Thank you for attending the Lunch and Learn on February 20, 2008.  Here is a link to the  Powerpoint Presentation Solving the Green Puzzle

Please give some feedback on the following questions, or offer anything you would like to contribute to ongoing discussion on this topic.

Are you implementing green initiatives within your organization?  If so, describe.

Do you see major barriers to implementing green initiatives within your organization?

If you have succeeded at implementing green initiatives,  what are they, what was your key to success.

Return to this blog to read feedback from others.

Suggestions for Planning Your Green EventsGreen meetings, conventions or events are conducted in ways that minimize the environmental impacts imposed by such activities. Environmentally preferred practices transportation, facilities selection, siting and construction, food provision and disposal, hotels and accommodations, management and purchasing decisions.  http://sustainablemuskegon.wikispaces.com/Planning+your+Green+Event

Following the example of leading communities elsewhere, and with a growing awareness of the importance of the principle of Sustainability in planning for the future of the Muskegon area, the participating members of the Muskegon Area Sustainability Coalition come together as a body of community leaders with a common goal of advancing the principles of Sustainability throughout Muskegon County.

More information on the Muskegon Area Sustainability Coalition go to our website:  http://sustainablemuskegon.wikispaces.com/

Muskegon County’s Prosperity Index:  http://sustainablemuskegon.wikispaces.com/Prosperity+Index

To all of our Building Service Contract customers - we wanted to make sure you were aware of the Grean Seal Standards program GS-42 Green Seal Environmental Standards for Cleaning Services. It is not our intent to endorse or recommend that you pursue this certification but we felt it important for you to know about it so that you can research it and make an educated decision about whether your organization would want to participate. This was shared at USGBC’s Greenbuild Conference last week in Chicago in a workshop that  Nichols attended. You may be asked by one of your customers about this program so we wanted to be sure you were prepared to respond. If you would like to talk about this, please post your comments in this blog or contact us at info@enichols.com. We will keep you posted if we hear more about this topic.

Green Seal™ is a non-profit organization devoted to environmental standard setting, product certification, and public education. Green Seal’s mission is to work towards environmental sustainability by identifying and promoting environmentally responsible products, purchasing, and production.

GS-42 is a Green Sealâ„¢ Environmental Cleaning Standard that facilities and maintenance professionals should become familiar with. Here is a link to the standard on Green Seal’s website.

For additional information on Green Seal or any of its programs, contact:

Green Seal
1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 827
Washington, DC 20036-5525
(202) 872-6400
www.greenseal.org

Developing A Communication and Stewardship Plan.  Your communication should help you manage the expectations of your program.  Let the stakeholders know what is happening, when, what can be expected and what their role might be.  Major events such as floor maintenance or carpet cleaning should be announced ahead of time.  Let them know that you are holding training events.  Creating a green team newsletter would be a great way to communicate.

Stewardship should not all fall on the custodial staff’s shoulders.  Everyone is responsible for keeping the building clean.  Provide the “why” to occupants of the building - why should they not eat at their desk, why they should report a spill immediately, why they should not have piles of paperwork or books stacked in their office area.  Make it fun.  Think of little things you can do to make it fun.  For example:  cleanest office award, giving points that go towards making a purchase from the company store, acknowledge people for reporting coffee spills right away.  Make sure you include people from other internal departments on your Green Team to get them engaged.  Peers will have an influence on many others.

Step Four is to build your green toolbox.  Choosing the right products is a must for your program especially if you want to maximize credits for LEED-EB.  Products included in a green program are chemicals, trash can liners, entryway matting systems, paper products, hand soaps, tools and equipment.  Again a green cleaning program consists of much more than just products.  Technology is changing so keeping abreast of new products that are introduced.  Choose products that reduce waste (including the packaging of the products) as well as increase efficiencies. 

Guidelines for Custodial Supplies

There are two myths that should be discussed. One is that green products don’t work and the other is that a green cleaning program costs more and I’ll address these here.  Ten or maybe even five years ago green products (mostly chemicals) may not have worked well.  However demand for green products that are equal to or better than traditional products is what has driven manufacturers to continue their research and the results are there.  Green products do work well and most manufacturers today have a product line that is green.  Demand will continue to drive technology to change just like it would with any products.

