How to Implement a Green Cleaning Program at Your Facility
We’ve talked about the many benefits green cleaning can bring to your facility, including fewer health risks, savings, and a cleaner environment, but how can you get your own green cleaning program off the ground? Here are a few ways you can approach it, and how you can get your employees on board.
What’s a Green Cleaning Program?
Your team members may not understand what green cleaning is or why it’s important. In order to have a successful program, you’ll need to get everyone on board, and that starts with helping them understand why this new program is a priority. You can use this post to help explain why your organization is making the transition. Explain the fact that, according to LEED, traditional cleaning products can adversely affect human health, air quality, building systems and more due to hazardous biological, chemical and particulate contaminants. But a green cleaning program doesn’t end with changing products. You’ll also have to look at the current state of your facility as well as your current cleaning program. Here’s where you should start.
Getting Your Program Off the Ground
1. Assess Your Facility
Conduct a survey of your facilities and take note of any conditions that may compromise the quality of your indoor environment. Are air intakes situated in places where quality air can come in? If near parking locations (where auto exhaust can enter), trash receptacles, or other sources of air contamination, relocate cars and/or bins to another area. For entryways, ensure protective barriers like matting and plastic strip curtains decrease the chance that outdoor contaminants are brought indoors.
2. Review Your Current Cleaning Procedures
According to Facilities Net: Simply switching to green cleaning products will provide some level of improvement. However, if the green cleaning program is to achieve its full potential, facility executives should re-evaluate their cleaning procedures. They go on to explain that oftentimes cleaning chemicals are overused. Instead of abiding by the old “some is good, more is better” mentality, it’s important that the proper amount of the right cleaning chemical is used for each particular job. You may want to use automatic dispensers to regulate the quantity of chemicals being used.
It’s also important to audit your current cleaning processes in order to determine what you need to do in order to make them green. Review everything from equipment to how your team is using it. As Facilities Net puts it, “All processes should be designed with a focus on the goal of protecting the health and safety of building occupants while still cleaning effectively.”
3. Train Your Team
Last but not least, it’s important that you train your team on the new green cleaning practices you want to put in place. After all, employees may fall back on old habits and past practices, which can negate many of your new program’s benefits. Ensure everyone is trained, not just those using the new products and equipment. This will ensure that all team members and facility occupants understand that you’re transitioning to a green cleaning program and how the products and processes will differ going forward.
By following these three steps, your new green cleaning initiative is more likely to be adopted by current team members and will be set up for success.
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