Carlos Albir Jr.: With hard floor care, it’s important to monitor and assess environmental impacts such as waste generation, water usage, and chemical usage.
For instance, preventative maintenance involves frequently dust mopping and wet mopping, which can help minimize airborne particles that worsen indoor air quality and can be hazardous to the health of occupants.
Gaining traction in the marketplace requires green detergents to truly achieve an incredible feat: threading the needle between being effective as their non-green counterparts while eliminating dangerous components.
Another trend in green floor cleaning is the advent of orbital equipment that cleans and maintains hard floors with less or no detergent.
Dry floor preparation with orbital equipment eliminates the use of both water and chemicals by using the mechanical action of the orbital machine and the abrasiveness of the pad to sand away the floor finish.
Albir Jr: In recent years, it has become clear that sustainable floor care programs can be just as effective as traditional hard floor care and can meet newly heightened standards of cleanliness.
Distributors and manufacturers of cleaning solutions also have insights on the current and future best practices for green cleaning, as well as the best, most sustainably manufactured products for the job.
This floor has a factory-applied UV coating that eliminates the need for traditional floor finishes, however, the lack of floor finish means the texture marks are exposed to detergents and soils, allowing them to build up and make the floor look dingy, dull, and dirty.
Albir Jr.: Before implementing green practices, service providers should conduct a self-assessment of their own floor care program.
Are you using virgin plastic brooms and brushes? There are options made from recycled plastic bottles and caps that are more sustainably manufactured.
This will allow you to establish where you are currently to set attainable goals for the implementation of a green cleaning program, while pictures of your cleaning jobs will help you ensure you are maintaining or improving the level of cleanliness.
Also, set realistic goals and remember the old adage, “By the mile it’s a trial, by the inch it’s a cinch.” You do not have to implement an entire green cleaning process overnight.
Companies should also choose products with third-party certifications like Green Seal that verify both sustainability and performance and follow label directions to maximize efficacy and efficiency.
Moving forward, I see businesses and consumers focusing more on the details of how cleaning products were made as well as how they are used.
There is also a growing awareness of greenwashing and decreasing tolerance for it as the environmental crises proceed.
Bodo: When it comes to the equipment used to clean, maintain, and restore flooring there are a few trends emerging.
The second trend is toward equipment that either efficiently meters detergents or eliminates the need for them altogether.
The most sustainable choice is in careful planning and policymaking to ensure that product choices, cleaning frequency, and staff training are appropriate for the specific needs of each space.
She has more than 15 years of experience editing and writing for trade and consumer publications, community newspapers, nonprofit associations, and websites.