What is Green Cleaning?
Green Cleaning is a new approach to janitorial services that offers better environmental
performance and improved worker health and safety, while retaining the same sanitation
quality as traditional, more chemical-intensive methods. When correctly employed, no
"cleaning power" is sacrificed through green cleaning practices.
Why Green Cleaning?
Many cleaning products contain harmful chemicals that can have serious
adverse effects on janitorial staff, building occupants, and the environment. Personnel
handling cleaning products used to clean floors, carpets, plumbing fixtures,
and other building elements can be at risk for a number of adverse health effects.
Janitorial products can cause harm to the environment during their use, if they are
poured down drains, circulated through building ventilation systems, or disposed of
outdoors. Environmental damage can also occur during the development, manufacture, and
transport of these products. Possible environmental consequences of janitorial product
use include:
- Air pollution
- Bioaccumulation of toxic substances in plants and animals
- Endocrine disruption in wildlife, which reduces the ability to reproduce
- Ozone depletion
- Water pollution
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Utilized correctly, green cleaning can help to reduce many of these health and
environmental hazards.
How the Calculator Works View Example
Users must input the following information about the building and current cleaning
practices to use the Green Cleaning Calculator:
- Estimate of carpeted area of the building.
- Estimate of hard floor area.
- Types and annual amounts of cleaning products currently used to clean the building
(by weight in pounds).
- Current cleaning product handling and mixing practices.
- Changes to janitorial product use and cleaning practices that have been made or
could be made.
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Default values will automatically appear; You should enter
your actual values for each product that you use. The default amounts are
typical for a building of 100,000 square feet. This default was chosen because
it can be easily extrapolated upward to the range of office space typically
occupied by federal agencies. The tool may underestimate chemical amounts for
buildings that are much smaller than 100,000 square feet in size.
The Calculator analyzes this data and provides the user with summaries of:
- How much total cleaning product consumption will decrease by adopting green
cleaning practices.
- How much hazardous materials consumption will decrease by adopting green cleaning
practices.
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The estimated amounts of cleaning chemicals used and the environmental benefits predicted
by the calculator are representative of typical office buildings. You can improve the accuracy
of these estimates by entering your site's specific information into the calculator rather than using
the built-in default amounts.
Special Considerations
- During the transition to green cleaning products and practices,
workers might initially use more "green" product than they should.
- During the transitional period, residues from cleaning products may
create problems. It may take a while before the new, environmentally preferable cleaners
work well. This delayed effect is particularly seen in glass cleaners.
- It is important to train cleaning crews to use
green cleaning products in an appropriate manner. An effective training program
will minimize the need for monitoring, and will improve environmental
performance and ensure worker health and safety.
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Green Seal is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates and certifies
green products. Formulation data from Green Seal-certified products were used in developing
some of the algorithms for this calculator. Other well-recognized green product certification
programs, such as the Canadian EcoLogo and the US EPA Design for the Environment (DfE)
Formulator Program, have also developed criteria for cleaning products. Formulation data
from EcoLogo and DfE products have not been compared to Green Seal products to determine
if they might produce different results with this calculator.
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For More Information
EPP
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promotes the use of environmentally preferable
cleaning products through its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing “Green Cleaning”
Web site. This site provides information for purchasers and links to green cleaning resources.
EPA—DfE
EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) is a partnership program working with industry
sectors to minimize environmental and human health risks and to improve performance
of existing and alternative products, processes, and practices. The DfE Formulator Program
encourages and assists formulators in designing products with more positive environmental and
health profiles than conventional products. The DfE Formulator Program sponsors
the Green Formulation Initiative for Cleaning Products (GFI)
which is trying to reach a wider audience with information on safer ingredients
for cleaning products.
Green Seal
Green Seal (GS) is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates and certifies
green products. Relevant Green Seal cleaning product standards are GS-37 for
Industrial and Institutional Cleaners and GS-40 for s Industrial and Institutional
Floor-Care Products.
EcoLogo
EcoLogo is a widely recognized and respected environmental label granted by Canada’s
Environmental Choice program.
The program certifies several categories of cleaning and janitorial products.
GSA
This site provides information on purchasing green cleaning products through the U.S. General Services Administration’s supply system.
Center for New American Dream
This site offers a variety of resources for cleaners and purchasers, including a list of environmentally preferable cleaning products and
information on the importance of using green cleaning products.
WRPPN
This site for the Western Regional Pollution Prevention Network provides a wealth of information regarding the
dangers and health risks of commonly used janitorial products.
Cleaner Solutions Database
Testing performed at the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) Laboratory has produced a wealth
of data on the performances of industrial and institutional cleaning products.
This database can be searched to locate alternative cleaning products based on specific needs.
For information about EPA's green janitorial activities, please contact
Jim Darr at darr.james@epa.gov or 202-564-8841.
Acknowledgements
EPA wishes to thank Eastern Research Group (ERG) and Thomas Barron for their support to create this calculator.