Green janitorial services combined with improved cleaning products, sanitizers, and disinfectants, as well as hygienic product recycling, will help promote sustainability and improved hygiene in local communities.
Improving Janitorial Services to Promote Sustainability and Improve Hygiene in Hotels
During the holiday season, hotels will see a significant spike in the volume of guests and foot traffic.
Given the recent, seemingly ongoing, series of viral and bacterial outbreaks throughout California, combined with the increasing need to implement sustainable practices to offset business risk, it is time to look at how your organization's janitorial services can promote both sustainability and improved hygiene.
Two emerging methods for aligning your hotel's processes of sustainability and hygiene promotion are zero-waste initiatives that include the redistribution of unused guest soap and shampoo, as well as the onsite creation of cleaning products.
Sustainability and Community Hygiene Promotion
Poor hygiene can potentially negatively impact the health of a large group of people, especially in crowded cities where homeless populations, many of whom have no access to soap and clean water, are much higher than rural areas.
Germs and bacteria are passed from the individuals to high-touch surfaces and transferred to unwary travelers who come into contact with these surfaces.
Unless the travelers maintain an obsessive level of personal hand-hygiene, there is a real possibility that the germs they encountered can be spread throughout your facility and its occupants within a few hours.
Depending on the type and level of contamination, this type of incidental contact can lead to outbreaks that negatively impact your organization's profits and reputation.
As it turns out, hotels may possess the key to their own salvation, which aligns with sustainability and recycling initiatives--unused soap and shampoo recycling, which according to CleanLink, can divert millions of tons of unused soap to the homeless, and divert hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from landfills.
Working with Florida-based nonprofit Clean the World, the program has diverted 55,000 pounds of plastic from landfills.
In the first year, 121,000 pounds of soap were collected and reformed into 650,000 soap bars — each of which will reportedly wash 180 hands.
Clean the World is a very active organization. They also recently partnered with Las Vegas Strip resort properties to build 35,000 hygiene kits using reclaimed amenities.
According to Fox 5 KVVU, The Venetian, The Palazzo and Sands Expo & Convention Center all contributed to the assembly of hygiene kits that will be distributed to eight organizations that deal with homelessness in Southern Nevada.
Since partnering with the Las Vegas resorts in 2011, Clean the World has recycled 240 tons of waste from the properties into more than 2.1 million bars of soap – material that otherwise would have gone to landfills, according to a release from the organization.
Hotels Promote Hygiene While Improving Sustainable Initiatives
Onsite Cleaning Product Generation
Bolstered by recent 'right to know' legislation passed in California, consumers have, or will become, increasingly aware of the toxic chemicals found in commonly used cleaning products.
See Also:
Combined with the need to reduce raw material consumption and waste, many organizations are switching from conventional purchasing and shipping models to the onsite generation of better performing, more cost-effective, and safer products.
This process has several advantages over older models, including:
- A significant decrease in routine product purchasing, by cost and volume, as well as costs associated with transportation, storage, and safety training.
- The elimination of toxic chemicals.
- A reduction in waste and the various costs associated with disposal and recycling, and;
- An improvement in occupant health and worker performance, lending towards improved profitability.
For More Information:
References and Resources
Takeaway
By combining hygiene product recycling with onsite cleaning product generation, your hotel or resort can significantly reduce it's environmental footprint and operational costs while improving the overall health of your local communities and establishing your organization as a leader in sustainable business practices--ultimately leading to higher profits.
These processes can and should be coordinated with your custodial provider to ensure simplified compliance.
If you would like to learn more about how outsourced janitorial services can help improve sustainability in your hotel and hygiene in your communities, 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
