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What is the effect of the Green Cleaning movement on the janitorial industry? The facts are clean that the cleaning and janitorial world is in transition, and it will be forever changed to what will come to be known as the Green Janitorial era. How people transition to this new status will differ, and there will be those who try to ignore it until the Green practice is literally forced on them by mandate.
What will drive this movement is the demand for Green offices and Green buildings. One interesting example is the state of Florida that passed a ruling that withheld state business from any hotel that did not qualify as a Green hotel. The affect was immediate and profound as the state is a significant part of Florida hotel revenue.
The Green School Act is yet another illustration of the power of the Green movement on business. New York and Illinois have already passed the Green School Act, and other states are sure to follow. In the state of New York, letters are going out telling all building owners that they have a limited time to get ready for new Green mandates in the city. We find that cities and states are anxious to pass rules and mandates requiring businesses to conform to Green standards.
Where governments go, business will follow. Right now, we are seeing city after city planning for a complete Green renovation of all city buildings. On the federal level, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush have signed executive orders mandating that all federal agency to Go Green by using Green products and Green practices. Therefore, we see the Green pressure at the federal, state, local, and corporate levels. These obvious trends are why many experts are predicting that all businesses will be going green in the next two to three years.
The common practice is for janitorial services to add a few Green products to their janitorial cart, pick up some HEPA vacuums, and to declare themselves a Green Janitorial service. This is a token effort that will become a moot point as we reach a point of “Green Equalization.” This means that all services will have Green products and there will be little difference between the general competition.
The great separator of pretenders from Green janitorial services is their training and certification. This seems the only way to validate the level of knowledge and the commitment to reputable Green services. Green Clean Institute is now the largest training and certification program in America and Canada. Rather than self-appointment as a Green janitorial firm, it is important that an independent third party organization establishes a standard and required training for true certification. When a company who does the service also sets their own standard for performance, we are all left with arbitrary and conflicting ideas of what to expect.
You may have heard of Green Seal, but Green Clean Institute is the largest training and certification program of janitorial services in America. They graduated over 500 in the first three quarters of 2008, and they are highly recommended by those who have earned the Green Clean Institute certification. If your company is planning to “Go Green” you will want to look into the GCIC Green Building program and whether your cleaning service is Green Clean Institute certified.
Unfortunately, many otherwise intelligent people mistaken use the word Green as a synonym for environmentalism. This is a mistake since Green is always a health-related topic. The LEED program adds to this confusion by including items like energy and water conservation, building materials, and access to public transportation into their version of the Green Building. Green Clean Institute believes that the Green Building should focus on indoor air quality and the health concerns of the people who live, shop, or work in the facility.
Like it or not, this is a world in serious transition from the standard practices of the past to the new and intelligent practices of a better today. People worldwide have chosen not to defer the duties of clean and healthy world to their children. Things change, and this is a change that is good for all of us. It leaves only a question of whether people will wait for the government to force them to Go Green, or whether they will step up to the challenge voluntarily.
