Ten Simple Ways To Clean Green

This article from Green America discusses the benefits and ease of cleaning green for your home and workplace. Making your own green cleaners from ten simple ingredients saves you money and is much healthier for you and the environment. 

Green America

There are many benefits to making your own green cleaners. You may already have most of the ingredients in your cupboards. You’ll save money by not buying an array of expensive products, each targeted to clean only one type of surface in your home. And, in most cases, green cleaners work just as well as their commercial counterparts.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to use green cleaners is to keep potent toxins out of your home. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that many household cleaners contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde and harsh acids. Since indoor VOC levels are often two to five times greater than outdoor levels, humans can experience “eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches; loss of coordination; nausea; and damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous systems” from indoor exposure to these chemicals, according to the EPA.

“Some [VOCs] can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans,” the agency says. Most modern chemical cleaners are, quite simply, overkill, notes the nonprofit Children’s Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC). “Atomic energy is not necessary to unclog a drain, nor are the Marines necessary to combat ants,” Jan Williams writes in the CHEC’s book Household Detective. “Most of the time, we can use milder, natural chemicals ... to do the same jobs.”

To view the rest of the article, click here.

Four Reasons Your Building Isn’t Water Efficient

Sky Pro thinks conserving water is important. And that's what they strive to do while washing windows with their water-conscious machines. Buildings agrees and shares the top four ways to conserve water in your facility.

Buildings

While building owners and managers tend to look at the big picture to make their building more efficient and profitable, it’s really the small things that drain their budget. After performing hundreds of water audits, here are the top four culprits I find that make a building water inefficient.

Cooling Towers
Using 30% of your building’s total water consumption, cooling towers are usually located on rooftops and go practically unnoticed unless they completely fail. They rely on water evaporation to regulate temperature, which increases the concentration of minerals in the remaining water. If left undiluted, this will cause scaling on the equipment surfaces that can cause small leaks to occur. These leaks can drain thousands of gallons and go completely undetected – until you get an enormous water bill!

Toilets
Toilets can also account for more than 30% of the water used inside a facility. A valve stuck open in one toilet can waste 200 gallons per hour. Over a weekend, this would cost $157 in Los Angeles, $220 in Tampa, and $360 in Atlanta.

Click here to read the last two points.

Detroit's Drought - Water Shut Offs Cause Community Conflict

Current events update on the water situation in Detroit: While the goal is to have as few shut offs as possible, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department somehow needs to collect the $90 million they are owed from nearly 100,000 customers. 

American City&Country

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced last week it will intensify efforts to collect nearly $90 million it’s owed from an estimated 90,000 customers whose bills have been delinquent for more than 60 days.

Nearly half of the department’s customers are in some level of delinquency on their bills, according to Non Profit Quarterly. Many of these customers are low income, and are facing water rates that have grown 119 percent in the past ten years. The average water bill in Detroit is $75 per month, compared to the national average of $40.

And not only is the DWSD facing a tremendous backlog of missed payments, water theft has also become an issue in the cash-strapped city. Earlier this month the department issued 79 citations totaling nearly $22,000 for illegal water usage over a three-day span, the Detroit Free Press reports.

“It’s another example of money that we’re not getting that’s due to us,” DWSD spokesman Greg Eno told the paper. “Those people should be put on notice... if you’re flat-out stealing, we’re coming after you as well.”

However, activist groups including the Detroit People’s Water Board, Food and Water Watch and the Blue Planet Project are condemning the department’s actions, claiming that denying access to clean water is a human rights violation. The U.N. has even spoken out against the shut offs.

To read the full article, click here.

Tune-Up Your Water Conservation Program in 2014

Water is one of our most valuable resources. It is also one of our most wasted. SkyPro window cleaning system not only conserves water, but uses chemical free water as well. Here are some tips if you are looking to conserve water in other ways.

Buildings.com 

Water is one of our most precious resources. For commercial properties, it is also one of the least managed. In many cases, managing water resources means simply reviewing the monthly water bill against the previous month’s bill. Across the country, water rates are soaring – Atlanta is nearly $30 per thousand gallons – and the lack of a conservation program may be draining thousands of dollars from your budget each month. And you probably don’t realize it is happening.

Here are some tips to conserve water in 2014:

• How can you manage what you don’t measure? Like you do with energy, make conserving water a priority by viewing water bills on a monthly basis and comparing to previous months or even years.
• Check for leaks. On a day when no one is in the building, turn off the water and read the meter. After 15 minutes, read it again. If the meter moved, you may have a leak that’s costing you money.
• Incorporate technology that reads the pulse of the water meter in real-time and sends you alerts 24/7 when consumption surpasses a certain benchmark or when a major leak has occurred. This technology collects data and sends it wirelessly to a website portal where managers and owners can view a property’s water consumption for the entire month, day, or even down to the hour.

To read more tips on how to conserve water, follow this link.

3D Printer Constructs 10 Buildings In One Day From Recycled Materials

What would you say if someone told you that future skyscrapers could be built using a 3D printer and recycled building materials? Well that day is not far off! With the capabilities to build the shell of a 2,000 sq. ft. house in under 20 hours, this new technology could provide a tremendous breakthrough in the future.

Computerworld.com

A Chinese company has become the first to construct multiple buildings using 3D printers that extrude recycled building materials at breakneck speed.

