Creating Sustainable Cleaning Bids

Nike might be the company that coined the slogan, “Just Do It,” but the phrase certainly applies to building service contractors making sustainable cleaning bids.

While the 2012 Contracting Profits survey revealed that 85 percent of facility managers want to partner with building service contractors that embrace sustainable practices, many contractors have yet to jump on the bandwagon.

“Nobody is really doing it,” says Jeff Mabrey, senior property manager at Hines Interests Ltd., a privately owned, international real estate firm in Dallas with facilities in more than 100 cities across the globe.

But it’s necessary, Mabrey stresses, as he points out that most of today’s facilities — whether high rises, low rises, industrial or office buildings — are involved in sustainability efforts in some way.

“They are moving toward LEED certification, energy certification or some other sustainability program designed to save energy or green operations,” says Mabrey. “It’s not just a marketing gimmick.”

And this is why BSCs should incorporate sustainability practices into every bid, whether asked to or not, advises David Hewett, past chairman of BOMA and a sustainability consultant.

“Whether or not the request for proposal (RFP) asks for it, responding in a manner that emphasizes sustainability gives BSCs a leg up on their competition,” he says. “The world is moving toward greater sustainability…and a contractor needs to be proactive. They need to answer what they will do as a corporation and operationally that is different. They need to show themselves as a sustainability partner and demonstrate how their culture will fit with the sustainable culture already in the facility. Then they need to show how those cultures are going to merge together.”