Looking To The New Year According to ISSA, the standard focuses on: ■ The desired levels of cleanliness that can reasonably be achieved; ■ Recommended monitoring and inspec-tion procedures to measure the effec-tiveness of cleaning; ■ How to use the measurement and inspection results to assess and improve cleaning processes and prod-ucts, ultimately resulting in a clean, healthy and safe learning environment. Allen P. Rathey, president of The Healthy Facilities Institute (HFI), feels The ISSA Clean Standard, and the IEHA’s Integrated Clean-ing and Measurement (ICM) program, are two of the most important developments to hit the cleaning marketplace in decades. ICM supports the Clean Standard, which sets specific measurement goals to achieve and outlines an acceptable target range for “clean,” according to Rathey. “The ultimate goal is that we as an indus-try will be able to successfully connect mea-surable contaminant levels with measurable health outcomes and measurable fiscal im-pacts … so that cleaning will be evaluated and purchased based as much on health outcomes and real business impact, as it is now mostly based on whether or not the facility looks and smells clean for the lowest price possible.” Kevin Harris, director of maintenance and operations for Clear Creek ISD in Texas, was one of the Clean Standard committee members. Harris strongly agrees with the standard’s concept of cleaning and inspecting the entire school environment for safety and cleanli-ness, e.g., desks, fixtures, door knobs, air conditioner filters, vacuums, weatherproof-ing, roofing, etc. Even so, the standard’s recommended cleaning and maintenance steps and mea-surement requirements will create funding and labor challenges in the overall K-12 mar-ket, Harris says. For managers or contractors instituting the new standard in 2014, ISSA’s Clean Standard: K-12 website includes a number of informative documents, downloads and a frequently asked questions list. Training In 2014 As more cleaning and maintenance operations continue the shift to a “cleaning for health” ethos, increased manager and employee training has become a necessity. Luckily for facility managers and BSCs, training and educational information is of-fered by a number of active industry groups and resources. Training operations like the Cleaning Man-agement Institute will offer classes across the United States in 2014. And in addition to the ISSA, educational materials are available from a wide array of specialized industry groups and govern-mental entities, including: ■ IEHA ■ The American Cleaning Institute ■ OSHA ■ WHO ■ IICRC. Facility managers, BSCs and other clean-ing professionals agree that the continued need for training is an important issue that the JanSan industry must address in 2014. “As an industry we have failed to invest significantly in the professional develop-ment of people,” Rathey states. “Ultimately, we need standardized sys-tems such as day, specialty and process cleaning for healthy environments, but if we do not learn to develop the inner resources of people — their hearts and minds — we will end up with ‘cleaning factories’ and ro-bot-like workers.” According to Rathey, the future of our industry involves training that helps people implement the Clean Standard and out-come measurement, and supports the work of ISSA and IEHA. Safer Facilities One important subject that employee training can address is worker and occupant safety. According to Matthew Kastel, manager of baseball operations and events for the Maryland Stadium Authority, anything relat-ed to worker or public safety will be a huge concern at his facilities in 2014. “I believe we do a great job making sure all our systems are working safely and ef-ficiently, but when it comes to the safety of FREE INFO: Reader Service 205 or CMMOnline.com/freeinfo 12 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • December 2013
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