Industry News

Now it’s Easy Being Green: Healthy Schools Campaign Joins Industry Leaders to Promote Green Cleaning in Schools

Ecolab, JohnsonDiversey and Unisource are Leading Sponsors of the Multimedia Guidebook and Product Directory

With the 2006 ISSA conference as a backdrop, the Healthy Schools Campaign (HSC), an Illinois-based independent nonprofit, has joined cleaning industry leaders to unveil The Quick and Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools, the first-ever multimedia handbook designed to demystify green cleaning and promote to schools.

The Guide consists of an eight-page full-color handbook that outline five simple steps for setting up a school green cleaning program, such as switching to green cleaning products and equipment, adopting new cleaning procedures, introducing green paper and plastic products and involving all school stakeholders in the process. An accompanying CD-Rom contains comprehensive information, practical advice, tools and resources to help schools learn more and institutionalize their efforts. Importantly, the Guide includes a purchasing guide that put products that meet environmental standards at their fingertips.

With the support of industry leaders JohnsonDiversey, Ecolab and Unisource Worldwide, 10 manufacturers and distributors of green cleaning products have provided financial support and product information for the printing and distribution of 50,000 copies of the free Guide through national educational associations, school authorities, district purchasing agents and school administrators. The other sponsors include ProTeam, SCA Paper, Andersen Company, PortionPac, Spartan Chemical Company, Inc., SPEEDS - Microfiber Cleaning System and Wausau Paper.

“At Ecolab, we are committed to helping protect the health of students and educators by providing effective cleaning programs in a way that maximizes performance and minimizes total environmental impact,” said Michael Johannsen, vice president and general manager of hospitality, healthcare and commercial facilities at Ecolab. “We are proud to be a part of the Healthy Schools Campaign’s efforts to promote healthy, sustainable learning environments.”

“Our philosophy has been to listen and respond to our school customers with the products, services and educational programs they need to succeed. The Guide represents another way to partner with them to promote safe, healthy, high performing schools,” said Tom Seitz, Environmental Program Manager at JohnsonDiversey.

“We are proud to become one of only three companies designated as Green Team Leaders in the nationwide effort to make our schools healthier,” said Nancy Geisler, Unisource’s Director for the Respect Program. “We will be working together to educate school officials about cleaning methods and products that are less toxic and more environmentally friendly.”

Each school day, some 53 million students and five million staff members attend our nation’s schools, representing some 20 percent of the American population. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), half this population may be exposed to polluted indoor air, lead, asbestos, chemical fumes, pesticides, molds and other toxins, along with overcrowding and poor sanitation.

“There is widespread recognition that the quality of the school environment can have a significant impact on the health and performance of students and staff members,” said Rochelle Davis, founding executive director of the Healthy Schools Campaign. “This is a great opportunity for us to partner with the cleaning industry and the educational community to promote products and practices that can make schools healthy places to learn and work.”

HSC collaborated on the development of the Guide with author Stephen P. Ashkin, president and founder of The Ashkin Group, LLC. Ashkin is a 25-year veteran of the cleaning industry, in which he has held key management positions in leading commercial and household product companies. He has been working on the issue of Green Cleaning since 1990. According to Ashkin, a well-designed Green Cleaning program can help reduce these harmful exposures and yield many other positive benefits for students, custodial staff, administrators and the environment. These benefits include helping students stay healthy and learn, protecting the health of custodial staff, increasing the lifespan of facilities and preserving the environment.

“With several States looking at indoor air quality programs and New York State requiring Green Cleaning in both public and private schools, it is just a matter of time before Green Cleaning becomes the standard and schools will need to have access to the information and products to comply,” says Ashkin.

In addition to the corporate sponsors, eight professional organizations representing the nation’s school administrators, school boards, teachers and parents are participating in the effort by promoting the Guide and distributing it to its member at conferences and trainings. These organizations include American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, Association of School Business Officials International, Chicago Department of Environment, National Parent Teacher Association, National Association of State Boards of Education, National School Plant Management Association, and Parents for Public Schools.

“These organizations are opinion leaders in the education field, and have the power to influence tens of thousands of schools to adopt green cleaning policies and practices and expand the market for green products,” said Davis.

The Chicago Department of the Environment was among the first organizations to sign onto the project as a result of the City of Chicago’s strong commitment to environmental efforts. The Healthy Schools Campaign helped the Chicago Public Schools design and implement a pilot program in ten Chicago public schools as part of a larger effort to explore green cleaning within CPS. As a result of the pilot, last year, CPS adopted a district-wide green cleaning policy and plans to distribute the Guide to every school to help build awareness of the policy.

HSC’s Davis is optimistic that more participating organizations and corporate sponsors will join the effort for the second printing of Guide. “Researching the standards and finding the right products have been among the biggest barriers to green cleaning in the past. The Guide takes the guesswork out of identifying and evaluating which products to use. The more sponsors who list their products in the Guide, the easier it will be for school decision-makers to disseminate the Guide as a tool for change.”