Profit As A Function Of Sustainable Operation ucts and the energy needed to support equipment and infrastructure. “Green” products often specify the use of cold water in the cleaning process, hereby avoiding the energy costs needed to heat the water, but it only paints part of the picture. Additional considerations regarding how preferable your practices are include: ■ Are the autoscrubbers, vacuums, buf-fers or other equipment energy efficient? ■ What fuel does your equipment use and is it renewable? ■ Are your machines powered with bat-teries, by electricity or via propane; is there an exhaust and subsequent emissions to consider? ■ Is your equipment properly maintained so that it operates at its most efficient capacity? ■ Do your crews travel from one location to another, and do they need to bring equipment with them? ■ Are there more environmentally prefer-able ways to move your people and your equipment? How you address these questions will affect how the environmentally-focused sustainability principles increase or decrease your profitability. As equipment needs replacement, the use of efficient, lightweight and easy-to-transport tools will save energy and money. The same can be said for considering the use of hybrid vehicles and sourcing recy-clable goods and equipment. All these factors can collectively help provide your business with a marketing advantage over your competition or help solidify your role in an organization. A Training com IAQ Training Institute LLC Sustainability As A Profit Center To show the importance of a sustainable mind frame, be it your perspective or from the eyes of your customers, let’s consider two different scenarios. First, ponder a cleaning team arriving in an old, gas-guzzling van containing a propane-powered burnisher, buckets with stained cotton mops and corrosive chemi-cals with hazardous warnings all over them. Next, picture a hybrid van containing chemicals labeled with an environmental certification, the use of microfiber textiles and a self-contained, cart-mounted clean-ing system made from recyclable materials. In this comparison, the advantages to the planet are clear, and it is not farfetched to assume our second example would have some distinct marketing advantages over the competition. The most sustainable way to build profit is to engage your workforce with sound man-agement principles that take into account environmental considerations as a bridge to profit. In many ways, these are tried and true business principles simply being rebranded as sustainability. To me, however, sustainability specifically suggests that focusing on two of the things that are very important to us all — the environment and the people with whom we share it — can be an effective bridge to every company’s goal: Increased profitability. CM The Voice of the IAQ Industry Circle Product Information no. 251 on page 24 28 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • March 2013
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