Green cleaning has come a long ways in the past five years with estimates indicating that green products now represent between 35 and 50 percent of the institutional and commercial marketplace. This is remarkable considering that comparable green products in the consumer marketplace, like those found at the grocery store or mass merchandiser have only reached a 1 percent!
And a debt of gratitude is owed to every school and university that has made the effort to convert as this demand is what drove the supply-side of the market. Today green cleaning chemicals, sanitary paper, high-efficiency equipment, and other products containing less toxic ingredients, recycled content, designed to be resource efficient and durable are everywhere. And now the race to “out-green” the competition is off and running!
Now as schools and universities continue on the green cleaning journey, one of the greatest opportunities for improvement and important resources that is still underutilized when it comes to reducing the impacts associated with cleaning is the cleaning personnel themselves.
While training is typically provided, it often covers only the bare minimum required by law such as OSHA requirements for personal protective equipment, blood borne pathogens and right-to-know information associated with chemicals in the workplace. Beyond this, many could benefit by spending more time on training with a greater focus on “effective” cleaning (as opposed to “efficient” cleaning), as well as opportunities for cleaning personnel to contribute to reducing a building’s overall environmental footprint.
Along these lines, an innovative training program is being developed by the Thomas-Shortman Training Fund (which is associated with SEIU’s local 32BJ), along with Brandywine Realty Trust and two of their cleaning contractors. Together a ten hour, five course program was developed covering not only the basics of green cleaning, LEED and health & safety issues; but it also included courses designed to teach cleaning personnel how they could help reduce the building’s energy, water and waste. As it turns out, there are actually lots of things cleaning personnel can do in these areas if taught what to look for, and when given a clear process for the appropriate response. And this is a huge opportunity to help reduce a building’s spend on energy, water and waste. That’s right. This training can help save money!
The Thomas-Shortman training has courses designed specifically to address how adults really learn. While some people learn well when viewing PowerPoints, listening to a lecture or reading a book; others simply don’t learn well using these methods. So much of the training is done as “hands on” exercises and they make learning fun by incorporating key concept into games such as a Jeopardy-style learning game, card games, and a scavenger hunt to find burned out light bulbs and malfunctioning flush valves.
While schools and universities deal with language, cultural and other issues on a daily bases for their students, far too often the same amount of educational thought and instructional design isn’t used to help cleaning personnel. This is especially true when training has been delegated to suppliers whose objective is to keep the customer happy, sell more cases of products, and complete the training in as short amount of time as possible; and not to drive effective cleaning or reduce the building’s environmental footprint.
Yet innovative opportunities abound. So make sure training curricula address all legal requirements and in a language whereby the learners can actually learn. But this year include in the curriculum courses that go beyond just efficient cleaning procedures and the "how-to" of cleaning products and processes.
Add simple steps such as turning off lights in unoccupied spaces; reporting malfunctioning fluorescent light fixtures, automated faucets and flush valves; cleaning coils of refrigerated beverage machines; reporting electrical equipment that runs unnecessarily; cleaning with cold water and using processes that require less energy, water and chemicals and which produce less waste. And for some of these issues, consider working with the vendors of electrical and plumbing supplies as they can help train cleaning personnel to reduce the footprint and save money at the same time.
