Greening Hospital Floors

The health care industry is one of the few industries in this country that seems to just keep on growing. And because budgets for many schools and universities have been sliced—including expenditures for cleaning tools and equipment—many distributors have put a lot more marketing emphasis on the health care industry.

One thing health care facilities are going to put more emphasis on in coming years is going green. This is an opportunity for astute, green-educated distributors to guide their health care customers from conventional to environmentally preferable cleaning. Their guidance will be of considerable value when it comes to green floor care. While an office building, even a school, may have a fairly even mix of carpets and hard-surface floors, medical facilities, especially hospitals, tend to weigh heavily toward tile and other hard floors.
 
One of the big challenges with green floor care is finding products that meet the performance standards of conventional floor care products. It is unfortunate that some of the most potentially harmful ingredients in conventional floor care chemicals are also the most effective in giving floors a lasting, durable, high-gloss shine.

Selecting the Right Green Floor care Products
Although an experienced distributor may have helped prevent the problems these two health care facilities experienced, it cannot be denied there is some trial and error involved when selecting a green floor chemical or finish. The first step in the selection process is to choose products that have been certified green by one of the important and respected certification bodies such as EcoLogo™ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment Program—or DfE.
The next step is testing the selected products. Some distributors refer to this as a “cleaning challenge.” Basically, it entails using one set of floor care chemicals/finishes in one area of the facility and another set of products in a different area. After several weeks, the distributor and housekeeping manager should compare notes. For instance:

• Which products were the easiest to apply?
• Which were the easiest to maintain?
• How buffable/burinishable were the products?
• Were their odors, chemical reactions, or similar unexpected problems using the products?
• After several weeks, does the finish look like it is holding up or is it fading?

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