ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, announced on Monday, that the City of Toronto Custodial Services-Facilities Operations in Canada has mandated that all future outside service providers will be required to be certified under ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and CIMS-Green Building (GB) program.

Toronto’s Custodial Services-Facilities Operations went through the internal certification processes in 2013 and obtained CIMS and CIMS-GB Certification with honors. Having witnessed the value of certification, the City of Toronto issued the prerequisite for all future requests for proposals. The City of Toronto became an ISSA member in 2011.

CIMS certification brings benchmarking and validation to operations and to the service provider selection process. According to Toronto Manager of Custodial Services-Facilities Operations Lindsay Bauckham, “CIMS and CIMS-GB offers internationally recognized metrics that the city can use as a benchmark for its own systems and processes.”

Across the country, The City of Edmonton has also begun integrating CIMS into its operations. Robert Kuziw, with Edmonton project management and maintenance services, says, “This [CIMS certification] will establish a recognized management standard and certification program relevant to our industry that is structured to deliver consistent, quality services.”

CIMS and CIMS-GB are nationally recognized certification programs that provide third-party verification for cleaning operations that seek to develop a comprehensive green cleaning program and offer sustainable cleaning services. For more information about CIMS and CIMS-GB, visit www.issa.com/cims.