- Evidence of Corporate Compliance
- Service Delivery Model
- Administrative Systems
- References
- Quality Control Program
- Specific Green Components
After receiving the responses from the RFI and pre-qualifying a group of potential facility service providers, the Request for Proposals (RFP) can be published. The responses to the RFP, if structured correctly, will allow an informed operational and financial decision.
In addition to pricing, the following are some of the most important areas of information that should be requested in the RFP:
- Administrative and Contract Requirements
- Accurate Operational Data
- Detailed Set of Specifications
- Service Plan
- Green Cleaning Product Requirements
With this information the facility manager is now in a position to complete negotiations for services based on a pool of prequalified providers who clearly understand the requirements. In many cases the information is weighted based on the priorities of the facility. As a result of this two step process the facility service provider is best prepared to deliver long-term value with a robust Green Cleaning program.
The Business of Green Cleaning, as well as other “roadmaps” provides lots of valuable information that will make it easier for facility managers to implement Green Cleaning. Especially during a period of economic challenges, this is an ideal time for an organization to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to its people, green and sustainability with a strategy that not only makes environmental sense, but is easy and cost-effective as well.