New Guidelines For School Cleaning

Grassroots Environmental Education, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based nonprofit, published its revised "ChildSafe Guidelines" for cleaning products used in schools and day-care centers, along with a list of products that meet the new guidelines. The new guidelines contain the most stringent requirements of any published green cleaning standard.

Originally developed in 2006 based on standards published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior, the guidelines set threshold limits for certain chemicals commonly found in commercial cleaning products, some of which have been associated with an increased incidence of environmentally mediated illnesses, including asthma, allergies, certain types of cancer, learning and behavioral disorders, endocrine disruption, chemical sensitivity and kidney or liver damage.

Read more:
http://www.cleanlink.com/sm/article/New-Guidelines-For-School-Cleaning--12522?keywords=school+cleaning%2C+green+cleaning

Students and Teachers Notice Green Cleaning Efforts

Teachers, students and other building occupants in schools across the state of Illinois have noticed the custodial efforts to use green cleaning products and procedures. In August, the governor signed the Green Cleaning Schools Act, giving school officials 90 days to implement green initiatives and the shift has been noticeable.

According to reports from the Daily Chronicle in Sycamore, Ill., the custodial department shave jump-started their efforts to implement eco-friendly cleaning methods. The staff was anxious to begin reducing the amount of pollutants exposed to occupants within the facility. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, "half of all students and school staff are exposed to polluted indoor air that can be two to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air. Chemicals found in everyday cleaners, waxes, deodorizers and other maintenance products contribute to the pollution."

Read more:

http://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Students-and-Teachers-Notice-Green-Cleaning-Efforts--7514?keywords=green%20cleaning,%20regulation

Microfiber Cleaning: Just The Facts

In the past, cleaning focused solely on using chemicals. Now, a higher value is placed on factors such as chemical-free cleaning, water and energy conservation, time, labor, and employee and occupant safety. Microfiber cleaning, using cloths and mops, can help achieve that. The combination of the right tools, products and outcome-monitoring can improve the cleaning process with less water, chemicals and employee strain.

Microfiber has long been associated with chemical-free or limited-chemical cleaning. Microfiber’s effective when used dry or with water because it cleans surfaces mechanically, not chemically, by scraping them with microscopic precision. 

Microfiber technology continues to advance. Microfiber cloths treated with an antimicrobial are designed to inhibit the growth of stain- and odor-causing bacteria. The cloths remove up to 99 percent of bacteria from non-porous surfaces without the use of chemicals, and continue to provide protection for up to 300 washings. It’s important to quantify chemical savings or chemical inventory reduction when calculating ROI. Reducing chemical inventory can result in substantial savings.

Read more:
http://www.cleanlink.com/cp/article/Microfiber-Cleaning-Just-The-Facts--14466?keywords=microfiber+cloths%2C+microfiber+mops%2C+green+cleaning

Tips for Stripping and Waxing Floors

Stripping and waxing floors is a service that many cleaning companies provide, but not all are doing it productively and safely enough to maximize profit on the job. If you want to provide floor-care services, you need to make sure your employees are following the procedures you set for them. Here are some preparation tips for stripping and waxing floors:

Start with a standard equipment checklist. All your stripping and waxing tools and equipment should be kept separate from other cleaning equipment. We suggest keeping tools and chemicals in a heavy-duty tote. Keep a laminated checklist of required equipment in the tote so you or your employees can go through the list when preparing for a job to make sure nothing is missing. There is nothing more frustrating than getting to the job site only to find that your putty knife or some other important piece of equipment is missing!

Measure chemicals according to manufacturer's instructions. Read the label to make sure all chemicals are being diluted properly. Employees who don't follow directions and use the "glug-glug" method of measuring are taking risks with the floor they're working on and their own safety.

Transport all needed equipment and tools. Running back and forth to the area being stripped is a waste of time and productivity, so make sure everything you need is close at hand.

Set up temporary barriers. Use yellow tape or rope to block the area. Floors that are being stripped and waxed are slippery, so keeping the area blocked off helps to prevent slip/fall accidents.

Read more:
http://www.issa.com/?m=articles&event=view&id=3022&page=21&lg=&category=116

The 'Five Ws & One H' in Medical Cleaning

Journalists often talk about something known as "the Five Ws and One H”—otherwise known as who, what, where, when, why, and how. Any properly written news story or press release will contain all of these elements in one form or another.

