Lettering in the Environment

Housekeeping and operations professionals are increasingly appreciated as facility caretakers who play a key role in meeting strategic corporate goals.

These facility players have even more to offer business and property owners these days, thanks to a green building initiative taking hold in the United States.

The LEED™ — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — green building rating system is a self-assessing system designed for new and existing commercial, institutional and high-rise residential buildings. The brainchild of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is a checklist-based system that awards building owners with different levels of green certification for satisfying a certain number of criteria.

Industry observers feel facility managers will want to get their arms around this “green” concept and the credit system because it more than likely will change the way housekeeping is valued and perceived by building owners. These stakeholders increasingly value a healthier environment for a number of reasons, including what it can add to their bottom line. More and more documentation is available that supports theories that environmentally balanced buildings can improve occupant productivity, retain employees, and extend the life cycle of the building while saving money on maintenance — some estimates are as high as 20 to 50 percent over the life span of a building.

LEED is the framework that puts all of these issues on the table together as an integrated whole.

New-building owners can receive a LEED certification by accumulating points from a checklist of items in four categories: site; water management and efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; and indoor environmental quality. There are four levels of achievement: certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. A minimum of 26 points is required for certification; a minimum of 52 points qualifies a building for the Platinum rating.

LEED EB
In addition to the original rating system aimed at new construction, a rating system for existing buildings (LEED EB) is now in pilot phase. Based on the system for new construction and major renovation, LEED EB is designed to serve as an upgrade guideline for existing buildings, as well as a method of re-certification for buildings built under the original LEED system.

The proposed criteria are currently addressed in the following categories:

• Sustainable sites (16 points)
  
  
• Water efficiency (5 points)
  
  
• Energy and atmosphere (22 points)
  
  
• Materials and resources (10 points)
  
  
• Indoor environmental quality (18 points) and
  
  
• Innovation and accredited professional (up to 5 points).

Points in these six categories can be accrued to earn a rating of certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. The basic proposed LEED EB certification rating may require 28 points. Of these, housekeeping and custodial directors could control as many as 12 points.

Housekeeping operations are responsible for no less than one-third of the credits building owners are required to earn before their facilities are LEED-certified. The housekeeping credits, which cost no less to implement and maintain than other credits, earn the highest return on investment. Housekeeping executives willing to say ‘I can deliver 12 points’ will likely raise housekeeping up a notch or two in the eyes of building management.

The final, official version of LEED EB is scheduled to launch at the USGBC annual conference in November — the same time the first LEED EB certified buildings will be announced.

LEED is not only popular in the private sector. The public sector is marked by a great deal of LEED interest. Federal, state and local governments are applying LEED criteria in both new building projects and existing operations.

There are currently 53 certified buildings and approximately 800 buildings registered for LEED certification in the United States.

“For every LEED building being constructed, there are 10 operating,” says Steve Ashkin, president of The Ashkin Group, Bloomington, Ind., a building service contractor who serves as a LEED committee member — adding that any new LEED building will most likely be operated and re-certified under LEED EB.

“As productivity benefits become clearer and clearer, only the foolish won’t do it,” says Michael Arny, LEED steering committee chair for existing-building certification and president of Leonardo Academy Inc., a nonprofit organization in Madison, Wis., that focuses on environmental, energy and sustainability issues.

“The people inside are the biggest expense of the lifetime cost of the building — 85 percent of the cost is paychecks,” Arny continues. “A small improvement in productivity is a lot of money. A quarter or a half a percent is huge,” he says. “And 10 or 15 percent — we’re really talking! If you have to spend some money to make your building green, it’s a good investment.”

The nation’s premiere building owners, those with the resources to implement LEED, are currently the most interested in LEED and LEED EB, according to Ashkin.

“There will always be building owners and managers who care only about price, not quality. That’s reality,” he says. “But there is no doubt LEED will have enormous impact in the marketplace, especially for those who manage more prestigious facilities such as headquarters, universities and premiere buildings. It’s not if they’ll get involved with LEED EB, it’s when.”

Ashkin adds that housekeeping and custodial directors have an opportunity to take ownership of facility environmental planning and therefore enhance their reputations as critical team players. He encourages cleaning management to become familiar the LEED program and begin implementing LEED components.

