The year 2003 will go down as one to remember when it comes to “green cleaning” and environmentally preferable purchasing. The year’s events have culminated in what many view as a major tipping point in the acceptance and implementation of green cleaning in the United States. The trend will only gain momentum in coming years.

Green as a philosophy isn’t new. The topic dates back 40 years to when Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking book Silent Spring, in which she challenged the use of certain pesticides and practices in the agricultural industry. She called for a change in the way government and industries viewed the use of certain chemicals, an awareness of the long-term effects of these substances, and new policies regulating the use of toxic chemicals and pesticides to protect human health and the environment.

Almost 15 years later, the environmental disaster at Love Canal, a housing community in Niagara Falls, N.Y., brought home just how dangerous toxic chemicals can be to the health and well-being of living organisms. In the late 1950s, 100 homes and a school were built on the site of what was formerly The Hooker Chemical Co., a chemical manufacturer. Record amounts of rainfall in the late 1970s caused chemical waste, which had been buried since 1953, to leach to the surface and into basements and backyards. An unusually high number of Love Canal children were born with birth defects, and had abnormally high white-blood-cell counts, often a precursor to leukemia. In August 1978, The New York Times reported that “82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, percolated upward through the soil into the backyards and basements of the homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal.”

Lois Gibbs, a Love Canal resident, was credited for bringing the calamity to national attention and has since become a leading supporter of green cleaning in this country. Through her advocacy, those in industry, government, and the general public have taken notice of the effects of toxic chemicals, the reasons to reduce their overall use, and the need for environmentally preferable cleaning products and programs.

Defining Green Cleaning
In its simplest form, “green cleaning is defined as cleaning to protect health without harming the environment,” says Stephen Ashkin, president of The Ashkin Group, a consulting firm and advocate of green cleaning, based in Bloomington, Ind. Unfortunately, the term “green cleaning” is often misunderstood. It involves much more than just using “natural” cleaning products or ones that are environmentally preferable, he says. Green cleaning is a comprehensive program that includes the following:

  • Selecting products including cleaning and maintenance chemicals, janitorial paper items, and tools and equipment that have minimal effect on those using the products or on the environment

  • Understanding how products are used in order to reduce their impact on custodial workers, building occupants, and the environment

  • Implementing stewardship (leadership and caring) for the occupants of the building where the products are being utilized

  • Providing training for those using the products

  • Evaluating and continually improving the program and products used in green cleaning on an ongoing basis

The Significance of 2003
One of the most significant development in 2003 was that one standard, Green Seal, was adopted by several large organizations, making it easy for both purchasers and manufacturers to know exactly what constitutes an environmentally preferable product.

Green Seal is a nonprofit environmental organization that identifies and promotes products and services that cause less toxic pollution and waste. Before 2003, several competing programs and organizations defined green cleaning. This caused confusion for manufacturers, distributors and end users seeking environmentally preferable cleaning products because the definitions were in a constant state of flux.

Many other accomplishments in fostering the use of environmentally preferable cleaning products and programs took place in 2003, including:

  • The U.S. federal government, which owns or manages as many as 100,000 buildings around the world, rewrote cleaning contracts and procedures to include the use of environmentally preferable cleaning products whenever and wherever possible. Many of the provisions of Presidential Executive Order 13101 were implemented, requiring that government facilities purchase environmentally preferable goods and services.

  • New York, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida and Pennsylvania developed or introduced green procurement contracts or green operations manuals for the management of their state-owned and operated buildings.

  • Santa Monica, Calif., which implemented the first citywide procurement contract for green cleaning products more than 10 years ago, was joined in 2003 by Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, New York, Las Vegas and Chicago, which have rewritten their janitorial specifications to add green cleaning and procurement into their maintenance operations.

  • School districts such as those in Washington State and Chicago have joined the movement, encouraging the use of environmentally preferable cleaning products and building-management systems.

  • Corporate building owners and managers, such as the World Bank in Washington, CB Richard Ellis, Hines, PNC Bank, Ford Motor Company, Sprint, Boeing, and Johnson & Johnson have developed programs implementing green cleaning products and procedures.

  • The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for New Construction, and perhaps more importantly, LEED-EB (Existing Buildings) certification programs, made major headway in 2003 with many prominent building owners. These programs are a consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.

  • Nine chemical manufacturers in the jan/san industry have developed and introduced products certified by Green Seal as environmentally preferable. (In 2002, there were no manufacturers producing such certified products.)

  • Nonprofits such as the Healthy Schools Campaign; Center for Environment, Health and Justice (CHEJ); The Center for a New American Dream (CNAD); and Health Care Without Harm began playing much larger and more respected roles in 2003, helping specific industries employ green cleaning programs and products.

  • Major industry organizations such as the International Sanitary and Supply Association (ISSA) began sponsoring educational programs that discuss the cleaning component of LEED-EB, green cleaning, and its current and future impact on the cleaning industry.

The Industry Takes On ‘Green’
Stephen Ashkin has been a leading force in providing green consulting services for federal, state, and city entities; school districts; building owners; product manufacturers; jan/san distributors and cleaning contractors. In his book Environmentalism Unbound, Dr. Robert Gottlieb describes Ashkin as the “leading advocate for a stronger environmental profile among cleaning-product manufacturers and suppliers,” and “the most visible industry figure advancing the cause of environmentally preferable products.”

A former senior executive in the cleaning chemical manufacturing industry, Ashkin “realized many years ago that cleaning is not merely keeping floors looking shiny and restocking paper products in the restrooms,” he says. “Rather, cleaning plays an incredibly important role in supporting the work and health of an organization’s most important asset — its people. And technological advances within the cleaning industry allow us to protect public health and safety, and to do so with products and programs that reduce our impact on the environment.”

Working with many others, including Barbara Sattler, Ph.D., director of the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and organizations such as Health Care Without Harm, Ashkin has helped jan/san manufacturers and distributors realize that cleaning processes and the products used for cleaning have an impact on people’s health and performance.

Looking Forward to 2004
According to Ashkin: This year “has indeed been an outstanding year for the implementation of environmentally preferable products and systems. The ‘floodgates’ have finally opened, but 2004 will pose new opportunities and challenges as well.”

Ashkin would like to see more manufacturers in the jan/san industry develop many new Green Seal-certified, environmentally preferable cleaning products. “Now that one standard has been adopted, manufacturers are better aware of the guidelines and parameters that define a green cleaning product and can more easily produce products that meet these criteria,” he says.

Ashkin, Sattler, and others acknowledge that more distributor education is needed. “Understanding the complete concept of green cleaning, distributors can then instruct facility service providers on how to best implement a program that protects the health of the customers they serve,” Ashkin says.

“We also need to encourage our nation’s school systems to evaluate the cleaning products and procedures they utilize and see where environmentally preferable cleaning systems may be used,” says Ashkin. For instance, much of the dramatic increase in asthma among school-age children is the result of poor indoor air quality related to inadequate building maintenance, cleaning, and exposure to overly toxic cleaning chemicals.

“It goes without saying, 2003 has been a banner year for the green cleaning movement. I am very proud of what has been accomplished by so many people and organizations in the past 40 years. I feel more encouraged than ever before that the goal of green cleaning — protecting and preserving health without harming the environment — is on its way to becoming even more of a reality. Not only is this good for our customers and building occupants, but ‘green’ will be the model for growing our industry and financial prosperity going into the future,” Ashkin says.

Robert Kravitz is a 30-year veteran and author of four books on the cleaning industry. He is also a jan/san marketing and public relations consultant. He can be reached at rkravitz@rcn.com or 773-525-3021.




POSTED ON: 12/1/2003