To help further educate facility managers regarding quality cleaning programs, ISSA has collaborated with the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) on several new offerings. Specifically, ISSA has collaborated with the IFMA Foundation on a new book on green cleaning and co-sponsored an IFMA webinar on the value of ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and certification program. ISSA Director of Facility Service Legislative Affairs & CIMS Dan Wagner also will be speaking—and ISSA will be exhibiting—at this week’s World Workplace 2008 Conference & Expo, October 15-17 at the Dallas Convention Center, Dallas, TX, USA.

ISSA’s alliance with IFMA is part of the association’s ongoing effort to expand the sharing of information between cleaning and facilities-management professionals in the United States and around the world. As the leading global trade association for the cleaning industry, ISSA works directly with alliance partners, such as IFMA, to provide the end-user community—including facility managers, building owners, and procurement professionals—valuable information on the cleaning industry to help them deal with the cleaning, operations, and maintenance challenges they face every day.

“ISSA’s members—including facility service providers, manufacturers, and distributors—share a common goal with those professionals who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of facilities—to improve overall maintenance and operations capabilities, including cleaning,” noted Wagner. “Never have joint efforts been more important than today, as all segments of the industry begin to increasingly recognize the importance of effective management, sustainability, and maintaining a healthy indoor environment and the role that cleaning plays in this regard.”

One key project that ISSA and the IFMA Foundation collaborated on was the development of the preeminent book on implementing a green cleaning program—The Business of Green Cleaning. Authored by noted industry experts Stephen Ashkin and David Holly, the book will be unveiled at IFMA’s World Workplace Expo. It’s available to ISSA members for US$59.99. For more information on The Business of Green Cleaning or to order your copy, please visit www.issa.com/IFMA_grn_clng. (Please note: The Business of Green Cleaning is expected to be available the week of October 20.)

The book serves as the foundation for structuring a green cleaning operation and covers a wide variety of topics, including the status of green cleaning worldwide, the components of an effective green cleaning program, and the tools needed to implement, manage, and measure success. Primarily responsible for the development of the book was a team of “subject matter experts” (SMEs) who oversaw the seven-month process. ISSA’s Wagner served as a member of the SME committee, and ISSA members were asked to contribute case-study information during the book’s development.

ISSA and IFMA also recently co-sponsored a webinar on CIMS, which is now available for free download. The webinar, entitled CIMS: Helping Facility Managers Increase the Odds of Cleaning Success, showed facility-management professionals how they can use CIMS certification and the Standard’s universally accepted principles to find and pre-qualify quality service providers. Directly attended by more than 60 participants and used by local IFMA chapters as a “lunch and learn” educational topic, the webinar also showed facility managers how they can easily update their contract specifications to focus on excellence in service delivery, management commitment, and quality systems by incorporating CIMS certification as a pre-qualification requirement.

Finally, CIMS also will be featured as part of ISSA’s increased presence at IFMA’s World Workplace Expo. Wagner will be presenting on the value of CIMS to the facility-management community and teaching facility-management professionals how to use this free tool to improve their cleaning operations—both contracted and in-house—on Thursday, October 16, at 4:00 p.m., CDT. ISSA also welcomes all World Workplace attendees to learn more about the association, its members, and what it’s doing to bring the cleaning and facility-management communities together by visiting ISSA at Booth 2415.