CM/Spotlight: Sustainability Yeah, But… Surely, there is universal agreement that facility cleanliness is something the public expects and should be provided with. More vigilant cleaning regimens — which will inevitably include green cleaning principles — will make all facilities healthi-er, while, in the case of educational facili-ties, ancillary studies have shown that cleaner schools can lead to higher student achievement. Too often, though, improved cleanliness goals come to cross purposes with clean-ing budgets that have been slashed in an attempt to prop up the bottom line. Recently, the first-ever Integrated Cleaning and Measurement (ICM) Symposium was convened by the International Executive Housekeepers Association (IEHA) to assess the current state of facility cleaning. ICM is an open-source, unified-systems approach to institutional and industrial cleaning, with a primary purpose of creating a unification of elements and a holistic view of building environments and to use meas-urement as a means to assess progress and track the benefits of synergies. An underlying theme of the ICM Symposium was that some traditional cleaning methods are sometimes no longer sufficient to ensure facility cleanliness. This means that the epoch of hands-on, mop-and-bucket restroom cleaning — a labor-intensive exercise performed with a brush, mop and spray bottle full of cleaning chemicals by an oftentimes less-than-moti-vated custodial staff — is currently being challenged by new technologies. The first of the new alternatives to hands-on cleaning is automated touchless cleaning. First-generation automated systems are typically high-volume/high-pressure mobile spray-and-vac cleaning machines that require access to an electrical outlet. Spray-and-squeegee Technology Benefits A newer generation in automated touchless cleaning machines is categorized as spray-and-squeegee. The design and operation of these new touchless cleaning systems makes them perfect for the daily cleaning of small-to medium-sized restrooms. Whereas earlier generations of touch-free cleaning units consume water and chemicals at a rate of approximately one gallon per minute (GPM) and dispense liq-uids at a range of pressures sometimes as high as 500 pounds per square inch (PSI), spray-and-squeegee units use only one half-gallon of cleaning solution per minute, which is dispensed at less than 100 PSI. This allows the cleaning chemical, rather than high pressure, to achieve the desired results. The large amount of water needed for some touchless systems also requires the Circle Product Information no. 201 on page 32 30 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • June 2009
CMM – Archives Jun 2009: 30
