In-house cleaning operations and contract companies committed to a green-cleaning program will be able to apply to become Green Seal certified.

Arthur Weissman, president and CEO of Green Seal, says the standard will:

  • provide a benchmark for service providers to use to green their offerings
  • provide criteria for institutional purchasers to use in specifications
  • provide the basis for a certification program for purchasers
  • complete the suite of Green Seal environmental standards in the janitorial/custodial area
  • drive the market to greener cleaning services, including chemicals, products and equipment

Green Seal is seeking sponsors to provide funding necessary for developing and finalizing the standard’s environmental criteria. Weissman expects the standard to be completed six to nine months after the organization obtains funding.

For more information, go to greenseal.org.


ISSA Opens membership to facility service providers

Members of the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA) recently voted in favor of creating a new membership category for in-house cleaning professionals and other facility service providers (FSPs).

Many FSPs already are familiar with ISSA, having attended the annual ISSA/INTERCLEAN® tradeshow and educational conference. The association opened the show to FSPs in 1999.

FSPs join ISSA’s current membership of 4,700 members, including distributors, manufacturers, wholesalers, manufacturer representatives and international providers of cleaning services in more than 83 countries.

For more information, go to issa.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The article “Rethinking Green” in the February issue of Housekeeping Solutions should put cleaning managers on the alert for suppliers who are using green cleaning only as a sales slogan. A true green-cleaning program looks at all products, procedures, workloading, recycling, resource management, pollution prevention, pest management, occupant issues, stewardship, etc., in an effort to create healthy, high-performance buildings while minimizing environmental impacts.

But I disagree with the notion that the products don’t matter. The members of the green-building and green-cleaning movements believe:

  • It matters to workers and unions if cleaning products are carcinogenic, reproductive toxins, neurotoxins, readily absorbed through the skin attacking major body organs, etc., even if they are not wasted.
  • It matters to building occupants, parents of school children, and health advocates if cleaning products are respiratory irritants, developmental toxins, asthmagens, etc., even if they are not wasted.
  • It matters to environmentalists if cleaning products are derived from non-renewable resources, contain no recycled content, pollute air, are toxic to aquatic life, accumulate in the environment after disposal, etc., even if they are not wasted.
  • It matters to governments and the green building community in general if cleaning products used by their custodial contractors violate their green initiatives, even if they are not wasted.

Again, I agree that products, labor and resources of all kinds (including money) should NOT be wasted. But to diminish the importance of the products themselves is just plain wrong!

If the readers of Housekeeping Solutions have questions about what constitutes a comprehensive green-cleaning program, we would be glad to help.


The NFSI vs. the CSPA.

You be the Judge!

The world is a changing place and to some, change is not welcome. One person who does not welcome change is Jim Hermann of the Johnson Diversey Corp., and committee chair of the CSPA [Consumer Specialty Products Association], a self-proclaimed lobbyist for the chemical industry.

The fact is, the CSPA have consistently rejected any changes to the current slip-resistance standard favoring to maintain the "status quo" approach where YOU get to carry 100 percent of the legal and financial burden while they shield themselves behind a 65-year-old test standard. In his letter, Mr. Hermann referred to the "current standard" as a "lighthouse in a sea of misinformation." Well, maybe he had better check the light bulb in the lighthouse, because many of his customers’ ships are running aground. Like it or not, we live in a litigious world where slip-and-fall lawsuits are a reality. A reality that has actually benefited Mr. Hermann and his company who for over 27 years has been retained in over 700 of his customers slip-and-fall lawsuits. Your slip-and-fall misery is a profit center for the Johnson Diversey Corporation. No wonder they are resisting change.

So the question is, who are you going to trust? The answer may be obvious the next time you pay your insurance premium. Send a message to Mr. Hermann and the CSPA by buying only National Floor Safety Institute-certified products and by becoming a member of the NFSI today. We’re looking out for you!

Russell J. Kendzior
Executive Director • NFSI
Due to space limitations the entire letter could not be printed.
To view the entire letter, please visit nfsi.org.




POSTED ON: 4/1/2005