Building green: With more eco-friendly products, builders & designers, it's never been easier

When you think green building and design, you may imagine solar panels or water recycling and have an ill-conceived notion that the process is too expensive or complicated. However, there are many ways to simplify your choices in the process of building, remodeling or designing your new or existing home while minimizing the environmental impact. 

When choosing “green” products, you give your family a healthier place to live and create a more energy efficient home with increased performance, which in turn saves you money. By starting to focus attention on indoor air quality, water and energy efficiency, and environmentally sound materials, you will make an impact on your life and the world in which we live.

Read more: http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/04-23-12-12-18-building-green-with-more-eco-friendly-products-builders-designers-its-never-been-easier/

The Evolution of Green Carpet Cleaning

Looking at how green cleaning established itself in the jan/san industry, it's easy to see that much of its evolution began with chemicals. The goal was to encourage chemical manufacturers to develop products that are both effective and compiled from ingredients that have a reduced impact on the environment. Facility managers now also want the ingredients to be more sustainable, which generally means being derived from renewable resources instead of being petroleum based.

Once manufacturing caught up with these end user demands, green cleaning soon expanded beyond chemicals to include equipment and cleaning processes. Vacuum cleaners with advanced air filtration systems, chemical-free cleaning systems, low-moisture floor machines, certain restroom cleaning equipment, and even chemical-dilution systems have all become key components of departmental green cleaning strategies.
Another part of the green cleaning evolution specifically targeted carpet cleaning, which became greener and healthier with the aid of new technologies and cleaning and maintenance strategies. One such strategy is to base carpet cleaning more on need than on specific cleaning frequency. 

Read more: http://www.cleanlink.com/hs/article/The-Evolution-of-Green-Carpet-Cleaning--14166

Avmor participates at Ecosalubrité 2012!

Hospital Acquired Infections: A Costly, Lethal Scourge That We Must Labor to Wash Our Hands Of

If you're admitted to a hospital, the last thing you should need to worry about is developing an infection linked to your care. Sadly, it occurs too often. And consider startling numbers about the consequences: About 1 of every 20 patients gets an infection while hospitalized and up to 98,000 Americans die from these each year. That makes infections the most common complication in hospital care and one of the nation's top 10 causes of death. In California, an estimated 200,000 patients develop hospital infections each year, resulting in 12,000 deaths. The problem is likely even greater than official figures suggest because those numbers fail to account for millions of patients treated in outpatient surgery centers, community clinics, nursing homes and other care facilities.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-d-braunstein-md/hospital-acquired-infections_b_1422371.html

How to spot greenwashers

Most savvy shoppers are by now familiar with the term “greenwashing” It’s when a company expresses environmental concerns and uses keywords on products to dupe the consumer into thinking an item is eco-friendly, when in fact it is not. If  you’re trying desperately to sift through all the misinformation out there, read on; here is a list of resources that will help you determine whether companies are being upfront about their environmental claims.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/spring-cleaning/how-green-is-it-how-to-sort-out-the-environmental-hype/article2409152/

Hospital housekeeping audit highlights issues

A recent housekeeping audit at Burnaby Hospital came back with a failing grade for some areas in the facility.
The March 29 audit - part of regular monthly audits that occur at sites around the health region - came back with an overall score of 83 per cent, two per cent shy of the provincial benchmark of 85 per cent

Read more: http://www.burnabynow.com/health/Hospital+housekeeping+audit+highlights+issues/6452185/story.html#ixzz1sc06u7F0

12 Easy Ways Employees Can 'Green' the Office

While big environmental changes often come from the head office, employees have a lot more control over the greening of their workplace than they may think. That's the word from NSF International, the organization that sets safety and health standards for food, water and consumer goods.
According to the NSF, there are lots of things you can do without any help from your boss that will make your office a greener and healthier place.

Read more: http://www.livescience.com/19726-employees-green-office.html

Maintain The Look Of Floors Through Mopping

When it comes to floor care, "the biggest misconceptions that end users have is that a certain floor finish or piece of equipment will provide them with beautiful floors," says Vince Sortino, vice president of sales at Philip Rosenau Co., Warminster, Pa. "While a properly selected floor finish with characteristics that match your maintenance program are essential, and proper equipment can help save on labor, the real key to beautiful floors is daily maintenance."

