Challenges are chances
June 29th 2009 Perhaps the best definition of green cleaning is ‘the use of those products and services that have a lesser or reduced impact on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.’ ¹ While simple in its approach, this definition incorporates several key concepts worthy of elaboration:
Human health: In the realm of green cleaning, this means we must give due deference to the impact on health which cleaning has on both building services personnel and the occupants of the building environment where cleaning tasks are being performed. Comparative in nature: The above definition of green cleaning does not set an absolute or final endpoint of what is environmentally preferable. Instead, it makes a comparison to competing products and services and thereby encourages continual improvement along the green spectrum.
Performance : Implicit in this definition is that green products and services must perform the intended functions of cleaning. A cleaning product that cannot clean is a waste of resources. More importantly, the performance of cleaning products is critical to maintaining a safe and healthy indoor environment.
Green cleaning should encompass many other areas of a business. We should consider the needs of an organisation’s building occupants, the products being used, the availability of waste and recycling containers and any pollution-prevention strategies they employ. To be wholly effective, green cleaning should be a continual process of improvement, training and education. It is important for businesses to organise products and strategies into efficient systems or processes, and to see these actions as positive.
The REACH of legislation
Legislation means that in some areas, business will not have a choice in environmental policy; this applies to chemicals in particular. As part of an EU initiative to reconfigure the system and establish tougher safety and environmental standards, The European Chemicals Agency was created in 2007, and is responsible for overseeing the transportation of chemicals. A new set of regulations and guidelines mandates manufacturers and distributors involved in the transportation of cleaning chemicals to adhere to specific procedures and protocols before being allowed to import or market certain substances. Anyone involved in the transportation of chemicals both for import or export from the EU is expected to undertake responsible risk management.
Known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), the new legislation requires companies to perform safety assessments of their products by November 2010. The regulations will be fully enforced by 2018 and compliance will depend on the quantity of chemicals with which a company deals.
Education leads to action
Implementing green cleaning policies can be challenging. There are however, a number of educational and training resources available from ISSA which can help, including an extensive range of seminar workshops chaired by industry academics, plus access to online training facilities which incorporate special programmes dedicated to safety and environmental issues.
ISSA aims to be at the forefront in encouraging the growth of green cleaning and we have a number of resources available. Our book, Green Cleaning for Dummies, explains how to implement a green cleaning programme for commercial or institutional cleaning operations and provides other useful information on switching to green cleaning. The ISSA EcoSmart green cleaning cost evaluator tool is an example of how technology is being used to help us to become smarter and greener (www.infoclean. com/ecosmart).
ISSA Green Cleaning University helps to advance and promote Green Cleaning within the professional cleaning industry through education, training and science. The university now consists of 10 classes with new programmes under discussion. The programmes focus on training sales personnel and include instruction in: Defining Green and Green Cleaning, Building a Complete Bundle of Green Products and Implementing a Green Cleaning Program. The university has so far awarded approximately 300 individuals with the title of ‘Green Cleaning Professional,’ the university's official designation of professional competency. ISSA members can find more resources on the website. www.issa.com
1 as defined by former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s Executive Order 13101 issued September 14, 1998 | 