The other myth is that a green cleaning program costs more.  Again five or ten years ago, green products did cost more, there was no competition.  Today that is no longer true.  The product cost itself should be cost neutral.  Now the other component of this is that if you have a quality cleaning program today it should also be cost neutral.  In today’s world however often the cleaning program has been commoditized due to budget constraints and the cleaning staff is not allowed to do what they need to do.  A green cleaning program can bring value to your organization and can be marketed in such a way from the custodial department.  I’ll discuss this in an upcoming blog.  So if you currently have a quality cleaning program, a green cleaning program should be cost neutral but also may reduce the costs if labor hours are considered.

OK you have buy-in from your stakeholders, you have formulated your plan based on the baseline you established of products and procedures you are currently using and then identified what changes you need to make.  The third step is to develop or change your cleaning procedures and set-up your training opportunities.  Green Cleaning procedures may not be very different from your traditional ones.  The focus should be to reduce the exposure to harmful contaminants and reducing waste.  Now is the time to also improve efficiences.  Document any training that you conduct.  Realize that you will need to offer training every so often as a refresher or to train new hires.  Set up a schedule to inspect what you expect of your staff.  Your janitorial storage area should be inspected for cleanliness, organization, ventiliation, proper lighting. 

Another key ingredient here is to identify anyone in your building that has sensitivities like allergies, asthma, illnesses so that you can pay close attention when cleaning their areas to reduce contaminants. 

This step should really be part of any cleaning program but especially an important part of a Green Cleaning Program.

Step two takes some work on your part.  You need to establish your baseline of where you are at right now.  Do a product survey.  Do you have written procedures?  Do the procedures follow what you are actually doing?  Once you have gathered all of this information, build your plan.  It may only be a matter of tweaking a few things or you may need a major overhaul.  Let your suppliers help you.  Almost all manufacturers of products have tools to offer to assist you in writing your procedures.  Almost all manufacturers have green products.  It is not just a matter of switching to green chemicals however, all of these pieces are important:  product, procedures, tools, training, documenting.  Once you have compared to what you are doing now with what you need to do (identified the gaps), put a plan together with a timeline.  You don’t have to do it all at once, especially if the plan requires the purchase of major equipment.  Look at your recycling program - is that in check?  If not, talk to your waste hauler to put the plan together for that.

This step is very important to the success of your program.  Spend time here to get your plan together and set realistic timelines.  Don’t do it alone, I mentioned to utilize your suppliers.  Also you should be identifying your Green Team members, get them involved in this process. 

Step three will be posted soon!

Implementing a full Green Cleaning Program takes more than just switching to green products.  The first step would be to get an agreement amongst everyone involved to be able to move forward, or getting everyone on board.  Depending on your organization there may be little educating that has to happen or there could be a lot.  You need to help them understand what is in it for them.  If you are helping your management to understand by 1) defining green cleaning; 2) explaining the potential health and performance benefits; 3) explain the opportunities for improving the indoor environment for building occupants, possibly reducing complaints; 4) discussing any marketing benefits for your organization and 5) risk reduction.  If you are educating your custodial/maintenance staff 1) define green cleaning; 2) explain the health and performance benefits for them as users of green products; and 3) explain the value they can bring to the organization by implementing such a program including the marketing benefits.  There are other groups that you may need to educate and create an awareness of what you are doing and similar steps should be followed.  If you are a K-12 schools district - you may need to talk to or want to promote what you are doing to principals, teachers, students, superintendent, and parent groups.  If you are a property manager include your tenants.  If you are a hotel, include your guests and other staff members.  If you need help putting your toolbox together to talk to all of these different groups, let us help you.

There are five several basic steps to a Green Cleaning Program.  Step One: Get everyone on board; Step Two: Establish the base line and build a plan; Step Three: Developing Green Cleaning procedures and training plans; Step Four: Building your green toolbox and Step Five: Communication and Stewardship Plans.  Over the next five Nichols Blogs we will discuss each of these steps to a successful Green Cleaning program.¼/p>