Today, the Five Ws and One H are also becoming the basis for a new way of providing a variety of services to health care facilities. This is especially true when it comes to cleaning. In fact, the Five Ws and One H are now the foundation for what some have termed “the new model of cleaning” in medical locations.

The why behind this new approach is simple: The past decade bore witness to a frightening variety of disease outbreaks around the world that included SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), the Norwalk virus, MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), and, most recently, H1N1. Growing concerns about the emergence of new infectious risks to public health have made it obvious to facility managers, cleaning professionals, and public health experts that a new model for more effective cleaning is needed.

The where for this new model was also identified rather simply—just about any place where large groups of people gather, but especially medical facilities where there may be very young, very old, and very ill people—all more vulnerable to disease.

Identifying the why and where for a new cleaning model has been easy, but what about the other three Ws?

Identifying the who. The who in cleaning refers to those who share the responsibility for a health care facility's cleanliness. Historically, this meant the facility's custodial and/or housekeeping departments. But today, we increasingly see the responsibility for cleaning starting at the top and working its way down. Decisions are made by top management and then implemented by the housekeeping department and other staff. This means that a facility's entire staff actually contributes to keeping the facility hygienically clean and stopping the spread of disease.

Redirecting the what. Even in medical facilities, which have traditionally placed a greater emphasis on cleaning to protect health compared to other types of facilities, what is cleaned typically focused on those areas that improve the appearance of the facility. In the new model for cleaning, however, much greater emphasis is now placed on hygienically cleaning less prominent areas such as cleaning and sanitizing “high-touch” areas: elevator buttons, light switches, door handles, bedside tables, ledges, and controls.

Read more:

http://www.issa.com/?m=articles&event=view&id=3483&page=11&lg=&category=116

Contest- Win a Year's Worth of Cleaning Products!

The Holiday Rush is a demanding time, don’t overlook the importance of a clean restaurant this Holiday Season!

 
  





 Register Today: http://www.avmor.com/regist_win.php

Dropping Old Green Baggage

The whole concept of being green and sustainable still carries a considerable amount of old baggage. But these days, most of that baggage can be left behind. For instance, there is the perception that being green and sustainable costs more. Many people believe that construction of greener, sustainable, and more environmentally responsible building costs significantly more than conventional construction. While that might have been true 20-plus years ago, added costs are negligible today.

Next, there is baggage surrounding the performance of environmentally preferable products. We have seen this in our own industry, and while this might have been true at one time, many jansan manufacturers have done an outstanding job developing new, green products that perform as well as, if not better than, similar conventional products.

Even more old baggage exists in the idea that federal regulations and chemical policy form, notably the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, will cost American jobs. This idea was disputed recently as a result of a new study produced by the Political Economic Research Institute (PERI), which was commissioned by the BlueGreen Alliance of which I am a member.

Released in mid-May 2011, the study demonstrates that innovation in sustainable chemistry actually presents new opportunities fo the chemical industry—including the jansan industry—and can help reverse the job loss that has impacted the entire industry for nearly 20 years.

Some History
A new study, "The Economic Benefits of a Green Chemical Industry in the United States: Renewing Manufacturing Jobs While Protecting Health and the Environment," suggests what can evolve if the chemical industry embraces sustainable chemistry. But before reviewing the study, let's take a look at what has been happening in the industry overall.

Since 1992, the U.S. chemical industry has shed approximately 300,000 jobs while actual production has increased 4 percent per year. Should this current scenario continue for another 20 years, the industry will likely lose another 230,000 jobs, according to the report. That's nearly half a million jobs in 40 years!
This comes at a time when the United States is desperately looking for ways to create jobs. Further, the goal is not just to create jobs, but to create quality jobs that pay well and also protect the health of our citizens and the environment.

Read more:

http://www.issa.com/?m=articles&event=view&id=3757&page=6&lg=&category=116

Don’t Forget to Groom

Many facility managers, cleaning professionals, and even carpet cleaning technicians are not quite sure about what it means to groom carpets. In all fairness, there is a good reason for this ambiguity. Grooming carpets is not as common as it once was. However, there are benefits to grooming of which building and cleaning and facility professionals should be aware.

To help better understand carpet grooming and its benefits, Mark Baxter, an engineer with U.S. Products who has been involved in the carpet cleaning industry for more than a decade, sat down to answer a few questions on the subject.

