Outsourcing your organization's janitorial services to a certified green cleaning and facilities maintenance provider is the smarter way to run your school or business.
Outsourced Janitorial Services for Smarter Schools and Businesses
The cost-benefit analysis of modern janitorial services for schools and businesses has shown that modern scientific improvements to cleaning products, tools, and practices can increase profits well over the expense of the initial investment.
Adding sustainable practices, combined with renewable energy sources and product purchasing, has been shown to significantly increase an organization's return on investment.
According to a 2012 publication by Environmental Leader;
The US Building Council estimates that companies with “green buildings” can save $58 billion of sick time per year.
And when employees are in the office, they are more productive.
A separate study from the US Building Council estimates that “green buildings” report $180 billion in increased worker productivity annually.
PNC found that one of its LEED certified buildings boasted employee retention and satisfaction rates that were 50 percent higher than its traditional facilities.
A Breakdown of the Breakdown of Conventional Business and Cleaning Methods
The average person spends approximately 90% of their time indoors.
Indoor air pollution levels have been measured to as high as five times the level outside.
Conventional cleaning practices typically lather every surface in a building, top to bottom, in toxic chemicals.
Due to misguided energy conservation practices, windows have been sealed or eliminated, and indoor airflow has been reduced to dangerous levels, and often absent sufficient filtration.
Building occupants compound the issue through poor hand hygiene and social behavior, such as leaving messes in dining areas for someone else to clean up, or coming into work ill, even though paid sick leave is available.
All of this adds up to the following:
- The air indoors is likely toxic, and access to fresh air usually requires the building occupant to go outside.
- We add additional toxins to the indoor environment through conventional cleaning products and general office practices.
- People don't wash their hands well enough, correctly or, disturbingly, sometimes at all, leading to the spread of a laundry list of illness-causing, and occasionally deadly, bacteria and viruses.
- Cleaning equipment is often mismanaged and operates at a reduced level, or worse, contributes to the spread of microbes throughout a building.
- Dust accumulates through poor cleaning practices, combined with outdated equipment, which affects the performance of other business equipment, especially computers, leading to a need to prematurely replace expensive hardware.
- The stress level for building occupants increases substantially, further contributing to illness.
- All of these factors result in chronically ill building occupants who are, either absent from work consistently, or are present, but operate at a reduced capacity, resulting in reduced output, lower performance, and decreased profit margins, as well as a considerable volume of waste to dispose of or handle, further negatively impacting the environment, personal health, and the cost of doing business as a whole.
Green Investment Returns
Moving your organization towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices has several financial advantages.
- Increased productivity and retention.
- Decreased absenteeism and presenteeism.
- Reduced equipment life cycle costs, and;
- Improved brand recognition.
All of these things lead to the desired result of higher profit margins and consistent growth.
Wellness, Retention, and Performance in a Healthier Environment
Exposure to toxic cleaning products extends well beyond the custodial staff and represents a significant portion of the lifetime cleaning budget of any organization.
According to CleanLink;
Beyond the cleaning department, the benefits of green cleaning will impact every building occupant.
The most obvious are often health and safety, both of which will impact a facilities bottom line.
Workers compensation represents 4 to 6 percent of the cleaning operations budget.
Conversely;
Using cleaning products that have little to no impact on indoor air quality has also shown to improve the health and productivity of both building occupants and cleaners.
According to industry reports, creating a healthy atmosphere to work in could increase worker productivity by as much as $180 billion.
Companies could even save as much as $58 billion in reduced sick-time costs.
Product Lifecycle Managment for a Greener Bank Account
In the past, we have discussed product lifecycle management ROI regarding microfiber vs. cotton or cloth towels, rags, mops, and brooms, as well as reducing storage for concentrated green cleaning products and chemical management systems vs. conventional cleaning products and the 'glug-glug' method.
For More Information:
- Green Cleaning Services and Cost-Effective Cleaning Chemical Use
- Green Cleaning Services - Microfiber
However, it has become increasingly relevant to note the lifecycle management of electronic, especially computing, equipment and the damage and decreased productivity that can result from an excessively dusty environment.
According to a report published by Computer Dust Solutions;
The normal office or home has a mixture of fine dust particles of 2.5 microns in size, and course dust particles larger than 10 microns in size. The total dust concentration, measured in micrograms (a millionth of a gram) in a cubic meter of air is normally under .05 mg/m3 .
For comparison purposes, the EPA and OSHA have guidelines for the concentration of certain types of dust particles, such as carbon dust in coal mines, or asbestos dust for commercial buildings. In a factory, machine shop, or woodshop, the density of dust in the air can often be 1000 times the density of dust in an office environment.
This suggests that a significant amount of dust can accumulate within a PC in a very short amount of time causing the useful life of the PC to drop dramatically.
Effects of Dust on Computer Electronics, and Mitigating Approaches
Adding humidity to the equation will speed along systems failures, and manifest as challenging to diagnose, and expensive to repair technical issues, which extend beyond user computers to phone systems.
According to Asset Recovery Technologies;
Dust absorbs moisture even if the equipment is not directly impacted by the water.
Without this dust, the moisture would not adhere as readily to the surfaces of the electronics….Left unmitigated, the circuit cards will begin to corrode and may produce intermittent failures.
These failures can be very hard to diagnose and may result in lost data, computer failure and network problems.
In equipment such as a phone system, the result may be static sound and noise when listening to a call, lost voicemail and so forth.
The Dust Story: Why are electronics vulnerable to moisture & high humidity?
References & Resources
Takeaway
In today's competitive learning and business markets, organizations have to make smarter decisions about where their funds are allocated to.
Cleaning and facilities maintenance, though often unseen and unheard, can have enormous impacts on student and worker health, happiness, performance, and output.
If you would like to learn more about the advantages of janitorial services and certified green cleaning and facilities maintenance practices to make smarter decisions for your school or business, contact us today for a free quote!
In Bakersfield CA, call (661) 437-3253
In Fresno CA, call (559) 206-1059
In Valencia CA, or Santa Clarita CA, call (661) 437-3253
