CM/Spotlight: Sustainability A Guide To Navigating Green Certifications Finding the most reputable and respected sustainable products can benefit both cleaners and clients. By: Stephen Lewis I It’s hard to believe, but green products and pro-cesses were once a luxury in the commercial cleaning industry. Sustainable, environmentally-friendly chemicals were once expensive and not easily obtainable — but now, green cleaning is the point of entry. Facility managers have come to expect virtu-ally harmless chemicals, energy efficient machines and sustainable products. They’re challenged to cut resource consumption at every turn, and may be striving to earn govern-ment-backed green certifications for their space. Stephen Lewis serves as tech-nical director for MilliCare, a provider of environmen-tally sound textile and carpet cleaning services for commer-cial facilities. He is responsi-ble for the company’s research and development efforts, provides technical training to its network of more than 80 franchise partners and is the company’s key point of con-tact with the textile and car-pet maintenance community. For more information, visit www.MilliCare.com. for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Sustainability . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select BUYERS’ GUIDE from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Certifications . Using the LEED program and third-party certifications as a guide, you can rest assured you are using the best green products on the market. 18 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • August 2013 Image courtesy of MikhailMishchenko/iStockphoto/Thinkstock
CMM – Archives August 2013: 18
