JOIN HANDS WITH SUSTAINABILITY


Stephen Ashkin, President of the Ashkin Group and leading advocate for promoting sustainability in the cleaning industry, sets the record straight on what ‘green cleaning’ is all about.


There is considerable confusion among cleaning professionals as to what green cleaning, ‘sustainable’ green cleaning, and sustainability are all about. So let’s start out with a situation that might help us address at least two of these quandaries.


You are a contract cleaning company and have been invited to submit a cleaning proposal for a very large organisation. Based on their Request for Proposal (RFP), which is sometimes called a ‘tender’, they request the following as far as carpet cleaning:


The contract cleaner will clean carpet throughout the building three times per year using a hot water carpet extractor with the following exceptions:


• Executive offices are to be cleaned four times per year using a hot water extractor


• Executive conference and meeting rooms are to be cleaned four times per year, using a hot water extractor


• Warehouse offices are to be cleaned two times per year using a cold water extractor


Now, let’s examine what this means as to green cleaning as well as sustainable


10 | EXPERT ADVICE


green cleaning. But first, we must realise many organisations tend to recycle their RFPs. By this I mean they take an RFP that may have been prepared as much as ten years ago and just put the current date on it. A lot has changed in cleaning in the past decade and ten years ago, green and sustainable cleaning issues were just starting to become a consideration.


With that in mind, let’s dissect this RFP, realising our discussion applies to most facilities.


• First, does all the carpet throughout the building need to be cleaned three times per year? A greener and more sustainable approach would be that carpet on the ground floor be cleaned three times per year, but carpet above the ground floor is cleaned twice per year or as needed. Most carpet soiling in a facility occurs on the ground floor and by keeping carpet on the ground floor clean, dirt and soil are less likely to be tracked to higher floors with foot traffic.


• As to cleaning carpet in the executive offices and meeting rooms four times annually, the reality is that these areas likely have the cleanest


carpet in the entire building. They are the least populated areas but are typically given special treatment just because they are used by top executives. Instead of carpet being cleaned four times per year, twice per year in most cases will be plenty.


• Why are warehouse offices to be cleaned only twice per year, and using a cold water extractor? Instead of minimising the importance of these areas, they are likely the most soiled carpets in the building. By cleaning carpet in warehouse and industrial offices more frequently, there is less chance that soiling from these areas will be walked in to other areas of the building. Additionally, the use of a cold water carpet extractor here also suggests that the cleaning needs of these areas have been marginalised. But more about that next.


• The call for hot water extractors is an indication that this may be a ‘recycled’ RFP. About ten years ago, it was believed that carpet was more thoroughly cleaned using hot water. However, since then, a number of manufacturers are now making detergents and cleaning solutions that work as well, if not better, using cold water.


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