CM/Spotlight: Sustainability Image courtesy of Tennant Company Enhancing Sustainability In Hard Floor Care And Cleaning By: Karin Overstreet Karin Overstreet is the director of product manage-ment for Tennant Company. For more information, visit www.TennantCo.com. New options reduce energy consumption and water usage and diminish the need for detergents. F Faced with cleaning requirements that become stricter every day, facility managers are under pres-sure to find effective cleaning solutions that also save money. On top of that, the environmental aspect is play-ing an increasingly important role as well. So, finding a cleaning solution that offers produc-tivity, effectiveness and sustainability benefits seems to be something like the Holy Grail of cleaning. Today, cleaning equipment suppliers offer differ-ent products and technologies that allow cleaning professionals to achieve these goals, ranging from reduced or chemical-free cleaning to cleaning path extension and multi-purpose cleaning machines. ducing the need to transport, store and dispose of conventional cleaning chemicals and packaging. And, because it leaves no chemical residue, floors retain that polished look with simplified on-going floor maintenance. Innovations in chemical-free cleaning include orbital scrubbers with the power and performance to provide greater down pressure to remove acrylic floor finish without the risks of chemical strippers. The rectangular scrub head easily reaches into corners and hard-to-reach areas for even floor fin-ish removal across the entire cleaning path to pro-vide a chemical-free floor finish removal alternative for VCT floors. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Recent developments now offer cleaning solutions that save natural resources by reducing energy consumption and water usage and by diminish-ing the need for detergents, thus also reducing the waste stream. In addition to enhancing sustainability, these technologies also offer many benefits, including reduced costs, improved indoor air quality and en-hanced safety. A new cleaning solution on the market can replace many daily use conventional cleaning chemicals. This multi-surface solution is created on-site us-ing tap water, a small amount of salt and electricity, and can be used in floor scrubbing machines, auto-mated carpet cleaning equipment, spray-and-wipe cleaning, touchless cleaners and more. On-site generated multi-surface cleaning solu-tion can provide environmental advantages by re-Finding Effectiveness Image in high-visibility areas is important of course, but there are certain other aspects that require spe-cific cleaning solutions. In terms of effectiveness, a number of elements play a role in achieving the expected cleanliness on hard to clean floors. Floors without a protective layer or coating are generally harder to clean because their open struc-ture allows dirt and grime to set in. Luckily, cylindrical brushes on scrubbers can deal with this tough task. Sometimes, however, double-scrubbing may be necessary in which the cleaning solution is allowed to work on the dirt before pick up. With industrial floors, cleaning involves deal-ing with industrial dirt as well, such as tough oils and fats. 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: Floor Care . 20 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • August 2013
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