Innovative and sustainable cleaning Promising possibilities

Facility management and cleaning service providers are constantly facing new challenges and evolving to meet new demands. After the Employee Secondment Act and the minimum wage debate, the topics now gaining more and more traction are innovation and sustainability.Are we talking about environmentally sound building cleaning, now most commonly referred to as Green Care, when innovative cleaning systems are used, or fewer washing and cleaning agents that are potentially harmful to the environment, or when cleaning agent dosages are optimized to the limit, or when cleaning textiles made of microfibers are used? Each of these four approaches addresses a facet of ecologically minded cleaning, of course. But individual measures taken by themselves are not sufficient. What it takes is an all-embracing approachIt takes a holistic view and an all-embracing effort on the part of every person and department involved, and the will to achieve sustainability in all internal processes. And this requires guidance and monitoring in-house sustainability committee or board. What, in fact, is environmentally and economically sustainable contract cleaning? And is it even achievable? Sodium bicarbonate, potash lye, phosphoric acid, phosphate detergents, in short your everyday cleaning chemicals – they are scarcely suitable for linking ecology and Green Care to the commercial cleaning sector. Cleaning consumes huge amounts of water, and every day cleaning crews around the world wield an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 vacuum cleaners that consume vast amounts of electricity (which by the way is rarely generated from renewable sources). Every year, contract cleaning companies use millions of waste bags and dust bin liners made from petroleum products. And rarely are these bags made from recycled plastic – for the simple reason that we want our bags to be transparent or have a uniform color. What’s all the fuss about Green Care?In other words: What does the Green Care initiative do for the industry? Contract cleaners advertise with innovative, sustainable, and ecological concepts. Manufacturers of chemicals advertise with gentle cleaning and care agents that do not impact the environment. Equipment manufacturers with savings in water, chemicals and electricity of up to 60%. The manufacturers of cleaning equipment promise greater ergonomics along with higher performance and lower costs. And, of course, our customers expect all these benefits free of charge. A contradiction in itself because environmentally friendly cleaning agents, energy-efficient machines and ergonomic cleaning equipment come considerable costs. Nevertheless, these things may not dramatically improve the environment at a sustainable level, but at least they show a neutral ecological balance. Ecological cleaning requires innovationNew cleaning concepts and techniques are key aspects of ecological or economical – and hence innovative and sustainable – commercial cleaning. Using cleaning and care agents with a lower impact on the environment but also retaining and motivating skilled personnel. These are all stepping-stones in the right direction. Ecologically and economically viable commercial cleaning must be innovative, fair and forward-looking. Innovation is the ability to come up with a new idea and turn it into a useful reality. In our business it means coming up with new cleaning equipment and machines that reorganize the process of providing cleaning services with a higher cost effectiveness, that add value with a lower impact on the environment, and that improve work ergonomics. Sustainability is a way of using resources that focuses on preserving the essential properties, the stability, and the natural regenerative ability of the affected system. The goal of sustainability is to minimize the need for available resources and for cleaning and care agents harmful to the environment. In this context, the term ‘ecology’ – from the Greek for ‘study of the home’ – refers to managing the resources we are entrusted with. Intelligently. Responsibly. Inextricably linked to the concept of ecology are innovation and sustainability. In other words: the deliberate and targeted use of all kinds of resources with a commitment to protecting our environment. For contract cleaning companies, this means minimizing the use of resources while delivering better quality. The term ‘economy’ also has Greek roots and essentially means ‘household management.’ Commercial cleaning is economical when it doesn’t consume more resources than absolutely necessary. In practice, this means that the resources are scarce, and so they must be managed well. It could be said that economical commercial cleaning is a highly efficient undertaking that produces maximum output with minimum input. Example: the double mop methodSome classic examples of successful innovations are the double mop method and the pre-treated mop system that have now become industry standards. These cleaning techniques facilitate new working methods, enable to clean a larger area, and hence add more value per hour of floor cleaning work. Cleaning tasks can be organized with greater ergonomic and economic efficiency, with fewer mop changes and less washing out of the mop textiles, and the distances covered to change mops become considerably shorter. A double mop made with microfiber textiles needs only negligibly more resources for its manufacture than a 40 cm-wide cotton flat mop. A cotton flat mop has a material weight of about 140 grams and a single-dip cleaning capacity of about twelve square meters. A double mop, by contrast, weighs about 200 grams and can clean an area of about 28 square meters. It is therefore two to three times more effective with only 1.4 times the consumed resources. Owing to its greater cleaning capacity, the double mop, when used only to clean floors, must be changed or washed out about fifteen times an hour. A normal mop, on the other hand, 34 times. The higher cleaning capacity therefore results in dramatically more economical work with considerably