Benefits of a GS-42 Audit

By Cheryl Baldwin

Audit. Brr. The word brings chills to even the most conservative taxpayer. But unlike the IRS’s version, a Green Seal GS-42 audit of your cleaning service can actually be quite a pleasant experience.

It’s a challenging and rewarding journey to become GS-42 certified. The annual audit – or monitoring process, if you will – works to ensure you stay certified. The audit keeps your company’s green cleaning operation sharp, and helps fine-tune any areas that might have lost their edge. This is no simple walk in the park; not all cleaning services will be able to maintain their certification, which makes GS-42 even more valuable as a marketing tool.
There are five areas in which a Green Seal auditor looks for GS-42 compliance when he or she arrives at your facility:

•Planning
•Products, Services and Equipment
•Cleaning Procedures
•Communication
•Training

It’s important that building service contractors and in-house service providers looking to become GS-42 certified or maintain their certification be fully versed in the Standard, and to maintain their green cleaning program according to GS-42 guidelines. That said, once certification has been achieved, maintaining it is mostly a matter of continuing to adhere to the practices and procedures put in place in order to attain certification in the first place!

You might ask, “Why bother becoming certified at all?” In recent years, companies and services employing “green” practices have enjoyed significant growth. More than 3000 products and services are currently Green Seal-certified, and the Green Seal credential has become a highly sought-after commodity as more and more companies are viewing sustainability as a source of competitive advantage, product differentiation and brand marketing.

If certification is the brass ring, the auditing process is what keeps it shining. Helping cleaning operations stay on-track works to ensure compliance, maintains the integrity of the certification, and sustains the quality of the green cleaning operation, along with strengthening both the appeal and awareness of GS-42 and its impact on cleaning operations.

The GS-42 audit should not be seen as an intrusion, but as an opportunity to showcase your cleaning operations. Once you’ve passed your audit, celebrate! Then, utilize the certification and GS mark effectively. While all use of the mark must be approved by Green Seal, the mark may be applied to various company advertising, identity or branding materials. Keep in mind, though, that certification applies to a specific cleaning service, and the Green Seal certification mark may be used in advertising only that service. Also, facilities cleaned by a GS-42 certified service may be designated as such, i.e. “This facility is cleaned by a service that meets the criteria of Green Seal’s Environmental Standard for Cleaning Services for reduced toxicity, waste and exposure.”

The auditing process helps safeguard and increase the value of GS-42 certification, ultimately resulting in peace of mind for facility management, a cleaner environment and healthier, safer working conditions for service providers and building occupants.

Cheryl Baldwin is director of standards for Green Seal, a non-profit organization devoted to environmental standard setting, product certification, and public education. For more information on GS-42 Certification and its components, visit www.greenseal.org or call 202-872-6400. Download the standard.

This is the final installment in the series.