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For hundreds of years, the janitorial service has been the forgotten and ignored industry. Suddenly, it has become the legitimate starting point for buildings that want to Go Green. The concept of Green relates primarily to the health and well-being of the people who inhabit our homes, schools, offices, and factories everywhere. The pressure of federal, state, and city mandates will soon force all buildings to transition to Green, and it often starts with the janitorial service.
The increased demand for Green Offices, Green Schools, and Green Buildings will continue to drive this concept. Governor Christ of Florida has passed rules that denied state business from any hotel that did not qualify as a Green facility. The impact was felt immediately as all Florida hotels implemented Green practices with haste. Similar rules are coming to other states.
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.
Beware of Green pretenders, however. Many janitorial services are using token efforts to participate in this new, Green economy. They are adding a few Green products to their janitor cart and they will pick up some HEPA vacuums as the older models wear out. The fact is that you cannot buy Green in a bottle. It is a practice as much as it is the product being used. When all janitorial services have adding in a few Green products, we will reach something called “Green Equalization” where all look alike but none are fully qualified.
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.
Remember that Green is not a substitute word for environmentalism. It directly refers to the health quality of a facility and the health impact on the people who inhabit that building. If your company is planning to “Go Green,” the key issues are not energy or water conservation, building materials, or access to public transportation. The whole project is to improve the indoor air quality and the continued good health of all the people in that facility.
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.
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