Updates from the Leading Association for the Cleaning Industry Worldwide

Bill Cosby to Deliver Keynote Address at ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2008

ISSA has chosen renowned American comedian Dr. Bill Cosby to deliver the ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2008 keynote address, which will take place Wednesday, September 10, in Las Vegas. The atypical decision to invite an entertainer comes as one of many surprises in store for attendees at this year’s event, which promises a theme of “Business NOT as Usual.”

Being held earlier in the year than is customary to accommodate attendees’ host-city preference, 2008’s ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America will take place September 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.

“Many times we struggle with breaking away from the office to attend a professional event because it’s hard to rationalize leaving if we think we’ll experience the same old thing,” said ISSA Director of Industry Outreach Dianna Bisswurm. “That is why ISSA has committed to offering a host of unusual and unexpected business perspectives, interesting innovations, and unique connections at this year’s event, guaranteed to make it worth the time away. Dr. Cosby is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Cosby will ask attendees to put away the financial statements, set aside customer complaints, and join him on a journey to find the true, and often funny, fundamentals of working life when he delivers his address, It’s Your Job to Feel Good. He’ll help ponder what the world would be like without our jobs and why more people should focus on the personal side of business — especially in the cleaning industry.

About the Speaker

Cosby’s career includes five decades of concerts, television, films, commercials and books. On TV, he starred in the groundbreaking I Spy and the landmark series The Cosby Show and has created the animated hits Fat Albert and Little Bill. He also earned a master’s degree in 1972 and a doctorate in education in 1977 from the University of Massachusetts. He has produced scores of comedic recordings as well as best-selling books, including Fatherhood, Love and Marriage, Childhood, Time Flies, and his latest release, Come On People: On the Path From Victims to Victors.

For more information regarding Cosby’s keynote address or to register for the event, visit www.issa.com/show or call 800-225-4772 (North America) or 847-982-0800.

Surveying the Green Landscape

With the concerns about “greenwashing” and assuring facility service providers (FSPs) that the products they select are indeed environmentally preferable, EcoLogoM decided to ask jansan professionals what they think about green products and the value of green certification.

Approximately 1,500 industry professionals — including distributors associated with Enviro-Solutions Ltd. and Pro-Link — were invited to take a survey covering a variety of questions on these subjects. Nearly 200 responses were received.

Outlined here are some of the findings regarding key green and certification issues:

More than 40 percent of respondents indicated that they define a green product as one that has been certified by a recognized certification program. Approximately 22 percent said that the product needs only to “meet the criteria” of a recognized certification body.

An overwhelming 94 percent indicated that the industry does need some recognized standards to determine whether a product can be called green. As to what entity should create these standards, 60 percent said it should be a “third-party, independent organization.” However, 28 percent said that standards should be set by the federal government.

And a whopping 91 percent of respondents indicated that they are more concerned now with selecting green products than they were three years ago.

Surprised … or Not?

“Many people in the jansan industry believe it has been in just the past couple of years that people started taking green cleaning issues seriously,” says Scot Case, vice president of EcoLogo and TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. “The survey, however, found that nearly 60 percent said they were taking a much closer look at green cleaning products as much as five years ago. That was a bit of a surprise.”

Additionally, Case recalls that it was not so long ago that he heard some cleaning professionals indicate that green cleaning was a fad or that it would only interest a specific segment of the industry.

“In the survey, nearly 94 percent indicated that green cleaning is not a fad,” he says. “This seems to suggest that green cleaning is here to stay and the direction the industry is going.”

Mike Sawchuk, vice president and general manager of Enviro-Solutions, notes that he has seen a “tidal-wave” change in the interest in green cleaning products in the past few years and was not particularly surprised at the overwhelming belief that green cleaning has staying power.

As to the value of certification, Mike Nelson, vice president of marketing for Pro-Link, says that both distributors and FSPs see great value in it.

“If you are making a buying decision for a facility,” he says, “certification helps eliminate uncertainty and makes end users more confident in their selections.”

ISSA Partners for SS Verification

 

ISSA has joined with RTI, Inc. to provide association members with online criminal and Social Security verification through the software firm’s ScanScreener technology.

“Security simply must now be considered a business fundamental,” said Steve Carter, RTI’s president. “After recent historical events, it is abundantly clear that every precaution should be taken in the vigilant pursuit of secure environments in the workplace among co-workers and customers, with particular attention paid to initial screening of individuals before an unfortunate or potentially dangerous situation arises. ScanScreener provides an automated online mechanism by which that initial screening can take place.”

ScanScreener verifies that a particular Social Security number has been issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA), the state of issue, and that the number is not on the SSA’s deceased-persons roll. The technology also provides a residential history associated with the number and a history of all names ever associated with it.

In addition, ScanScreener combines this information with its online regional and national criminal background checks, county and state real-time law enforcement and court checks, National Sex Offender Registry checks, OFAC watch-list comparison, and Interpol checks.

To participate, simply go to the Member Lounge at ISSA.com, fill out the online form, and send it to ISSA.