A Vast Majority of Schools and Universities Are Implementing Green Cleaning

January 11, 2019 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign

Cleaning programs are a critical part of school and university efforts to provide students and staff with the opportunity to learn and work in a healthy, safe place. In order to better understand what schools are doing and determine the type of resources and tools schools need, we partnered with ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, to survey schools and universities across the country.

We found that while almost all the schools in the survey have implemented green cleaning to some extent, their reasons, concerns and outcomes vary. The 2018 National Education Facilities Cleaning Survey found that 96.7 percent of schools have implemented green cleaning to at least a small extent, and nearly one in three schools has implemented green cleaning to a very large extent. The report also found that the presence or absence of an official state or organizational policy influenced a school’s likeliness to implement a more comprehensive green cleaning program.

The report also highlights how schools view the importance of a green cleaning program. Three in four schools view cleaning as essential and deeply value its importance in ensuring health and safety for students and staff.

The fact that so many schools are implementing green cleaning policies to some extent is encouraging and gives us a foundation for improving that implementation in the future. We’re looking forward to taking the lessons learned from this report and working together to increase and deepen the implementation of green cleaning in schools across the country.