Green Seal's Cleaning Service Standard: Making A Move Toward Certification

In June of 2005, Green Seal announced it had received the funding necessary to develop a Cleaning Service Standard. More recently, the Building Service Contractors Association International jumped on board, granting a greater degree of legitimacy to this standard. Rather than certifying products (as Green Seal does already), this standard defines an environmentally responsible cleaning service — the chemicals, paper products, equipment, procedures and training used in total.

Is there a need for yet another standard in the cleaning industry? Yes. As difficult as it is to evaluate the ingredients in chemicals, it’s also difficult for customers to evaluate the overall service their getting. That’s why contractors looking to green their operations can buy certified products and equipment; it makes the purchasing process so much easier. It guarantees the product — whether it’s paper, cleaning chemicals or vacuums — gives the end result the customer is looking for, and the user doesn’t have to understand the science behind it.

The same is true for certifying the cleaning service as a whole. When a cleaning company gets certified, customers and potential customers will be assured they are getting a full service green-cleaning operation — one that has trained workers in the panoply of measures involved in green cleaning.

Green Seal decided to develop the standard after it became clear through discussions with cleaning service providers and their customers that both sides believed the industry would benefit from an overall service standard.

The plan is to cover commercial cleaning services (contract and in-house). Through a process of stakeholder involvement, Green Seal will identify the most environmentally beneficial practices — for human health and the environment — and the products and equipment that go along with them. Once the criteria are in place, there will likely be a certification audit — someone observing cleaning personnel while they are doing their job, as well as reviewing training materials, manuals, equipment used and the like.

Green Seal is known for its inclusive practices and has put out a call for people to get involved in the scoping phase (contact greenseal). The group is actively soliciting input from interested parties (including service providers). Stakeholders will have the chance to voice opinions in defining the scope of the standard and in reviewing the draft standard.

Standards such as these raise the bar for the industry as a whole. They have the potential to elevate the cleaning industry, as businesses that achieve certification receive positive press and set themselves apart from the pack as leaders. The industry is moving in a more environmentally responsible direction anyway; why not make it clear to your customers, too?

Rona Fried is founder of SustainableBusiness.com, an Internet community that provides services and information to companies that integrate triple bottom-line concerns — social, environmental and economic — into their core strategies.