Sustainability’ is used to refer to an improvement made in the overall impact of cleaning on the environment.
There are three key steps, which need to be followed for optimising sustainability:
1. Choose products that are designed for sustainability as well as safety:
• This requires your vendor to declare the list of banned ingredients.
• Ensure that the manufacturer produces enough evidence of the fact that the ingredients are selected not just for safety, but for optimising sustainability of the finished product when used diligently.
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2. Work with suppliers so that they responsibly manage their manufacturing impacts:
• Ask your vendors for evidence that they have effective control over impacts during the manufacturing phase. Key areas include:
• Minimising raw material and finished product wastage during manufacture.
• inimising consumption of energy and water.
• Minimising emissions to sewer and atmosphere and, in particular, controlling emissions of hazardous substances to avoid risk to people or the environment.
• Minimising packaging waste and recycling used packaging.
• Operating an Environmental Management System.
• Operating procedures to prevent accidental emissions.
• Operating Occupational Health & Safety systems to protect staff.
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3. Minimise the environmental impacts that arise during your cleaning operations:
• Define what task the cleaning products will be used for, and buy products which deliver the required performance.
• Analyse and reduce rework rates. First-time cleaning is essential to minimise waste, particularly in energy intensive operations such as machine dishwashing.
• Favour more concentrated products, where applicable.
• Dilute and use products according to the manufacturer’s instructions using accurate dosing systems where appropriate.
• Service cleaning equipment regularly, particularly critical items such as dosing pumps for automated machines.
• F) Train staff, for example using BICSc courses which detail the way cleaning chemicals should be handled.
Smart building owners and managers in organisations from across all sectors and industries are taking actions to reduce the negative impact of their facilities.
Healthy High Performance Cleaning (HHPC) programmes, are designed to improve a building’s environmental quality and sustainability, with a cost-neutral or cost-reduction impact on operations.
The HHPC programme starts with environmentally preferable chemicals. This offers proven cleaning strategies, procedures, and purchasing guidelines for consumables, tools and cleaning equipment. With a HHPC programme, you get
- A clear perspective on the need for green cleaning concepts.
- Cleaning strategies procedures and guidelines backed by the most up to date training support tools.
- Environmentally preferable janitorial guidelines for chemicals, paper tools and cleaning equipment.
- A pathway to earn credits towards certification under the LEED for existing Green building rating system
The HHPC takes traditional cleaning beyond appearances;Tte most important step is to understand that cleaning plays a huge role in the health of a building’s occupants. Cleaning also directly affects the asset value of the building. The end goal of the HHPC programme is to simplify the lives of customers by providing more than environmentally preferable cleaning products, and helping them achieve safe, healthy, high productivity facilities.
