The IFMA Foundation is pleased to announce the publication of a new green cleaning book for facility professionals. “The Business of Green Cleaning,” by Stephen Ashkin and David Holly, will be unveiled at the International Facility Management Association’s World Workplace 2008 Conference & Expo, held Oct. 15-17 at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.

“The Business of Green Cleaning” has been designed to make the adoption or transformation of a green cleaning program easy. While much of the book focuses on background information and concepts that facility managers need to successfully implement a green cleaning program, it also features an appendix with practical green cleaning tools and a collection of 25 public- and private-sector case studies from around the world.

The IFMA Foundation’s goal is to have the new book incorporated into IFMA’s sustainability educational track, with classes being offered that utilize the book for course material and continuing education units being awarded. Because the cleaning process is continually evolving, the foundation also plans to provide annual updates to the book.

Ashkin, president of the Ashkin Group, is a 27-year industry veteran who has authored three books on the topic and served as a contributing author of four more. He was chairman of the task force that wrote the national cleaning standard and introduced the concept of commercial green cleaning; founding member of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program and past judge of the White House Closing the Circle Awards; and recipient of the 2006 Children’s Environmental Health Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“We live, eat and breathe green cleaning. We’re really passionate about the subject,” said Ashkin. “However, for most facility managers, cleaning is just one of the dozens of things they are responsible for. Because it’s not necessarily their top priority, we have to make it easy for them to do. So, this book isn’t just a primer, philosophy or a bunch of good ideas. It provides a lot of really practical tools facility professionals can use to help implement green cleaning practices.”

“The Business of Green Cleaning” will be released to the public at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at a news conference in the World Workplace press room. Funding for the book was provided by MilliCare carpet and textile maintenance.