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The Health and Finances of Green Cleaning
By Stephen P. Ashkin
Imagine two scenarios that take place
commonly across America: The first is in a private-sector boardroom
of a corporation looking for ways to improve its bottom-line. The
second in the public-sector board meeting of a school district
seeking to improve fiscal efficiencies as well as student results on
standardized tests.
In the first case, the corporate leaders
are discussing strategies to increase sales, reduce customer
turnover, improve worker productivity and quality, invest wisely and
reduce overall expenses. At the school board similar discussions
take place focusing on how to reduce expenses, implement new
curriculums, and whether or not to invest in new technologies. In
both cases, investments are evaluated based on the rate of return,
with quick payback investments given priority.
But rarely is a representative of the
cleaning team at the table. And when a cleaning manager is there,
typically he or she is asked to clean the building less expensively,
by reducing labor or other operational costs. Unfortunately, too
often cleaning is simply thought of as an expense-one that is
thought to make little of any real contribution to the success of
the organization.
Scientific studies are beginning to
document what we in the cleaning industry have believed for years.
Cleaning is not merely an expense used to keep floors looking shiny
and to minimize the number of complaints relating to the lack of
toilet paper in the restroom. Rather, cleaning plays an incredibly
important role in supporting the work of the organization's most
important asset - its people.
Ground-breaking research conducted in
Europe and the United States has been studying the effects of the
indoor environment on worker productivity and student performance
with astonishing results.
In landmark research conducted in the
90's, scientists led by Michael Berry, PhD, pinpointed improvements
to the indoor environment made simply through cleaning in a
non-problematic building. Dr. Berry's study showed for the first
time that contaminants which are potentially harmful to people's
health and performance are impacted by the cleaning process.
Dr. Berry conducted his research at the
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center on the campus of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The collaborative
effort involved members of the cleaning industry and utilized
green
cleaning methods, new equipment and green cleaning supplies. The
green cleaning process yielded the following environmental results:
The researchers suggested, and
reasonably so, that by reducing contaminants better health outcomes
could be expected, and these benefits could be achieved through
following sound green cleaning practices using the right equipment
and products, especially as it applies to carpet maintenance.
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