Everything’s Coming Up Green!
Environmental Preferability, Safety and Health Take Centre Stage

 

Environmental preferability is the new mantra of the business community, as smart companies across all industry sectors use environmental-based strategies to innovate, create value and build competitive advantage. 

Nowhere is this more apparent than in our industry, where green cleaning has taken firm hold in the marketplace and continues to flourish, as attendees at ISSA/INTERCLEAN® 2006 witnessed. 

Employee and occupant safety and health have also taken centre stage as the business community embraces practices, programs and other activities designed to promote the well-being of those who work and otherwise spend time in the built environment. 

Recognizing the importance of these “green” trends, ISSA has been active on several fronts. Below are just some of the more important activities of this nature in which ISSA played an important role in 2006.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF GREEN CLEANING PRODUCTS

ISSA has participated in a number of programs, projects and other activities that provide voluntary, market-based incentives designed to foster the development of environmentally preferable cleaning products.

 

ISSA.DfE Alliance. ISSA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment (DfE) have entered into a formal alliance that leverages the expertise and core competencies of each organization to provide ISSA formulator and other association members with information, guidance and other resources that will facilitate the development of environmentally preferable cleaning products.

 

CleanGredients™. ISSA is a proud sponsor of CleanGredients™, an online database of cleaning ingredients with preferred environmental, and safety and health profiles. The database aligns broad environmental and human health goals with the cleaning-product industry’s business objectives and will support formulators in developing and producing products with human and environmental health benefits, whether to meet corporate internal objectives, regulations, voluntary product recognition programs, or national and international eco-labels. ISSA also sits on the steering committee that oversees the ongoing development of this important resource.

 

Safer Detergent Stewardship Initiative. ISSA is working in support of the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI), a voluntary program under development by the DfE that will foster the development of environmentally preferable cleaning products. By providing positive public recognition that companies can use to distinguish themselves in the marketplace, SDSI will provide a market-based incentive to formulators, distributors, contract cleaning services, and others to develop and/or use cleaning products with “safer surfactant” ingredients.

 

Resource/Reference Materials

ISSA has developed a number of resource and reference materials designed to provide insight into the green cleaning trend and help companies better appreciate this marketplace dynamic.

 

Guide to Green Cleaning Procurement Policies Across the U.S. ISSA has compiled a comprehensive summary of Green Cleaning Product Procurement Policies, Initiatives and Requirements in the U.S. This valuable resource covers more than 20 state and local jurisdictions that have established green purchasing policies in one form or another, as well as six federal programs and initiatives designed to promote green cleaning products and practices on a broad basis. For each entry in the guide, you will find a summary of the green cleaning product procurement policy and/or initiative as well as imbedded hyperlinks that will allow you to readily acce3ss the underlying documents that form the basis of the summary. The guide is posted on ISSA’s web site at www.issa.com/greenprocure.

 

Cleaning and LEED-EB: What’s the Connection? In its relatively short existence, the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings (EB) has helped fuel the demand for environmentally preferable services and products, including the demand for green cleaning. ISSA’s Cleaning and Maintenance and LEED-EB: What’s the Connection? explains the significant role that environmentally preferable cleaning and maintenance activities play in achieving LEED-EB certification. ISSA members can download this document by visiting www.issa.com/leedeb.

 

EcoSmart™. EcoSmart was developed by ISSA in conjunction with the industry’s leading software designers and green cleaning experts to help evaluate the financial impact that green cleaning will have on a facility’s budget. EcoSmart provides an insightful analysis of the chemical, paper, equipment and training costs associated with green cleaning. Please visit www.issa.com/ecosmart for more information.

 

Advocacy

Concerned that green procurement policies and guidelines may rely exclusively on a single program or process, and in an effort to preserve overall flexibility, ISSA has issued a series of official statements requesting that such policies adopt a multi-faceted approach to defining environmentally preferable chemical-based cleaning products. Specifically, ISSA has encouraged the adoption of procurement policies which recognize: (1) Green Seal certification; (2) Environment Choice certification; (3) Recognition under the EPA Design for the Environment Formulator Initiative, and (4) other valid documentation that a product meets the requisite specifications. 

Each of these approaches to qualifying green products is a scientifically sound method that effectively identifies cleaning products with a preferred environmental and safety and health profile. Moreover, a multi-faceted approach to defining “green” fosters a competitive environment that will drive suppliers and third-party eco-label organizations on a path of continual improvement and innovation as it relates to environmental attributes. Just as importantly, such an approach ensures that small businesses have available an array of options that make sense environmentally and economically. 

In 2006, ISSA advocated this position in regard to Green Seal’s Cleaning services Standard, and to the following authorities: New York State, New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation for the North American Green Purchasing Initiative.

 

Discount Programs

In an effort to ensure that green related services and programs are affordable to small businesses, ISSA has established discount programs with Green Seal and CleanGredients. 

ISSA has partnered with Green Seal to provide the association’s small-business members with an average 25 per cent discount on the evaluation fee for certification of a single product and a 15 per cent discount on the evaluation fee for multiple products submitted in an application. 

ISSA members are also entitled to a 20 per cent discount off the subscription fees to the CleanGredients database, a one-stop shopping forum for cleaning product ingredients with a preferred environmental and safety and health profile. 

ISSA is working on similar discount programs with Environmental Choice, Canada’s eco-labelling program, and NSF International, which now performs chemical profiling services for the DfE Formulator Initiative, a product recognition program for environmentally preferable cleaning products.

 

Coming in 2007

ISSA Legislative and Regulatory Forum. Scheduled for April 5 and 6, 2007, ISSA will conduct the ISSA Legislative and Regulatory Forum, where attendees will be treated to one-and-a-half days of the most current events related to green cleaning as well as some of the more compelling regulatory and legislative developments. The preliminary agenda is available at www.issa.com/legislative/lrf2007_agenda.pdf. Registration information is located at www.issa.com/legislative/lrf2007_reg.pdf.

 

Green Cleaning for Dummies. The ISSA special edition of Green Cleaning for Dummies provides a blueprint for developing and implementing an environmentally preferable cleaning program for commercial or institutional facilities. This much-awaited publication is due out in early 2007.