In an effort to continually provide a desired look within the facility, custodial operations managers must develop a schedule for proper floor maintenance.

Read more: http://www.cleanlink.com/hs/article/Maintain-The-Look-Of-Floors-Through-Mopping--13981

Housekeeping's Role In Infection Prevention

The role of the housekeeper or environmental cleaning personnel is critical to the control and prevention of infections in the hospital. It is a team effort to which all hospital workers play a part – doctors, nurses at the bedside, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physical therapists, surgery technicians in the Operating Rooms, cooks in the kitchen and housekeepers who work throughout the busy hospital to maintain a clean environment.
 

Read more: http://www.cleanlink.com/hs/article/Housekeepings-Role-In-Infection-Prevention--14000

Reaching Clean Benchmarks in Education Facilities

Ensuring a clean learning environment is important at all levels, from kindergarten to university. Combining new approaches such as team cleaning with new technology can drastically improve efficiency and effectiveness. In this week's ISSA Educational Quick Clip, learn how moving away from the "my janitor" mindset can help schools provide a cleaner facility with less costs.

Tune in now at: http://www.issa.com/?m=video&id=357&utm_source=EQC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EQC#videoid=357

Cleanlink – Article on BSC Client Feedback -“What facility managers are saying about pricing, green, sustainability, cleaning priorities and janitor wages”

Building service contractors don’t have to be told that the recession changed the contract cleaning industry — in some cases, permanently. There may be no going back to the daily cleaning and vacuuming specs of five years ago. Instead, greater labor efficiencies through chemicals, products and technology will increasingly be an ingredient to success. Green cleaning may never incite the same kind of excitement it did when it first bowled onto the industry scene.

Yet the evolutionary theory that it is those most responsive to change, not the strongest nor the most intelligent, who will survive, is, in many ways, proven true during tough times — and some may argue that it takes all three of those traits to truly succeed in this industry.

Read more: http://www.cleanlink.com/cp/article/Customer-Feedback-Facility-Managers-Weigh-In--14131?source=CL-Homepage-#1-040912

5 Questions to Start the Sustainable Supply Chain Conversation

An industry-leading supply chain is a defining characteristic of a successful business. Moving forward, as consumers and shareholders both demand transparency and ask for more accountable businesses, sustainability within the supply chain will evolve from just “greenwashing” to become the foundation of great business.

Read more: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/scm/5-questions-to-start-the-sustainable-supply-chain-conversation-1040412/

‘Lunch and Learn’ lecture focuses on green cleaning

Green cleaning is a grassroots revolution designed to help business and individuals to chuck harmful chemicals as far away as possible and move toward using cleaning supplies less harmful to the environment and themselves.  “Sustainable green cleaning is a system of cleaning that promotes healthy surroundings for workers, students and building visitors and is also less detrimental to the environment,”

Read more: http://www.marshallparthenon.com/news/lunch-and-learn-lecture-focuses-on-green-cleaning-1.2721095#.T3xBXtnluCh

 

How to dust a room properly

Dusting your house is a tedious but necessary exercise; the build-up of dust can lead to allergies, respiratory problems and asthma. Though it may seem like a simple task, many of us still get it wrong. What might look like cleaning, may actually be spreading dust around, allowing it resettle elsewhere in the room. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/03/30/how-to-dust-room-properly/#ixzz1r0IQ5Y6k

Why trends in sustainability are good for business and education

Pick up any newspaper these days and it won’t be long before you find an article that calls out some aspect of our country’s education system in need of fixing. From the daunting numbers that are presented, this coverage, unfortunately, doesn’t seem overblown.

The U.S. Department of Education’s most recent national assessment of high school seniors determined that 74% lacked proficiency in math, 62% lacked proficiency in reading, and 79% lacked proficiency in science.
In the latest round of comparative international exams, American 15-year-olds ranked 25th in math, 17th in reading, and 22nd in science among participating countries. Chinese 15-year-olds ranked first in each subject.

Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/03/30/trends-sustainability-business-education