Create a Green Team

Policies and plans developed in isolation rarely succeed long-term, so it is critical that you establish a solid foundation for your Green Cleaning program by involving many stakeholders. A Green Team composed of various school stakeholders can provide the input and support needed to successfully move the program forward.

Work With Existing Groups or Start Fresh?

An environmentally focused person or team may already be present in your school or district in the form of an existing Health, Life, and Safety Committee, Indoor Air Quality team, IPM or recycling coordinator. Depending on your school and the function of its committee or team, you may either approach them about spearheading the implementation of the Green Cleaning Plan or create a separate Green Team to lead this project.

Understand Your School’s Cleaning Program

Understanding how your school’s cleaning program is structured is important information to have when forming your school team. Below is a list of questions that are designed to help you more effectively navigate your school’s decision-making process:

Does your school have an in-house cleaning program, or are cleaning services provided by an outside service provider?

If your school has an in-house cleaning program, who has responsibility for hiring and supervising the janitorial staff? In some school districts, janitorial staff might be hired by someone at the district office but supervised by school staff. The person responsible for hiring and training janitorial staff should be included on your green team.

If your school has an outside contractor implement the cleaning program, who has responsibility for developing the contract requirements, selecting the contractor and monitoring the performance of the contract? What is the end date of the current contract? The person responsible for relating to the cleaning contractor and a representative of the cleaning company should be included on your Green Team.

Who makes decisions about product selection and equipment purchases? In some cases purchasing decisions are made through district-wide contracts. If that is the case, you need to know who has authority to make that decision. What are the current product specifications and when does the current contract expire? Sometimes there is a district-wide contract that provides many different products and a school-level employee makes the specific purchasing decisions. Sometimes the cleaning contractor chooses the products. Understanding who establishes the budgets for labor, products and equipment is important.

Who Should Be Involved

A Green Team should include representatives from among the following groups within the school. Click on any one to read more:

Administrative Staff

Administrative staff control the budget and are important decision-makers about the kind of purchases the school or district will make.

Facility Operators

Facility operators have direct technical responsibility for operating and servicing the heating, cooling, and ventilation systems within the school. The role of the facility operator is crucial in preventing and solving environmental problems.

Custodians

Custodians are obviously key individuals involved in the cleaning of the school. In many districts they are members of a union.

Union Representatives

Unions representatives organize school staff to create priorities for action in schools. They may know members who are particularly impacted or interested in environmental risks and who may be willing to participate in action for change. Unions may have environmental health committees that address and support green cleaning programs.

Health Officers/School Nurses

School nurses can be helpful by monitoring and recognizing trends in reported illnesses either in certain parts of the building or on certain days of the week. This may give early warning of environmental problems related to cleaning or other factors. Also, the school nurse can be an important advocate and trainer to help teach people the relationship between green cleaning and better student health and performance.

School Board Representatives

School board members can provide the resources and authority necessary to implement a Green Cleaning Plan.

Contract Service Providers

Contract service providers need to be informed and active members of the Green Team because their activities can have a direct and substantial impact on the environmental quality within your school. Examples of these activities include pesticide application, renovation work such as re-roofing, and maintenance of ventilation equipment and air filters. In some cases the custodial staff is contracted as well.

Teachers

Teachers play an important role in promoting and maintaining a clean and healthy classroom. One of the most important steps teachers can take is to encourage and provide the opportunity for frequest and effective hand washing. Click Here to learn more about hand washing. Other steps teachers can take to help in creating a health school environment are:

minimizing clutter so the classrooms can be cleaned thoroughly and efficiently;
work with custodians in obtaining green cleaning products to use in their classroom;
encouraging proper cough hygiene, tissue use and disposal;
encouraging children to wash their hands;
assist with sanitizing between classes on high touch points such as on computer key boards and/or provide barriers to some of the high frequency touch points;
avoiding bringing products from the home: Teachers often want to help out by bringing their own cleaning products from home. However, to ensure a healthy indoor enviornment, schools should establish a policy to provide teachers with appropriate products distributed by the maintenance staff. This ensures that safer products are being used and that the maintenance staff has appropriate documentation of all products being used in the school.

Parents

Parents are another important constituent. It is important that they be included and that they be aware of the steps the school is taking to promote healthy environments. Sharing information with parents not only helps avoid miscommunication, but also has the potential of attracting additional resources and expertise to the school. They also have the ability to reach into the community and to develop support for needed changes and funding in a way that school personnel cannot.

Students

Students are the primary customers of your school. Information should be shared with students so they understand their role in maintaining good environmental quality, such as keeping good personal hygiene and keeping lockers clean. In some schools, students have learned about good indoor air quality and then have participated by keeping rooms clean and other activities.

On another note, we all believe that we don't want students cleaning bathrooms or stripping floors, however, they can be an important part of of a green cleaning program. Students can help stack chairs on desks and pick up papers to make it easier for custodians to clean floors and desktops.

Vendors/distributors

Vendors and or distributors can be an enormously valuable resource to helping your new green cleaning program succeed. Remember, they have a built in incentive, as the school has to buy the various products from someone, and they are often willing to exert considerable time to help the program succeed.

Advocates

Advocates such as local healthy school groups, environmental and children’s health groups could be excellent allies. They are frequently well connected to the community and can help generate necessary resources to help the program succeed.

The Coordinator’s Role

The Green Team Coordinator’s role is to promote teamwork and further decision-making. His or her main functions may include the following and will be based on the needs and situation of the individual district or school:

Leadership: Coordinates the Green Team and encourages a sense of shared responsibility and cooperative effort. Provides the Team with information, and in coordination with the Green Team, oversees implementation of the Green Cleaning Plan.

Cheerleading: Because most of the green team will be volunteers, the coordinator needs to always seek opportunities to recognize and applaud their efforts in lieu of financial compensation.

Communication and Coordination: Disseminates environmental information, registers environmental complaints and directs the response, and communicates environmental issues and status to school administration, staff, students, parents, and the press.

Project Management: Keeps everyone on task. Monitors adherence to the plan; problem-solves.

Choosing the Coordinator

The coordinator does not have to be an expert on environmental issues or Green Cleaning. Ideally, he or she should be someone with a genuine interest in improving the school indoor environment and the authority to interact with district-level administrators, school staff, students, and parents, and to make budget recommendations.

In larger school districts, the coordinator may be a district-level administrator, such as the business official, a health and safety officer or the facilities manager. In smaller school systems and individual schools, the Coordinator may be the principal, school nurse, a teacher, or other school staff. Occasionally, it is necessary to designate co-coordinators or delegate administrative items to a special subcommittee, which may be composed of selected individuals from the community, such as local environmental or health department staff, parents, and volunteers from local businesses who have special skills, such as commercial building engineers.

Establish a Team Schedule

Convene the Green Team frequently and establish a regular time to meet. In the beginning, weekly or biweekly meetings may be required to work out the Green Cleaning Plan and Policy. Later, monthly or quarterly meetings may be sufficient to update participants on progress, address problems and concerns and revise the plan.

Establish a Space

Space is at a premium in most schools. However, your team will be collecting data that must be organized and be available for review. Finding a space that the team can call home will help keep the process organized and focused on the mission, avoiding the “fell through the cracks” syndrome. In the tightest quarters, even a dedicated file cabinet and a table in the staff lounge or library can be effective.

Forward to Develop a Green Cleaning Plan.