By Stephen Ashkin

Stephen Ashkin is president of The Ashkin Group, a nationally renowned consulting
firm helping both contractors and building owners “green” the cleaning process.
In many ways 2006 was a remarkable year for the green-cleaning movement, with some very important developments that specifically impact contractors. The following are some of the most interesting and intriguing developments of the year.

New Standards: Green Seal, a non-profit, third-party product certifier, completed its Standard for Cleaning Services (GS-42). This standard is the first of its kind to go beyond just products to include a standard and certification process for cleaning services.

But with all the attention that this Green Seal standard received, what perhaps was lost was the increased activity among other standard-setting organizations such as Environmental Choice, GreenBlue Institute, EPA’s Design for the Environment Program and the GreenGuard Environmental Institute.

We would all prefer to have a monopoly in the marketplace, but competition is healthy and can be an important driver of product improvements, price reductions and more.

New Legislation: While other states have issued executive orders and developed procurement and operations guidelines, New York became the first state to actually pass legislation with its “Guidelines for Green Cleaning Products for Schools.” And though New York is a huge market in itself, my suspicion is that other states will follow.

New Or Improved Programs: I hope by now you’ve heard of the U.S. Green Building Council and its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating systems. Green buildings are happening in every sector and the LEED for Existing Buildings program provides some very specific requirements for green cleaning.

But perhaps the “newcomer of the year” goes to the Healthy Schools Campaign’s “Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools.” There are two things that make this guide so important. The first is that they have earned the endorsement from all of the major school organizations, and secondly, they have figured out how to distribute some 60,000 guides to schools all around the country for free.

New Organizations: In 2006, new organizations focused on green cleaning emerged, including GreenStar and the Green Cleaning Network, which is the first to focus on customers. The network’s goal is to reduce the barriers for buildings to adopt green cleaning and it hopes to include 100,000 buildings.

We also saw new green building related organizations such as the Green Building Initiative and its Green Globes program which offers a certification similar to LEED.

New Players: If I could give out an award for the newest group that will have a growing impact on the green-cleaning movement, it would be given to companies like Wal-Mart and Cushman & Wakefield.

When major building owners and property managers begin adopting green, so too will their competitors. Inevitably, they will want to change how their buildings are cleaned to be consistent with their newly found green consciousness. The only question is: Will you be ready?




POSTED ON: 1/1/2007