News

Report: The State Of School Buildings

Survey: Simple Techniques Improve Training

SEIU Makes Health Care More Accessible

Look For Green To Explode In 2009

Sign up to receive weekly news e-mails at www.cleanlink.com/misc/form.asp

Of Note...

CRI Withdraws Support for Green Seal Standard
Citing shortcomings in the process used to develop the well-known environmental standard, the Carpet and Rug Institute has announced it will no longer recognize GreenSeal's GS-37 Standard as a Green Certification for its Seal of Approval Carpet Cleaning Solutions. According to CRI, Green Seal failed to follow its own written guidelines for consensus standard-setting, specifically in the areas of stakeholder input and risk assessment. "GS-37 is flawed and CRI cannot support it," said CRI President Werner Braun.

Prior to its decision, CRI had accepted GS-37 as a component for its Seal of Approval Green designation, which identifies spot cleaners, pre-sprays, and in-tank cleaning solutions that are environmentally responsible as well as effective. CRI continues to recognize the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Design for the Environment (DfE) certification, as well as the Canadian government's EcoLogo and EnviroDesic certifications. Products that were certified under a previous version of GS-37 will retain their SOA Green designations, Braun said.

CRI's concerns:

• GS-37 measures product efficacy against a "nationally recognized" product rather than against an approved standard.
• GreenSeal did not allow the participation of all stakeholders in the development process for GS-37
• GS-37 arbitrarily bans chemicals according to a list, without regard for proper risk assessment - a practice which runs contrary to accepted scientific practices.
• At various points, it seemed that peer-reviewed scientific data was discounted in favor of preconceived bias on the part of the standard developers.
• GS-37 was released without a second ratifying ballot, even after a first ballot failed to achieve a majority.

Noting that Green Seal is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a standard-setting body, Braun said he would expect the company to follow the ANSI process of standard development. He added that CRI would reconsider its decision if Green Seal were to "reopen the GS-37 standard and develop it in an environment that respects the consensus standard-setting process."

Ask Your Peers...

What areas within the facility create the biggest cleaning challenges?

• The biggest challenges for us at Rochester Institute of Technology are by far the classrooms and labs. Many of these areas are open from 8am to 10pm with varying needs based on design and layout.
  -- Terry G. Walker, Manager, Building Services, Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y.

March Question:
Do you believe that networking within the cleaning industry is important? If so, how do you network and what benefits have you experienced as a result of doing so?

E-mail Housekeeping Solutions your response and look for the results in the January issue of the HS Update.

Editors Note

With the latest job report released Friday, Jan. 9th, few are optimistic about the U.S. economy. As of press time, early expectations indicate that we might again be facing the worst of the job losses yet, and the current recession did not close with our 2008 calendar year like some experts predicted.

The realization of our economy is daunting, but tomorrow always comes and the work must get done. No matter how much budgets get cut or policies change, cleaning expectations often remain the same.

Some have said that the cleaning industry is recession-proof, but that doesn’t mean that the cleaner can’t play a large roll in the economic impact of their facility. It is important to be conscious about your productivity, cleaning times and staffing requirements. Streamlining these areas can help reduce the costs associated with the cleaning department and meet those shrinking budgets.

To do so, the obvious first step is to reassess the product usage and purchases made in the cleaning department. Talk to your distributor to identify multi-purpose products that might maintain cleaning standards while reducing spending.

Managers should also evaluate the frequency of clean in various areas of the facility. Obviously, reducing the cleaning of restrooms is a risk, but cutting back in low-traffic areas is an option. It would also be smart to assess entryways and work with your distributor to identify methods to reducing tracked-in contaminants, which will help keep the rest of the building cleaner.

Taking the appropriate steps to reducing your cleaning costs might require some thinking outside the box, but it is possible for cleaning managers to overcome some of their budget restrictions and help the overall facility during these tough economic times.