Updates From The Leading Association For The Cleaning Industry Worldwide

What If ... Your Questions Were Answered

What if you could attend a seminar, knowing that the speaker will answer your specific questions, making your time and investment worthwhile? That's exactly what You Ask the Questions program for ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2010 (November 9-12 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL) is all about. You can submit your specific question for any of the seminar speakers, including keynote speaker, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Educational conference speakers will try to answer your questions during their sessions. Blair will select a few questions to address during his keynote session, November 11, 8:30 am. If your question is selected by Blair you'll receive special seating during the keynote for you and a guest as well as a photo opportunity following the address.

Just visit www.yourissashow.com to submit your questions by September 30, 2010.

IFMA & PRSM Host Special Events

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM) will host educational sessions in conjunction with the ISSA/INTERCLEAN® show this November.

The Greater Orlando Chapter of IFMA will host a session, Asset Management by Design, Wednesday, November 10, at 10 a.m. IFMA members are welcome to attend this free educational session. Registrants of this session also will have access to a second session, Facility Management Leadership: Survival 101, Thursday, November 11, at 10 am. For more details, visit www.ifmaorlando.org. PRSM also is hosting a regional seminar and networking session, PRSM Live, Thursday, November 11, at 10 am. For more information, visit http://prsm.com/education-and-events/prsm-live/

Contractors interested in attending these events can contact davids@issa.com.

Last Chance to Vote for ISSA Innovation Awards

If you have not yet voted for the cleaning industry's most innovative products and services in the online ISSA Innovation Awards Program, this is your last chance! Simply visit www.issa.com/vote to view and cast your vote for the top entries in five unique categories: Chemicals; Paper & Plastics; Power Equipment; Services, Technology & Other; and Supplies & Accessories.

Voting ends September 30, 2010. Winners will be announced the first week of October and recognized at ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2010 in Orlando, FL, November 9-12.

CIMS-GB Helps Matrix & Shellville Become "Certifiably Green"

Matrix Integrated Facility Management — a privately-held and owner-operated building service contractor based in Johnson City, NY — operates in a seven-state region that includes Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Along with its King of Prussia, PA-based division Shellville Facility Services, the organization has over 1,700 employees that maintain more than 45 million square feet in commercial, institutional, education, health care, and industrial markets.

Taking a "green" approach to cleaning service and utilizing environmentally preferable practices have long been part of Matrix's mission and strategy. In fact, Matrix was one of the first building service contractors in North America to develop a focused green-cleaning program. The program, EcoSmartª, was specifically designed to ensure the delivery of cleaning service that is centered on three deliverables — "Cleaner, safer, healthier" — that have rapidly become Matrix's primary customer value proposition.

What Matrix was missing, however, was third-party validation for the EcoSmartª program. Matrix was one of the first BSCs to certify to the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) to assess its overall operations, so it made sense that the organization also be among the first to certify to the new CIMS-Green Building (GB) criteria to validate its green-cleaning and green-building maintenance services.

"EcoSmartª was developed based on best practices," remarks Matrix CEO Jim Peduto. "One of our biggest challenges was to ensure that our best practices were being applied across our entire organization, and going through the CIMS-GB certification process helped to attain this goal."

Peduto notes that certification to the CIMS-GB criteria was particularly timely as Matrix's clients are becoming more green-savvy and are increasingly determined to have their buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

"It is no surprise that green-cleaning practices are being widely requested by our clients," notes Peduto. "However, there remains a lot of confusion about what is Ôgreen' in the marketplace. CIMS-GB certification allows us to show facility managers and building owners how our green program is different from others and, specifically, how it can help them achieve points under the LEED rating system." Shellville's Manager of Sustainability Tim Bracken certainly agrees and stresses the value of CIMS-GB certification when working with customers in the field. "Green is at the forefront of our customers' minds, and they're specifically asking about LEED," Bracken says. "Being able to offer CIMS-GB-certified service is great because the marriage between CIMS-GB and LEED is perfect — the two programs complement each other and lead to quantifiable results."

According to Bracken, clients quickly have begun to realize the benefits that high performance green-cleaning practices provide. "The overall perception about cleaning has changed and our customers have already seen a difference. I no longer hear complaints about allergies and odors, which is a big plus when it comes to effectively managing customer relationships," Bracken says. Matrix's two experiences preparing for certification and undergoing a third-party assessment — the organization underwent their traditional CIMS management assessment in September 2008 and participated in an assessment for the green-building elements last fall — has resulted in a tremendous appreciation for the certification process itself. Peduto relates the certification process and assessments to a doctor visit.

"You may have an underlying condition that you simply do not know about," Peduto says. "CIMS is a tool that helped us identify potential issues — especially those we might not have found on our own — that are critical to our ongoing success."In fact, I believe the certification process is worth as much or more than the certification itself. It's the glue that helps keep the organization together," Peduto stresses. "The process is eye-opening," Bracken notes. "I've been in the business for more than 25 years, and I've learned a great deal from the certification process and the assessments in particular. The tips our assessor provided continue to be useful to me in our daily operations."

Bracken stresses the importance of certifying to CIMS and CIMS-GB to stay ahead of the curve. "If you want to differentiate and grow your business — especially in the emerging green market — you simply have to do it," Bracken said. "The cost is minimal for the benefits you'll realize." CIMS

About CIMS and CIMS-GB: CIMS is the first comprehensive management and operations standard for cleaning organizations. Administered by ISSA and the American Institute for Cleaning Sciences, CIMS is a standard of excellence designed to help building service contractors and in-house service providers develop quality, customer-focused organizations. The core CIMS framework is built around five quality principles that have proven to be the hallmarks of well-managed, successful cleaning organizations: Quality Systems; Service Delivery; Human Resources; Health, Safety and Environmental Stewardship; and Management Commitment.

The optional sixth dimension of the Standard, CIMS-GB, enables cleaning organizations to help their customers achieve points with the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) Green Building Rating System, while greening their operations overall. Why should a company certify to CIMS and CIMS-GB? ISSA Director of CIMS Dan Wagner explains: "Implementation of the Standard's elements affords an organization a tremendous opportunity to validate its management systems and processes. Professional, customer-focused cleaning organizations finally have a touchstone resource, a common rallying point around which all members of the industry can gather and work toward achieving an unprecedented level of professionalism and excellence." For more information, call 800-225-4772 or visit www.issa.com/standard.

Calendar

November 8, ISSA Golf Tournament (Held in conjunction with ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2010) Grand Cypress Golf Club, Orlando, FL, USA

November 8-9, CIMS I.C.E. Workshop (Held in conjunction with ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2010) Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL, USA;

November 9, CIMS I.C.E. Recertification Workshop — How to Sell With I.C.E. (Held in conjunction with ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2010) Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL, USA

November 9-12, ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2010 Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL, USA

May 18-20, 2011, ISSA/INTERCLEAN® Central & Eastern Europe. Expo XXI Exhibition Centre, Warsaw, Poland

October 18-21, 2011, ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV, USA

All information in "ISSA Reports" is furnished by ISSA. ©2010. All rights reserved.