BSCs play a vital role in protecting the health of our indoor environments. As the primary stewards of a building’s cleanliness and safety, custodial workers are on the frontlines when it comes to battling the spread of infections. While in the past infection control was largely relegated to healthcare facilities, the much-publicized threat of illnesses, such as bird flu, swine flu, and MRSA, has caused an increased demand for more stringent cleaning practices.

If someone handed you a product made with soybeans and cinnamon oil, you’d probably think it was some type of new salad dressing or marinade. You’d likely never guess the product is actually a highly effective pesticide for preventing bed bug infestations.

Heightened awareness, consumer demand and changing regulations are motivating product manufacturers, suppliers, brands, retailers, building owners, and facility managers to eliminate hazardous chemicals and other products that pollute the environment from their buildings and supply chains. This is paving the way for more transparency to encourage businesses to use products and processes that increase safety in the built indoor environments.

In the first installment of this series, we discussed how BSCs can easily set up an employee training area. Before reading that article, some of you probably thought you didn’t have room for a training area, but we showed how one can be set up in a location as small as 100 square feet.

As the economy picks up, more facilities, especially privately owned buildings like offices, are expected to begin retrofitting and remodeling their restrooms. With the increased focus on sustainability, many building owners and managers will retrofit their restrooms with toilets and urinals that use far less water—and in some cases, no water at all.

When it comes to providing green cleaning services, there are a lot of areas for BSCs to think about. To be truly sustainable, you need to address nearly every facet of your business, not just one or two. That means looking into ways to green up your chemicals, methods, equipment, and business practices.

When the green cleaning movement first started to take hold in the professional cleaning industry 15 to 20 years ago, the key impetus was to protect human health. It was clear that many of the chemicals, tools, and equipment we used to perform cleaning tasks—while they may be effective—could also have a negative impact on human health and the indoor environment.