industry news CIMS-GB Now Included In LEED: EBOM The ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard-Green Building (CIMS-GB) is now a direct option to meet the green cleaning policy prerequisite of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) revised Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) rating sys-tem, according to a press release. “The inclusion of CIMS-GB in the newest version of LEED: EBOM [v4] is clear recog-nition that ISSA’s program has earned the respect of the building operations, facility management and sustainability industries,” ISSA Director of Facility Service Programs Dan Wagner said in the release. In this new version, using a CIMS-GB certified cleaning service provider is speci-fied as one way a facility can demonstrate compliance with the Indoor Environmental Quality Prerequisite for green cleaning. According to the release, to take advan-tage of the CIMS-GB option, a facility will have to be cleaned by a certified organization and audited by an approved assessor within the past 12 months. which aims to keep doctors in touch with cutting-edge academic research, showed that of 989 smartphones tested, between 42 percent and 95 percent were found to be infected with nosocomial or healthcare-related bacteria. Even more worrying was the finding that in five of the eight studies, smartphones were found to be carrying antibiotic-resistant bac-teria, such as the hospital “superbug” MRSA. ISSA/INTERCLEAN 2013 Wrap-up Exhibitors and attendees alike commented during ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2013 that it was “the best we’ve had in years,” according to a press release. The event, co-produced by ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, and its trade show partner Amsterdam RAI, took place in Las Vegas, November 18-21, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “This year has been one of our best ever. Engagement with our customers has been fantastic. ISSA/INTERCLEAN truly is one of our highlight events of the year,” John Drengler, SCA Americas’ vice president of product and marketing for AfH Professional Hygiene–North America, said in the release. Not only did ISSA/INTERCLEAN attract the most registrants in nearly a decade, it also set a record for the most new exhibitors, with 143 out of the 690 participating for the first time, the release noted. “We participated in ISSA/INTERCLEAN as a way to help us expand into the JanSan market, looking for distribution. Not only were we pleasantly surprised by the number of quality distributors we met, but we also had better results than we typically get at the traditional safety shows where we usually participate. We’re expanding our booth at ISSA/INTERCLEAN next year as a result,” Frances Breazele, who is in sales with Malt Industries Inc., said in the release. Study: Doctors’ Smartphones A Source Of Infection Medical researchers have identified doctors’ smartphones as a new source of potentially fatal hospital infections, including MRSA, and as a source for which there are cur-rently no disease control protocols in place, according to the Irish Times . A team from the VU (Free University) Medical Centre in Amsterdam carried out studies in eight separate Dutch hospitals and found that while 80 percent of doctors carried smartphones, 57 percent also used them while treating patients. According to the article, the findings, published in the journal Medisch Contact , Ten exhibitors earned Best Customer Service Awards from ISSA during the trade-show as well. Award winners were voted by their custom-ers as providing the best customer service among the nearly 700 exhibitors, according to a press release. Distributors, building service contrac-tors and in-house service providers who attended ISSA/INTERCLEAN used the show’s mobile app to cast their vote for the ISSA Best Customer Service Awards based on which companies’ staffs best met their needs, answered questions, offered solu-tions or provided outstanding interaction. According to the release, the 2013 winners include: ■ A.A.C. Forearm Forklift Inc. ■ ABC Compounding ■ ABCO Products Corporation ■ Advance ■ A&H Wholesales ■ Expanded Technologies Corporation ■ Georgia-Pacific Professional ■ Sealed Air Corporation ■ Spartan Chemical Company Inc. ■ 3M Building & Commercial Services Division. To find more excerpts from the trade show, visit www.ISSA.com/Recap. Reinventing The Toilet Millions of dollars are being invested into technology in an attempt to reinvent the toilet, according to The Canadian . The money, which is coming from the Gates Foundation, supports the challenge to develop technology capable of dispos-ing of human waste, hygienically, without lavish consumption of water, costly pipeline systems and industrial-scale processing plants. According to the article, the driving force behind this search is the need to save lives. CM For daily industry news, sign up for CM e-News Daily at www.CMMOnline.com/Sign-Up. Please send any news or press releases to Editor Phillip Lawless at [email protected]. 8 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • January 2014
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