Drive Green Initiatives

There is an interesting discussion happening on myCleanLink that asks if people would embrace environmentally conscious initiatives without some form of incentive. For example, it’s believed that companies and consumers are now more likely to “go green” because of the government’s new economic stimulus package, which includes loan money and tax breaks for green energy.

To bring this question a little closer to home, one could ask whether distributors would be inclined to put together green cleaning programs for schools and government facilities (and whether the cleaning professionals would buy the green products) without the legislation requiring it. My guess is that in most cases, the answer would be no.

That’s why I find this month’s cover story so unexpected. Instead of waiting for a bill to pass telling them to switch to green, distributors in New Jersey, Florida and Tennessee are proactively gathering support to develop legislation in order to require green cleaning in schools.

As evidenced in the online discussion, many end users and distributors resist a switch to green, believing it’s nothing more than a fad. Well, if that’s the case, then this is the longest trend I’ve ever heard of. I believe green is not going away and it’s inevitable that green cleaning will become a law for every state, especially in K-12 schools where poor indoor air quality restricts children’s ability to learn.

If distributors just sit back and do nothing, it could put them at a competitive disadvantage.

“If there’s a requirement that comes down for schools, schools typically would prefer to work with someone that actually knows what is going on,” Steve Ashkin points out in the article.

Distributors may not want to sit on the green sidelines for much longer. As of this writing, 14 states (not including those in development discussed in our article) have officially proposed a new green cleaning bill. Start making yourself the green expert in your area today.