Most everyone has heard of green chemicals or green cleaning, but not everyone is familiar with green floor care.  Hard floor care costs, depending on the size and make up of a facility, can account for 20 to 85 percent of the housekeeping department's annual cleaning budget. C onsidering the amount of money involved and the impact that floor care has on the appearance, safety and IAQ of a building, it is one area that should not be overlooked when implementing a comprehensive green cleaning program.

Defining Green Floor Care
Green cleaning, much like green floor care, involves the use of preventative measures, less toxic chemicals and modern equipment along with processes that reduce the need and frequency of more hazardous and time consuming restoration procedures such as stripping and refinishing.

When most people speak of green cleaning they are referring to the use of chemicals that are less toxic to cleaning workers, building occupants and the environment.  Green products usually contain less or no petroleum derived base materials and use safer or less toxic, naturally derived chemicals that come from plant sources such as soy, corn, citrus or other seeds or trees.

In a broader sense, there is much more to green cleaning than the chemicals used to clean a surface or facility.  Other areas that need to be addressed when implementing a green cleaning program include such thing as: energy use and conservation, sustainable purchasing, building and remodeling, waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and prevention, as well as safer maintenance products and services.

When we talk about green cleaning we must not overlook the realities of doing the work, which means giving serious consideration to: cleaning processes, frequencies, procedures and equipment, along with product and process effectiveness, ease of use, life cycle cost analysis, training and return on investment.  Although often overlooked in the rush to go green, all of these issues have an impact on and contribute to creating and maintaining a healthy, comfortable, and productive indoor environment at a cost that is competitive with existing and alternative options.  This is not as difficult as some might think, but it does require a realignment of departmental goals, some research and a little extra thought and effort on everyone's part to make green cleaning a reality and not just a catchy phrase that looks good on paper.

Key Elements of Green Floor Care
Let’s take a closer look at what managers and supervisor can do to develop and implement a successful green floor care program:

Prevention

• The basic concept here is that is you capture and remove soil at its source before it gets spread around the building, this way it’s much easier and less expensive to remove.
• At least 12 ft of entry matting should be place inside and outside of all entries and exits and other areas where soil may accumulate or be generated within a facility. It’s always better to capture than to track soil around the building.
• Focus on the high traffic areas, normally this would be the first 30 to 50 feet within a building. More frequent dust mopping, vacuuming, wet mopping and burnishing in these areas will capture soil at its entry source and prevent it getting tracked or spread throughout the entire complex. This could include sweeping, blowing or vacuuming sidewalk and parking lots on a regular basis.
• Utilize processes that reduce frequencies. Burnishing is a good example as it delays the need for scrubbing, stripping and refinishing.

Scheduling

• Don’t overdo it.  Expend the appropriate amount of effort to obtain the desired results. Sure you could burnish your entire tile floor each day, but that is seldom needed.  Maybe the first fifty feet inside the front entrance needs burnishing daily, maybe once or twice a week.  Do what is needed to maintain the desired cleanliness and appearance levels and no more.
• Establish a written schedule based on pervious experience and actual needs.  Stay flexible, if the work doesn't really need to be done, reschedule it for a few days to a week or two later.  You don’t want to wait to the point that damage takes place, or what are normally maintenance procedures now becomes a restoration project.  The goal is to develop written schedules that are flexible, yet meet the changing needs of micro areas within a building.
• Document what you've done and it won’t be long before you’ll have a good projection tool for scheduling, staffing and costs.
• Schedule floor care procedures for off hours so that occupants will not needlessly be exposed to odors and wet floors.

Training

• It must be ongoing and involve employees, supervisors and customers.  Everyone needs to be in the loop or you’ll have a disconnect.
• People can't do things correctly unless someone defines correctly. Expectations, accountability and communications are what training is all about.
• Focus on need to know technical and managerial information and include as much hands on training as possible. People learn by doing.
• It is your best opportunity to get worker and supervisor support for green products and cleaning, without their buy in, your transition to green cleaning will struggle and ultimately fail.

Safety

• MSDS, PPE, record keeping and safety meetings must be a part of every department's safety program.
• Stress the basics of safe lifting, hazards communication and chemical usage along with proper mixing, storage and disposal.
• Assure that safety protocols include the use of wet floor signs, barricades or tape and avoidance scheduling.

