No jan/san distributor wants to hear that a big box store has a good idea. But I thought it was clever that the Home Depot recently partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to offer a special section on its website featuring products that contribute towards points for the LEED for Homes program.

Jan/san distributors can adopt and tweak this idea for the cleaning industry and for commercial and institutional LEED certifications.

The biggest opportunity for cleaning professionals is in LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) — and there’s good news, this category is growing. At the end of 2011, the USGBC announced that for the first time ever, square footage of LEED:EBOM buildings surpassed New Construction certification by 15 million square feet.

As LEED continues to grow, make sure you are stocking products that meet certification requirements. Then take a cue from Home Depot and list these products in a special area of your website, making them easy for customers to identify and purchase.

A revised version of LEED-EBOM will be launched later this year. The current draft of the certification proposes to increase the number of required green cleaning products from 30 percent to 75 percent. In addition, 40 percent of equipment must be considered green, as well.

With such a drastic jump in the amount of cleaning products needed to earn points, any way distributors can help customers find products will be a valued service. And I don’t think distributors will mind the extra product purchases, either.  




POSTED ON: 3/21/2012