Healthy High Performance Cleaning (HHPC) has been developed by Diversey Inc (now part of Sealed Air) to minimize the adverse impact on buildings and to create a safe and healthy work environment for employees, visitors and tenants. Abhay Desai, Regional Sales Director, FM for Asia, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, talks about the need to implement the HHPC program in all the sectors.
Being Green…
The understanding of “Green” or “Sustainable cleaning” within the cleaning industry is very limited. The most common interpretation of green is the use of Green certified chemicals. If the facility company uses third party certified chemicals (Eco label, Green Seal) etc, then they more often claim to be a green cleaning company. However using a certified product is only a part of being Green or sustainable cleaning. The problem the facility companies face today is that their customers also do not understand or clearly state what they need. Very often it’s the end customer who mandates the use of certified chemicals because of a certification requirement as in the case of LEED ratings or any equivalent.
The fact is that when we talk about sustainability of an organization we are talking about the balance of the triple bottom line i.e. the three P’s on which all sustainability missions are based: People, Planet and Profit.
Profit: This is the base for every organization; except for an NGO, every organization will always have profit as its end objective and sustainable economic growth is the goal it wishes to achieve.
Planet: It is essential for the organization to ensure that the impact of its operations create minimum dissonance to the environment.
People: It is necessary for the organization to provide evidence that they provide for the greater good of the people both within the company and the community and world at large.
So when someone talks about the cleaning industry and uses the term sustainability, it’s important to understand how the three factors mentioned above apply to this industry.
People: The Facility Management industry today employs a large workforce. Almost all contracts in this region are headcount based and hence the safety and risk protection at work is essential.
Planet: The cleaning companies use various chemicals for cleaning which sometimes have ingredients that are harmful for the environment. These ingredients even though diluted by water ends in sewers which contaminates the water and damages the marine or aquatic life.
The other aspect is water. All Cleaning machines use water, be it simple double bucket system or a sophisticated Auto scrubber. Water is an essential part of cleaning and being a scarce resource, it is very essential for cleaning companies to ensure that they minimize the use and wastage of water. The use of machines means the consumption of energy which is also a key factor to be considered.
Profit: By reducing water and chemical consumption and by using best practices to reduce cost, we improve the labor productivity and the overall cost of operation goes down. This has a direct impact on the profit or margins of the company. At end of the day, green has to make business sense; and it cannot be just a certificate on the wall. If it does not generate profits, no one will implement green.
HHPC – The HHPC program starts with environmentally preferable chemicals then offers proven cleaning strategies, procedures and purchasing guidelines for consumables, tools and cleaning Equipment. With a HHPC program you get
1) A clear perspective on the need for green cleaning and green cleaning concepts.
2) Cleaning strategies procedures and guidelines backed by the most up to date training support tools.
3) Environmentally preferable janitorial guidelines for chemicals, paper tools and cleaning equipment.
Thus the HHPC program covers all the three “P”s with a clear emphasis on people through training, support tools, cleaning guidelines for all equipment and chemicals. It also lays out the framework to improve productivity which reduces the cost and impacts the profit for the organization.
What about hotels and hospitals?
The HHPC program can be applied to any sector be it a Hospital or a Hotel. The process and road to implementation remains the same. The hospitals follow a different procedure for cleaning. The critical cleaning points of the areas to be cleaned have to be paid special attention like disinfection in patients’ rooms, cleaning in washrooms and quick drying of public places and surfaces. Using a pre-wet micro fiber system with a trolley that contains color coded cloths to clean various areas and the collection of the soiled cloths to be washed separately to avoid cross contamination is a method that is green in all aspects. This method ensures reduction in chemical and water consumption, reduces the risk of cross contamination, makes cleaning an easy task and easy to learn. Cleaning methods like these are green; where we are reducing consumption of chemicals, power, water, energy and reducing emissions by reducing whatever is being dumped in the sewer. We can implement similar programs in Hotels, retail malls too and one good example of the same is the Dubai Marina Mall where we have the HHPC program implemented in total.
You have a successful HHPC programme in Dubai Marina Mall…
In Dubai marina Mall, we have implemented the Healthy High Power Performance Cleaning that uses certified green chemicals & equipment and implements a whole process that is certified by green guard. The Dubai Marina mall has secured a 100% score in an audit to measure the effect of cleaning on indoor air quality undertaken by the Green Guard Environmental Institute (GEI).
HHPC takes traditional cleaning beyond appearances with procedures, chemicals, tools and equipment designed to make buildings safer, healthier and cleaner than before. The programme combines certified cleaning products and microfibre with clear procedures to form the first cleaning programme certified for indoor quality. There is no room for error, all the procedures in 14 key areas covering dust moping and carpet care to pest management and spills must be met comprehensively. Indoor air quality is one of the most important environmental issues, particularly with the rising of pulmonary and respiratory disease and other allergies caused by airborne bacteria. Besides the health issues, cleaning products and procedures also impact the financial bottom line.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has already established a clear relationship between poor indoor air quality and improper cleaning to reduced employee productivity. A series of practical training sessions is offered to the staff, such as how to minimize misting of chemicals in spray applications and how to use dilution control systems to maintain the very highest standards of hygiene.