Documentation and validation

• Establish quality assurance guidelines, inspect to verify compliance and correct where necessary.
• Document the process, watch for trends and constantly strive to improve what you do.
• Where possible use quantitative tests to validate compliance.
• Put in place environmentally preferable purchasing program and monitor it constantly for possible update, improvement and enhancements as technology changes.
• Be prepared to have your green cleaning program validated by an independent third-party auditor.

Chemicals

• Reduce the number of chemicals used in your cleaning operation to not more than absolutely necessary, usually three or four products are adequate.
• Use only those products that are certified by recognized organizations (EPA, Green Seal, CRI) as being green or environmentally preferable.
• Whenever possible use neutral pH products for daily cleaning.
• Eliminate the use of finishes that contain heavy metals.
• Eliminate products containing VOCs.  Replace solvent base finishes and sealers for stone and wood with water base products.
• Eliminate bleach unless absolutely necessary.
• Evaluate your purchasing program and procedures to assure that you are using the correct product for each task.
• Focus on cleaning and not killing.  Use disinfectants only in those areas where cross infections are likely to occur.  Unless it's a bathroom, surgery suite, kitchen or visibly soiled with infectious material or body fluids a disinfectant is not needed.
• Use automated dilution systems; eliminate mix it yourself bottles.
• Use concentrates and reduce packaging waste.
• Use a neutral cleaner for daily cleaning tasks.
• Use natural base disinfectants vs. quats and phenols.
• Use dry vapor cleaning as a sanitization process where possible and or practical.
• Assure that cleaning solutions and slurries are properly disposed of in diluted form in sanitary sewers and never dumped on the ground, in parking lots or storm sewers.

Equipment

• Utilize a systems approach to cleaning to ensure a complete process as well as product, chemical and equipment compatibility.
• Where possible and practical use vacuum processes for dry and wet soil removal. Auto scrubbers, wet vacuums and spray and vacuum machines are common examples of these systems.
• Utilize floor machines and burnishers that capture soil with a positive or active vacuum attachment.
• Utilize floor machine that reduce water usage and frequencies. (Cylindrical machines have more pressure than rotary machines)
• Utilize vacuums, scrubbers and extractors that incorporate high efficiency or HEPA filtration systems on their exhaust flow.
• Use floor machines and auto scrubbers that utilize moisture reduction systems and processes (foam) as they reduce labor, water and sewer use.
• Utilize fast fill tanks to reduce fill and dump times.
• Use battery systems and motors that are rated for low energy usage.
• Use equipment that incorporates waste water recycling systems
• Purchase multi-functional equipment that can be used for more than one task, such as scrubbing, burnishing, and extracting.
• Put in place an equipment maintenance program to help reduce or eliminate downtime, excessive wear and costly repairs.
• Provide adequate ventilation in all work areas.
• Schedule work when areas are not occupied and allow for work completion and adequate drying.

Products

• Use brushes.  They last longer than pads for stripping and scrubbing.
• Use micro fiber mops for damp mopping and finish application.
• Use semi-permanent coatings and surfaces that require infrequent or no burnishing, stripping or refinishing (densified concrete and urethane coatings).

Floor Care Trends
Green floor care is definitely one of the trends in building maintenance that we are seeing today.  Companies of all types and sizes are looking for ways to green their floor care program.  In order to stay current with all the changes taking place in the field of floor care, it is necessary to constantly be on the look out for new materials and processes that will improve quality while reducing costs and furthering ones effort to make their program as green as possible.  In most cases it is not that a product doesn’t exist or that something can't be done, but simply that we don’t know where to find what we are looking for.

Resources
Industry Trade shows
ISSA, Oct 23, 2007, Orlando, FL, www.issa.com
BSCAI, April 5th 2007, Chicago, IL, www.bscai.org
Connections, May 3, 2007, Clearwater, FL, www.connection-show.org

Magazines, buyers guides and directories
www.cmmonline.com
www.icsmag.com
www.cleanlink.com

Certification seminars and schools
www.IICRC.org

Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors
www.issa.com