better ergonomics. Example two: pre-treated mopsPre-treated mops save water and cleaning chemicals, i.e. resources. Here too, the example with the classical flat and a double mop is compelling. Consider a hospital with two wards of 20 rooms to be cleaned. One ward is done with mops that need to be rinsed on the cart, the other with mops that use pre-treated textiles. The former uses the traditional method involving changeovers, which results in a water consumption of roughly 48 liters for the twenty rooms. With the pre-treated textiles, cleaning requires only ten liters for the same number of rooms. Besides lowering the impact on the environment, the second method also saves time because mops don’t have to be rinsed and no distances have to be covered for changeovers. Both the double mop method and the pre-prepared method raise cost effectiveness by 20–30% and reduce the consumption of resources by 80% – a classic example of how innovations are making daily cleaning more economical, more ergonomic, more sustainable, and hence more ecological. In contrast, disposable cleaning textiles have failed to survive on the market owing to lower cleaning quality caused by less effective cleaning mechanisms and dirt pickup. In fact, there is no evidence that disposable products have saved costs for commercial cleaning service providers. Sustainability is evidenced in the use of high concentrates with biodegradable constituents exerting largely neutral effects on the environment. Citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, citrates, orange terpene, and milk proteins are products from biodegradable, naturally renewable raw materials. Citric acid is a waste product excreted by the mold Aspergillus niger at low pH and iron levels. Water is demineralized in filter cartridges filled with epoxy resin. These are classical examples of sustainable cleaning products. Also sustainable are methods that do away with inferior disposable cleaning cloths and mops or cheap wet mopping textiles of low-quality short cotton fibers that must be thrown away after 150 to 200 uses. Clearly sustainable wet mopping textiles consist of microfibers that can be used for three to four times more often and also minimize the quantities of cleaning chemicals used. High quality microfibers pay offBut the upfront cost is higher: A cheap woolen mop that costs 2.50 euros can be used 150 times. A high quality microfiber mop for 8.00 euros can be used 650 times. Accordingly, the cheap mop costs 0.016 cents per use, and the microfiber mop 0.012 cents – albeit with better cleaning results, larger cleaned surfaces along with fewer chemicals, less water, and less time. Better vacuuming with the ‘Energy Saver’ mode?Environmentally responsible, though not really innovative, the ‘Energy Saver’ or ‘Eco’ mode switch installed on vacuum cleaners can actually make a difference. It reduces vacuuming power by 40%, which in most cases is perfectly adequate for many textile floorings. And it reduces electricity consumption by up to 40%, with the added benefit of lowering noise levels, too. In ecological terms, the ‘Eco’ mode saves about 34 cents and 1.3 kilograms of CO2 emissions for each hour of vacuum cleaning. Extrapolated to the 200,000 to 300,000 vacuum cleaners that are used, say one hour a day, in our industry, the ecological contribution of the ‘Eco’ would be considerable compared to conventional vacuum cleaners. Based on this sample calculation alone, the commercial cleaning sector could save 360 metric tons of CO2 emissions and 340,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. Yet, owing to the diverse challenges the commercial cleaning sector is faced with every day, using ‘Energy Saver’ vacuum cleaners amounts to a drop in the ocean. Why motivated personnel is so importantEcologically and economically sustainable commercial cleaning needs motivated and skilled people who take their responsibilities seriously. At all levels. Here, employers must identify and implement the medium and long-term financial and strategic measures that will attract and retain first-class talent. Well-trained and motivated employees think things through, develop their own work processes for greater efficiency and get their work done better and faster – with good machinery, equipment, and cleaning chemicals. In addition, employees who take their responsibilities seriously also incorporate environmental aspects in their daily activities. If we as an industry are to achieve the goal of ecologically and economically viable commercial cleaning, everybody – contract cleaners, manufacturers and customers – must elaborate, coordinate, and implement the medium and long-term concepts that are necessary – and continuously improve upon them. Many innovations like the pre-treated mop, the double mop and glass cleaning with demineralized water, to name only a few, are good approaches and deserve to be pursued. Which innovations and sustainable concepts will ultimately remain for the long haul in the commercial cleaning sector will ultimately depend on cost-effectiveness and customer demands. Ecologically and economically viable commercial cleaning may not be restricted to acquisitions or structural measures. Rather, the priority must be given to aspects like total life cycle costs, the environmental balance sheet, and employee satisfaction (motivation!). Green Care is the only way forwardEcologically and economically viable commercial cleaning uses the resources available to it to achieve the maximum return on investment without draining its own substance and resources. The one resource that commercial cleaning is in crucial need of is and will continue to be people. Accordingly, Green Care reflects not only environmental aspects and sustainability, but also business. Green Care is ultimately the more economical, more responsible, and more social way of providing services and, over the long term, will become synonymous with commercial cleaning. Uwe Büttner | heike.holland@holzmann-medien.de

Innovative and sustainable cleaning Promising possibilities

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