Robert Kravitz (RK): How should carpet grooming fit into a facility’s regular floor maintenance program? How often should it be performed?
Mark Baxter (MB): First, let me define some terms. Carpet grooming is sometimes called carpet raking. While that term might not sound very professional, and typically refers to leaves rather than carpets, in many ways it describes the actual process more accurately than grooming. Grooming or raking a carpet means using a specially made tool that looks very much like a garden rake. This tool is dragged over the carpet to pull up its pile or nap. This process helps to loosen soils and keeps the yarn of the carpet lifted.
Cleaning professionals often consider grooming a carpet only before or after cleaning. However, for best results, grooming should be a part of a regular carpet maintenance program. For instance, if performed regularly prior to vacuuming, grooming can help to loosen dry soils, making soils easier to remove and enhancing the overall appearance of the carpet.

Read more:

http://www.issa.com/?m=articles&event=view&id=4049&page=1&lg=&category=116

Going Green: A Step-By-Step Approach

If I have heard it once now, I’ve heard it a hundred times, that green cleaning is confusing. Maybe it is confusing to some, but it need not be. The following are some steps you can take to successfully implement your green cleaning program.

1. Develop your business strategy.
It is important to decide up front if your green cleaning program will be just one of a variety of service offerings or if it will be the sole focus of your business. This decision will affect the pace at which you will need to get your program up and running, as well as the conversion of existing accounts.

2. Pick a “roadmap.
” Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel. Instead, concentrate on implementing the program and growing sales and profits. My recommendation is to follow the green cleaning requirements found in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) rating system. Just keep in mind that it currently is going through a revision. So if you are just getting started, follow the newest version to keep you on track.

3. Audit your products.
Using the specifications found in LEED-EB, determine any necessary changes to your chemicals, dispensers, equipment, paper, microfiber tools and other products. Once you determine the needed changes, develop a strategy to phase out existing products and acquire new ones.

4. Reconsider your processes.
Once you have identified your new products, you may need to or want to modify your cleaning processes. Remember, green cleaning is much more than using recycled toilet paper and other “green” products. Your processes must focus on effective cleaning that protects occupant health while reducing environmental impacts.

Read more:
http://www.cleanlink.com/cp/article/Going-Green-A-StepByStep-Approach--7833?keywords=green%20cleaning,%20stephen%20ashkin,%20usgbc

Key Strategies for Hotel Housekeeping

HospitalityNet.org recently released an article that focuses on the top 13 strategies every hotel director of housekeeping should be aware of. This is an abriviated list of those strategies.

1. Learn to look at your hotel from an operational perspective as if you owned it. The most successful housekeepers are those who take ownership of their property.

2. Honor the idea that the hotel guest is your guest, as if in your own home. It is often the sense of pride and hosting that makes a huge difference in whether someone has a job or a career.

3. Know about the condition of the property from first-hand experience. Personally and regularly inspect every type of accommodation in your hotel.

4. When recruiting people, pay attention to the "human" resource role: balance "high touch" and "high tech". Recruit and select people wisely.

5. Maintain and increase training. The development of the staff to the point where room keepers can be completely trusted to finish their jobs with "pizzazz" because they take pride/ownership in their rooms should be a goal for everyone.

6. Share the professional expectations provided to you from ownership and or management clearly with all members of the staff. Profits and losses go in cycles, and it is important to share the realities of the cost of doing business at all levels.

7. Hold regular one-on-one sessions with all direct reports in this department, including the laundry. These should not be formal reviews, but guide posts to reinforce positive actions or to correct a potentially dangerous course of action.

8. Constantly assess time management. Research why things go smoothly and replicate that success.

9. Work with the front office management to capitalize on forecasts for long-term efficiencies. Doing so will help managers plan for deep cleaning in slower periods or to replace capital items on a schedule that does not interfere with periods of high activity.

10. Master the art of inventory controls.

11. Study, embrace and insist on proper safety and security. There should be training given and follow-up checklists provided for linen rooms, housekeeping cards, using equipment and the laundry. This includes safety on chemicals and equipment.

12. Embrace the Brand Standards and Suppliers. Managers should learn what the brand's requirements and expectations on housekeeping services and programs.

13. Know our budgets, costs and results. The outstanding housekeeping managers are those who are able to often obtain higher compensation for their staff by effectively reducing turnover and managing their total budgets while exceeding guest expectations.

http://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Hospitality-Key-Strategies-for-Hotel-Housekeeping--5103?keywords=hospitality,%20tips