Updates from the Leading Association for the Cleaning Industry Worldwide

Cancun in June!

ISSA/INTERCLEAN® Latin America 2010 Expands to Reach Entire Latin American Market

You asked ... we listened. Over the past two years, ISSA has made big changes to extend its services to Latin American members, including developing a new and improved ISSA/INTERCLEAN® Latin America exhibition experience! A new location, new dates (June 9-11), and the first-ever Latin American Symposium on Green & Healthy Cleaning make this show one of the truly exciting cleaning-industry events of 2010.

New Location & Dates

In 2010, ISSA/INTERCLEAN Latin America moves to beautiful Cancun, Mexico, a well-connected and growing business destination with up to 200 direct flights daily and more than 26,000 hotel rooms — plus fantastic restaurant and entertainment options.

In addition, this year the show will take place June 9-11, when hotel rates are most affordable, providing attendees the best value for their investment. Plus, participants can extend their business travel to include an extraordinary vacation in Cancun.

New Symposium

This year's show will feature the first Latin American Symposium on Green & Healthy Cleaning. The symposium brings together leaders from Latin America and North America to discuss how to improve the ways in which cleaning protects occupant health and other industry-focused topics.

The objectives of the symposium are:

1) To see the advances in research from the ISSA/Cleaning Industry Research Institute initiative to define "clean." At the symposium, you will:

• Meet scientists, researchers, academics, and experts to discuss the latest trends in cleaning for health
• Discover developments in environmentally preferable products, processes, and certification
• Review case studies from green cleaning operations
• Network with top cleaning companies and distributors from throughout Latin America
• Learn how to handle and control public-health issues, like the recent worldwide influenza outbreak
• Obtain updated information about cleaning and occupational health standards.

2) Hear what experts like Steve Spivak, Steve Ashkin, Eugene Cole, and Michael Pinto recommend about green cleaning procedures, how to measure the effectiveness of your cleaning program, the benefits of healthy cleaning in your organization, and more. Remember, industry buyers and their needs change quickly, and you have to be ready!

Who Should Attend

Business owners, presidents, purchasers, sales managers, maintenance, and operations personnel from all segments of the industry, including manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, building service contractors, and in-house service providers.

Register your group for the tradeshow and symposium and receive lower group rates, plus specially equipped meeting rooms to host your events! Please contact Anabel Montoya for details.

Ecoform and ISSA Progress on Development of Environmental Label

"With the recent development of several key metrics, we have made significant progress in the development of an information-based environmental label (IBEL) in just a few short months," says IBEL-development leader Jack Geibig, president of Ecoform — a leading technical-analysis firm that focuses on the environmental performance of companies and their products.

ISSA and Ecoform are collaborating for the purposes of developing IBEL, the next generation of environmental labeling systems for the commercial cleaning industry. IBEL will complement existing eco-label programs, such as those for chemical cleaners, and will also provide a uniform platform for communicating the environmental attributes for the hundreds of product categories for which eco-label programs do not exist.

As of February 24, metrics have been developed for the following environmental attributes of chemical cleaners: fragrances, color and dyes, combustibility, post-consumer packaging content, recyclable packaging content, and biobased material content.

The individual metrics are being developed through the use of a work-group process, the results of which are then reviewed and vetted by the Core Development Committee. To date, the work group has considered seven different metrics, modified the list of future metrics to consider, and established a productive format in which to present information related to future metrics.

In addition, Ecoform recently launched a page on its Web site that is dedicated to the IBEL development process. The IBEL development page contains a calendar of upcoming calls with specific topic details; an archive of information developed during the IBEL process, including summaries of work-group and Core Development Committee calls; an area dedicated to recent IBEL activities, where you can keep informed; and a bulletin board for discussing metrics or asking questions. This Web page is open to anyone and will be updated frequently now that IBEL development is moving rapidly forward. The Web page can be accessed at: www.ecoform.com/ibel.html.

Ecoform and ISSA announced their intent to develop IBEL at ISSA/INTERCLEAN® 2009. Geibig is leading the development process in cooperation with a Core Development Committee that is composed of key stakeholders, including health and environmental advocates, unions, state and federal government representatives, eco-label organizations, large and small cleaning-product manufacturers, contract cleaners, and institutional purchasers.

For a complete list of the members of the Core Development Committee, go to www.issa.com/ibelfacts. For more information, contact ISSA Director of Legislative Affairs Bill Balek; or Ecoform President Jack Geibig.

All information in “ISSA Reports” is furnished by ISSA. ©2010 all rights reserved.