“This stuff is coming,” he says. “They can be innovative and get in front of the curve — that’s the opportunity that they have.”

Stu Carron, director of global facilities and real estate direct runs JohnsonDiversey’s facilities and also serves on the LEED EB steering committee. The JohnsonDiversey Inc. global headquarters in Sturtevant, Wis., is not LEED certified because it opened in 1997 (LEED debuted in 2000), but the facility is the perfect candidate for LEED EB. JohnsonDiversey is a LEED EB pilot facility — one of more than 70 U.S. companies participating in the program.

Carron says since he has been involved in LEED EB, his housekeeping policy manual has grown from two to 12 pages. Many of the things a business will need to do to earn LEED EB housekeeping credits are small, he says, but they add up to big savings. For example, Carron says “there is more chemical documentation now,” and adds that the manager and the building service contractor share the responsibility of maintaining documentation on an electronic spreadsheet.

“Even though housekeeping is our business, reviewing our policies and specifics has raised the bar with technology we otherwise might not have,” he says, citing investments like microfiber product technology and autoscrubbing machines. “We’re hoping to increase hygiene and the cleanliness of the building while streamlining chore time with new technologies and functions.”

Although details for LEED re-certification have not been finalized, Ashkin says the LEED EB committee is currently leaning toward five-year re-certification cycles.

Ashkin says many building owners think the cost of cleaning is the only thing negotiable because “they have seen very little innovation, except to buy cleaning cheaper, with fewer people, doing it faster.”

Now that building owners will be looking at other issues — indoor health and cleaning’s impact on the environment — housekeeping management needs do more than keep a building clean to deliver a healthy green building, he says.

Ashkin feels green building certification is the most exciting development in the last 20 years. He thinks it will change how building owners look at the services of the cleaning industry because janitorial and maintenance staffs will be contributing to the core mission of the facility.

“We’re fundamentally changing how our customers are seeing our industry,” Ashkin says. “We’re no longer just an expense that needs to be minimized.”

“With in-house [operations], 30 percent of a main operations budget can be taken up by cleaning,” says Dianna Bisswurm, director of industry outreach with the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA), Lincolnwood, Ill. “While that’s such a large portion [of the budget], it’s often one of the first places management chooses to cut, or reallocate for other things — security, for instance. Housekeeping management often has a tough time being heard. This can help in-house professionals step-up their presence in facility management within the organization, and put best their foot forward.”

Training and professional certification
Bisswurm and Ashkin are putting the finishing touches on a one-day LEED seminar to be offered at ISSA/INTERCLEAN® in Chicago, Oct. 14-17, 2003. The seminar, “High Performance Healthy Cleaning,” will be presented by Ashkin and by Barbara Sattler, Ph.D., director of the University of Maryland’s Environmental Health Education Center. The seminar will cover the major elements of a healthy cleaning operation — from environment and indoor air quality to how to use tools and chemicals safely. The seminar also will include a discussion and thorough examination of the LEED rating system, cleaning credits and their points.

The seminar’s goal is to motivate and prepare attendees to return to their respective organizations so they can promote the merits of LEED. At the very least, Bisswurm says, attendees of the seminar will be able to offer higher performance cleaning.

“Unlike other green cleaning-related issues or training, we’re not getting down to ‘chemical versus non-chemical,’” she says. “This is about being able to explain the benefits — that cleanliness equates to health, which relates to employee productivity. Using LEED or LEED EB can be the framework to ‘set up’ a healthful environment — using the credit rating as a structure to explain how to meet the criteria.”

Bisswurm hopes the seminar will be the first of many ISSA offerings that transform housekeepers into savvy providers of high-performance green cleaning. “Without training there’s no way for them to achieve expertise,” Bisswurm says.

Ashkin says the USGBC Conference and Expo November 12-14, 2003, in Pittsburgh, also will provide information and references on LEED products.

So far, only architects and engineers are able to earn a designation of USGBC “LEED Accredited Professional.” ISSA is considering creating an accreditation specifically for end-user cleaning and maintenance professionals.

Other LEED designations include commercial interiors, office buildouts, and applications of these standards in different market segments like retail and hospitals. Additional certifications will eventually become available.

Lori Veit is a business writer in Madison, Wis., and owner of Veit Communications, LLC.