Updates from the Leading Association for the Cleaning Industry Worldwide

Green Seal Revises Cleaning Services Standard

The latest version of Green Seal’s draft Cleaning Services Standard now defines environmentally preferable cleaning products to include not only products certified by Green Seal and Environmental Choice, but also products recognized by the U.S. EPA Design for the Environment Formulator Initiative. This allows more products to qualify as green.

The draft Cleaning Services Standard’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing guidelines have been revised by replacing a requirement that 50 percent of all products meet the environmentally preferable criteria, in favor of specific categories of products that must be considered environmentally preferable under the standard.

Throughout the standard development process, ISSA has advocated that Green Seal adopt a multi-faceted approach to define green products. Such an approach ensures that under the standard, cleaning service providers would be assured a robust supply of reasonably priced, effective and environmentally preferable cleaning products.

These changes should greatly simplify the environmentally preferable product requirements while allowing for more green products in general. To obtain a copy of the revised Green Seal Cleaning Services Standard, e-mail ISSA’s Director of Legislative Affairs Bill Balek. (Place “GS Revised Standard” in the subject line of your e-mail).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has plans to revise its worker training and certification regulations that would expand training and certification requirements to all occupational users of antimicrobial products.

EPA plans to move quickly on this issue and has scheduled a series of conference calls with work group members to discuss various proposals in the coming weeks. ISSA will actively participate in the weekly conference calls because the contemplated training regulations will have a substantial impact on employers of cleaning personnel who use disinfectants, sanitizers and other EPA-registered products as part of their work responsibilities.

The first set of issue papers distributed by EPA clearly indicate that the Agency is considering extending training and some level of competency requirements to occupational users of antimicrobial pesticides including janitors, school employees, water treatment technicians, food handling employees and healthcare workers.

A proposal under consideration by the work group includes:

“Industries whose training and/or testing programs for occupational pesticide users are determined to be equivalent to, or greater than, the federal standard will be issued an occupational user certification by the appropriate regulatory agency.”

ISSA will keep the membership apprised of pertinent developments as EPA moves forward with its plan to expand the Agency’s training requirements.

Cleaning professionals play a critical role in a college-bound student’s decision as to which school to attend. In 2005, two researchers, David A. Cain, Ph.D. and Gary L. Reynolds, P.E., embarked on a project to determine The Impact of Facilities on the Recruitment and Retention of Students. More than 16,000 students from 46 institutions in the United States and Canada responded, and of those, 64 percent stated that they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “The good condition of the facilities on campus was important in my choice of college.”

In addition, maintenance concerns of the facilities were an issue that gave students cause to go elsewhere for their education, 70 percent in the case of residence halls with maintenance issues, and 44 percent when the maintenance of classrooms was an issue.

This published study shows a distinct and important relationship between student satisfaction, choice of institution and the condition of the facilities. The data highlights the important role that building service contractors play in cleaning and maintaining buildings at an acceptable level. Failure to do so may possibly lead students to go elsewhere for their education, which could have a direct impact on the fiscal stability of various institutions.

However, the research does not end with the Cain and Reynolds study. ISSA and the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA) have also funded a research study to determine The Impact of Levels of Cleanliness on the Academic Achievement of Students. This team of researchers is comprised of three ISSA members and three APPA members. Dr. Jeff Campbell from Brigham Young University will present some initial comments about the study at ISSA/INTERCLEAN^®, October 4-7, in Chicago.

The two research topics and their findings could be beneficial when approaching the administration of institutions for additional funding and staff. When it can be clearly demonstrated that cleaning functions have a direct impact on an organization’s bottom line, administrators will be more prone to listen and more likely to support cleaning and maintenance functions.

Click here to obtain details of the Cain and Reynolds research project, sponsored by the Center for Facilities Research (scroll down to the links under The Students Have Spoken).

Alan S. Bigger, B.Sc., M.A., R.E.H., is director of building services at the University of Notre Dame. Contact him at 574-631-5615; e-mail.