Daytime cleaning: fully sustainable
June 23rd 2008

True sustainability can be measured by the ability of any activity to combine a positive performance in environmental, social and economic terms. This triple bottom line is the acid test of whether or not any activity contributes to the overall betterment of society, says CSSA head, Andrew Large

Evidence is growing that only daytime cleaning is genuinely sustainable cleaning. Let me explain how. Energy Saving Increasingly, office managers are looking at daytime cleaning as a way of minimising their energy consumption, and are seeing financial benefits at the same time.

Gulf Canada Square, a 1.2 million square foot building in Calgary, switched to daytime cleaning in summer 2007 and since then has seen savings of “tens of thousands of dollars” in electricity bills because lights are now turned off at night. The energy savings go further than the client as well. The cleaners themselves are no longer up at night, with the lights on at home and they are much less likely to have to use cars in order to get to work, because public transport is far more available during the day.

The benefits do not stop with reduction in energy use. Because cleaning teams are on site during working hours, they are much more able to respond to spillages and unforeseen accidents. This leads to a cleaner, safer and more hygienic environment, for all building users.

Socially

The cleaning industry has an improving reputation for the way in which

it treats its staff, but there is more to be done before the industry can be said to be truly socially sustainable. Nevertheless, daytime cleaning offers many features that make it more socially sustainable than night or early morning cleaning.

Perhaps the most important is that daytime cleaning enables work and family life to be better dovetailed. A daytime cleaner can take his children to school or be at home with family and friends rather than being either at work or asleep when other family member are around. They will also enjoy better health, as the physical and psychological impact of long term night working is well known, and can be minimised through effective use of daytime cleaning regimes.

Daytime cleaning also means that the cleaning staff and the office staff in a building can interact with each other and become part of an integrated unit. In night cleaned offices, it is easy for the office staff to moan at ‘the cleaners’ and for the cleaning staff to complain about the mess that gets left behind every day.

Introducing daytime cleaning leads to improved communications. People know each other and can talk about things rather than leaving impersonal notes. Moreover, once the cleaners are known by name, and not as ‘the cleaners’, then the office staff start to treat their surroundings with more respect, because their mess has an impact on a person, and not just on a faceless being.

Daytime cleaning also leads to fewer security worries, which is also a significant social benefit. Knowing that a building can be secure a night, rather than having to provide for a 24 hour manned security presence is a point of reassurance for all concerned.

Economically

Neither the environmental nor social benefits of daytime cleaning would be enough; if it could not be shown that it brought economic benefits too. Fortunately it does, and in many different ways.

The first major benefit of daytime cleaning surrounds recruitment. Traditionally, cleaning contractors struggle to recruit and retain cleaners, and some have churn rates approaching 100 per cent. Because daytime cleaning fits better with family life and because it enables cleaners and office workers to mix and become true colleagues, it contributes to a better working environment for the cleaners and therefore improves staff retention.

Daytime cleaning also has benefits for the quality of service provided. For example, daytime cleaning facilitates closer liaison between the client, contract managers, supervisors and cleaners to meet and exceed the client’s needs. Service levels can also be maintained consistently rather than a building being very clean in the early morning and deteriorating as the day goes on.

Daytime cleaning will also play a part in improving the overall reputation of the industry. The more people who see the benefits of cleaning face to face, and the more people who recognise that it can provide a worthwhile career, the better for the industry as a whole. And clients appreciate the benefits daytime cleaning bring, as Initial Facilities Services MD Peter Lloyd confirms: “Not one of our customers has chosen to switch back to an out of hours service.”

Daytime cleaning meets the test of the triple bottom line, and those looking to maximise cleaning’s contribution to sustainability should build it in wherever possible.

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