August 9, 2008
Find a Janitorial Service
The janitorial industry might be the last place you might think of nationwide innovation, but the janitorial business is in transition as the Green movement takes over. This is no longer an obscure industry of brooms, mops, and trash removal. Things are changing rapidly and the Green market has brought new value to every janitorial service that cleans our schools, homes, offices, and factories. The reason is that the janitorial service is the starting point of Green operation.
Florida is an example of the impact of Green mandates. Governor Christ passed a requirement that the state would not do business with any hotel that did not conform to a Green facility. This created an immediate rush for hotels to Go Green. Similar rules are being passed in other states that will affect nearly every type of business.
The states of New York and Illinois passed similar versions of a Green School Act mandating that all schools adopt Green products and Green practices in the cleaning of their buildings. New York has now mandated that all building owners take their buildings to a Green status by May of 2009. Other states will soon follow, and you see that the smaller market share for Green services will soon explode into the majority of all janitorial accounts.
Where governments go, business will follow. Right now, we are seeing city after city planning for a complete Green renovation of all city buildings. On the federal level, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush have signed executive orders mandating that all federal agency to Go Green by using Green products and Green practices. Therefore, we see the Green pressure at the federal, state, local, and corporate levels. These obvious trends are why many experts are predicting that all businesses will be going green in the next two to three years.
This new economy will bring what I call Green Pretenders who will take only token efforts to be Green but will declare that they are the real Green janitorial service. You see, Green does not come in a bottle but in the service that uses the Green product. When all janitorial services have a few Green products and some HEPA vacuums, we will see what I also call the “Green Equalization.” This means that there will be plenty of look-alike Green firms, but not of them are qualified professionally.
Green clean training and certification is the only way to prove which service is Green and which is pretending to be Green. Green Clean Institute is the best and most reliable source for Green Clean training and certification offering a federal trademark program and a national status recognized by Dun and Bradstreet. To understand the concept of certification, it is important that a credible third party establish a standard and a course of study to attain the listed certification. This is why self-appointed Green firms are ineffective. There is no standardization, and private claims can be readily compromised by those seeking only to use it in a competitive manner.
You may have heard of Green Seal, but Green Clean Institute is the largest training and certification program of janitorial services in America. They graduated over 500 in the first three quarters of 2008, and they are highly recommended by those who have earned the Green Clean Institute certification. If your company is planning to “Go Green” you will want to look into the GCIC Green Building program and whether your cleaning service is Green Clean Institute certified.
It is important to remember that Green is not a synonym for environmentalism. Green is most correctly understood as the healthy status of a building and the concern for the health of the people who work or living in that building. There is confusion from programs like LEED that Green Buildings must have Green roofs, energy and water conservation programs, and access to public transportation. This is a nice addition, but these items are not truly about Green buildings. A Green Building according to the Green Clean Institute deals primarily with the indoor air quality and the issues affecting the health of the people in that building.
We are in a major transition period that requires us to move from the standard practices of the past to the better practices that come from Green Awareness. It seems to be more than an American issue since every country knows that we must preserve and conserve our precious resources. It seems to be only a question of whether each of us will make the change voluntarily or by government regulation.
Filed under Law & Ethics by R. Michael Richmond



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