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Step 1: Use Green Cleaning Products

A few years ago, buying Green Cleaning products was extremely difficult. Many early green products either did not perform as well as their traditional counterparts or were significantly more expensive. There were no agreed upon standards for what constituted a “green” product, and there were, unfortunately, many spurious claims. Fortunately, since then, standards have evolved that take the guesswork out of identifying and evaluating products that have reduced health and environmental impacts. Using these standards makes purchasing Green Cleaning products quick and easy -- and provides a level of confidence that the products meet state-of-the-art performance, health, safety and environmental standards.

Standards

There are an increasing number of third party certifying organizations in the marketplace. If you are not using one of the standards we have included here, it is important to ensure that the certifying entity does not have a financial interest in the products and that their program meets the ISO 14000 eco-labeling policy. The following standards currently apply to the majority of Green Cleaning Products used in schools: Note that in most cases, Environmental Choice and Green Seal are interchangeable except where otherwise noted. Click on the Applicable Standard for more information.

¹The CA VOC standard covers a wide array of products, however the standard only applies to one product attribute (volatile organic compounds), so it should be used only for purchasing products that are not covered by Environmental Choice or Green Seal standards.

²The DfE Formulator program covers a wide array of cleaning product categories. The program works to make products healthier for humans and the environment. The program does not revolve around a specific standard, but rather works with individual manufacturers to improve their unique products. Because of the nature of the DfE program, a school may want to speak to the manufacturer or distributor to learn about what health and environmental benefits that DfE brought to a specific product.

To learn more, see Choosing Green Cleaning Products. Click on Featured Green Products to find a selection of Green Cleaning products.

Cost Comparison

Green Cleaning is considered “cost neutral” when compared to high quality traditional cleaning programs. Rather than just looking for the cheapest price, school districts should consider adopting a “best value” purchasing model, which not only looks at the performance, health and environmental attributes of a product, but perhaps more importantly, evaluates the vendor’s ability to train custodial personnel on critical issues such as proper mixing of chemicals, proper techniques to maintain hard floors and carpets, strategies to reduce exposures to vulnerable and sensitive occupants, efficient methods to clean restrooms and classrooms, etc., along with the vendor’s ability for timely delivery and other support functions.

Unlike the purchase of most school products (e.g. furniture, arts & crafts supplies, text books, writing paper, etc.), the successful use of cleaning supplies is highly labor dependent (labor represents 80-90% of the cleaning budget, while cleaning supplies represent less than 10%). Thus, without the proper training, small savings on the product can result in large costs in labor. Experience has shown that purchasing practices based solely on lowest initial costs can create significant difficulties when trying to implement a Green Cleaning program and create a healthier school.

After implementing a green cleaning program, many schools have found their costs for green cleaning products to be less than or equal to conventional cleaning products. Instead of using several different specialized conventional cleaning products containing harmful chemicals, as few as four green cleaners are used that are purchased in larger volumes that result in costs savings.

Training Requirements

As indicated above, training or retraining cleaning personnel regarding the proper product applications, mixing and dilution and disposal is critical to making a Green Cleaning program work, and work economically. See Training Issues and Opportunities for more information on training options and resources available to schools.

 

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