How Facility Management & Environmental Stewardship are Closely Connected

By: Caitlin Dimalanta  |  April 21, 2022 

The 8th and final part of our series guiding you on the path to creating a cleaner, healthier, greener, and safer building for re-entry and beyond.

Throughout this series, we've explored the various components that make up a sustainable building program. For our concluding section, we will discuss how you can continue to achieve your green goals with ongoing environmental stewardship. 

Be sure to check out the other parts of this blog series to learn more about what it takes to foster a healthy building environment: 

Part 1: How to Develop a Sustainable Building Program 

Part 2: Green Cleaning Tools, Equipment & Technology for Healthier Indoor Environments 

Part 3: Planning an Efficient Waste Diversion & Recycling Program 

Part 4: Put a Greener & Cleaner Foot Forward: Entryway Matting 

Part 5: Reducing Consumption with Smart Purchasing Decisions 

Part 6: Cutting Down Facility Maintenance Costs with Energy Efficiency 

Part 7: The Role of Facility Management in Building Occupant Wellness

Avoid Greenwashing 

There are an overwhelming number of products on the market using misleading buzzwords like “eco-friendly” and “natural.” With professionally-recognized ecolabels and certifications, you can ensure that you are making smarter buying decisions. According to the EPA, "Ecolabels are marks placed on product packaging or in e-catalogs that can help consumers and institutional purchasers quickly and easily identify those products that meet specific environmental performance criteria and are therefore deemed “environmentally preferable.”

Here are great examples of ecolabels to look out for when you are on the looking to purchase for truly green products:

• EPA Safer Choice (formerly known as DfE)  
• UL ECOLOGO  
• Green Seal  
• CRI Seal of Approval  
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)  
• Clean Air Choices Cleaner Certification (CACC)  
• BPI-certified products 

Adapting to Change in the Cleaning Environment 

The past few years have underscored the importance of creating a cleaning strategy that maximizes quality and cost savings while maintaining a healthy environment. With the need for quick and efficient cleaning at an all-time high, the integration of robotics in facility maintenance has become widely popular.  

For example, robotic floor cleaning machines have gained traction because of the high levels of productivity they deliver. Imagine tackling large space cleaning projects with an automated machine that does the work for you. No re-cleaning required, no overuse of cleaning products, no need to oversee every detail, just calibrate your machine and move on to other tasks.  

The Benefit of Green Building Certifications 

Smart purchasing and using energy-efficient equipment in your cleaning routine is a great place to start. To take your buildings’ green standards to the next level consider including green building certifications and goals in your plan. The U.S. Green Building Council created the LEED^® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) green building certification program which helps businesses establish and achieve sustainability goals. LEED^® certified buildings ultimately cost less to run and utilize less energy and water while lowering environmental impact through reduced waste. 

Other notable certifications that can help you develop a building that is greener and healthier include:

• CIMS-GB certification – An available compliance path option for a prerequisite for a project pursuing certification with the LEED v4 O+M Green Building Rating System.
• AASHE STARS® rating – Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.
• WELL certification – Applies the science of how physical and social environments affect human health, well-being and performance.
• Fitwel^® – The world's leading certification system committed to building health for all^®. Generated by expert analysis of 5,600+ academic research studies.

Additionally, WAXIE GPS^® is another great route to take to implement a green cleaning program. WAXIE GPS^® provides training, has LEED^® Accredited Professionals and CIMS-GB ISSA Certification Experts on staff to assist and identifies third-party certifications and guidelines whenever available to substantiate environmentally preferable product claims. 

Obtaining green building certifications communicates to your stakeholders and your community, your commitment to improving the well-being of your building occupants and the environment.  

WAXIE is committed to helping our customers keep their facilities cleaner, healthier, greener, and safer. That means creating customized cleaning solutions to meet your specific needs, and then providing the ongoing training and support to help you achieve a cleaner and healthier building environment with environmental stewardship.  

Please contact your WAXIE Account Consultant today to schedule a consultation.  

Caitlin Dimalanta is WAXIE’s eCommerce Specialist. She enjoys researching and implementing various SEO (search engine optimization) strategies to enhance WAXIE’s eCommerce platform Web@Work. Caitlin has a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from San Diego State University.