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What is the effect of the Green Cleaning movement on the janitorial industry? The facts are clean that the cleaning and janitorial world is in transition, and it will be forever changed to what will come to be known as the Green Janitorial era. How people transition to this new status will differ, and there will be those who try to ignore it until the Green practice is literally forced on them by mandate.

The increased demand for Green Offices, Green Schools, and Green Buildings will continue to drive this concept. Governor Christ of Florida has passed rules that denied state business from any hotel that did not qualify as a Green facility. The impact was felt immediately as all Florida hotels implemented Green practices with haste. Similar rules are coming to other states.

The Green School Act is yet another illustration of the power of the Green movement on business. New York and Illinois have already passed the Green School Act, and other states are sure to follow. In the state of New York, letters are going out telling all building owners that they have a limited time to get ready for new Green mandates in the city. We find that cities and states are anxious to pass rules and mandates requiring businesses to conform to Green standards.

Both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush signed executive orders requiring all government agencies to buy Green products and implement Green practices. EPA and OHSA are promoting Green issues nationwide. You only have to take a look at most city programs to see that they are already talking about Green business to see that it is only a matter of time until every business will be Green too. It is easy to see why knowledgeable people are already predicting that the Green program will take over every business sector in the next two to three years.

This new economy will bring what I call Green Pretenders who will take only token efforts to be Green but will declare that they are the real Green janitorial service. You see, Green does not come in a bottle but in the service that uses the Green product. When all janitorial services have a few Green products and some HEPA vacuums, we will see what I also call the “Green Equalization.” This means that there will be plenty of look-alike Green firms, but not of them are qualified professionally.

The great separator of pretenders from Green janitorial services is their training and certification. This seems the only way to validate the level of knowledge and the commitment to reputable Green services. Green Clean Institute is now the largest training and certification program in America and Canada. Rather than self-appointment as a Green janitorial firm, it is important that an independent third party organization establishes a standard and required training for true certification. When a company who does the service also sets their own standard for performance, we are all left with arbitrary and conflicting ideas of what to expect.

You may have heard of Green Seal, but Green Clean Institute is the largest training and certification program of janitorial services in America. They graduated over 500 in the first three quarters of 2008, and they are highly recommended by those who have earned the Green Clean Institute certification. If your company is planning to “Go Green” you will want to look into the GCIC Green Building program and whether your cleaning service is Green Clean Institute certified.

It is important to remember that Green is not a synonym for environmentalism. Green is most correctly understood as the healthy status of a building and the concern for the health of the people who work or living in that building. There is confusion from programs like LEED that Green Buildings must have Green roofs, energy and water conservation programs, and access to public transportation. This is a nice addition, but these items are not truly about Green buildings. A Green Building according to the Green Clean Institute deals primarily with the indoor air quality and the issues affecting the health of the people in that building.

Like it or not, this is a world in serious transition from the standard practices of the past to the new and intelligent practices of a better today. People worldwide have chosen not to defer the duties of clean and healthy world to their children. Things change, and this is a change that is good for all of us. It leaves only a question of whether people will wait for the government to force them to Go Green, or whether they will step up to the challenge voluntarily.

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