Using four huge 3D printers, Yingchuang New Materials Inc. was able to print the shells of 10 one-room structures in 24 hours and at a cost of only about $5,000 per building. The buildings had to harden at the factory and then be transported and assembled on site.

The 3D printed buildings will be used as offices at a Shanghai industrial park.

The printers, supplied by WinSun Decoration Design Engineering, are 20 feet tall, 33 feet wide and 132 feet long.

Like their desktop counterparts, the construction-grade WinSun 3D printers use a fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology to deposit materials one layer at a time in a process that's similar to squeezing frosting from a pastry bag.

To read the full article and watch a brief video, click here. 

Doctors Overlook Positive Impacts of Healthy Building Design, Construction & Maintenance

Exterior building cleanliness isn't the only type of cleanliness that matters when it comes to measuring overall health. According to this Marketwatch article, green buildings have real, proven health benefits including improved employee productivity, lower health care costs and reduced absenteeism. Learn more about the great link between buildings and people's health.

Flickr.com 

NEW YORK, June 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The critical connection between a healthy building environment and patient health is often missed by the one group of professionals who may matter most - physicians, according to a new SmartMarket report by McGraw Hill Construction , sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and United Technologies. The survey results were announced today at the opening session of the American Institute of Architects 2014 National Convention & Design Exposition in Chicago.

The report, "The Drive Toward Healthier Buildings: The Market Drivers and Impact of Building Design on Occupant Health, Well-Being and Productivity," finds that though 18% of homeowners say that doctors are their primary source for information on healthy home products and decisions, only 53% of pediatricians, 32% of family doctors/general practitioners and 40% of psychiatrists believe that buildings even impact patient health. Only 15% report receiving any information on this connection, but the results also reveal that a key challenge is not just getting information to them but gaining their attention in ways that would alter their perspective, with nearly a quarter (22%) reporting that more information would likely not change what they do today.

The study suggests that getting more information to this group is essential to help create demand for more healthy building design and construction, given the limited understanding that physicians demonstrate of building health impacts. Physician awareness and recommendation of more fundamental healthy building design and construction practices that connect with the health risks of most concern to public health -- lack of exercise, chronic stress, poor diet and obesity -- could help create the market demand needed to drive investment, but only if physicians expand their engagement with these issues.

Today, the only issue the medical practitioners agree is a link between buildings and health is around mold and mildew, but that is only one of a plethora of factors in building decisions that could impact health.

To read the full article, follow this link. 

The Impact of Climate on High-Performance Facades

When constructing a high-performance building, different climate zones require different design strategies. This Buildings article explains the impact that high-performance windows can make because they allow for natural ventilation. 

Buildings.com

When the common man imagines a building, he likely pictures a four-sided brick box. But the energy-minded owner and architect have to think outside that construction.

To maximize the effectiveness of the facade, it is likely that no side of it will look the same. Different climate zones require different design strategies, and those strategies entail taking a unique approach to the building’s orientation. Special treatment should be given to each aspect of the system.

CLIMATE CONSIDERATIONS
The U.S. is divided into eight climate zones, and each can be generally described as either hot, cold, or mixed. From there, classifications splinter into three sub-zones: humid, dry, or mixed. General principles pertain to each categorization, but it’s recommended to consider each city’s specific climate data before taking on a project, says Ajla Aksamija, assistant professor of architecture and design at University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Sustainable Facades: Design Methods for High-Performance Building Envelopes.

“For hot climates, you need to protect the building from sunshine, reduce solar heat gain, provide shading, and orient it so that you’re not maximizing east and west exposure, but instead north and south,” she explains. “Everyone wants to maximize daylight, and that can be challenging while minimizing heat transfer with shading. Skylights and light shelves can be effective.”

In cold climates, some of the same general principles apply. Buildings in cold regions should also minimize east and west exposure while maximizing north and south. But heat transfer is mitigated from the inside to the outside with increased building mass and insulation levels, Aksamija explains.

For mixed climates throughout the Midwest and into some areas of the Northeast and Northwest, it’s best to take a balanced and nuanced approach.

To read more, follow this link. 

Deferred Maintenance: Turning Crisis Into Strategy

When money is tight, it's tempting to reduce the budget by cutting cleaning costs. While it's a smart idea to restructure your budget accordingly, eliminating a cleaning allowance should not be an option. This FacilitiesNet article helps to explain why: 

Courtney Dirks, Flickr.com

Maintenance and engineering managers know all too well that deferred maintenance never went anywhere. In the last five years, many people inside and outside of institutional and commercial facilities were understandably preoccupied with fallout from the nation’s financial crisis.

While all that was occurring, managers were continuing to address the mounting backlog of maintenance needs many facilities have faced for decades. So while the issue of deferred maintenance might seem like it has only recently become a problem again, managers know that it never really stopped.

Deferred maintenance is the practice of postponing maintenance activities, such as repairs on both real property — infrastructure — and personal property — equipment and systems — in order to save money, meet budget funding levels, or realign available budget funds. The failure to perform needed repairs could lead to asset deterioration and ultimately asset impairment. Generally, a policy of continued deferred maintenance results in higher costs, asset failure, and in some cases, health and safety problems. Consider this example:

A neighbor of mine knew the large oak tree in his front yard needed to be removed, but he didn’t have the money to hire a professional, so he let a local kid try his luck. The young man had never cut a tree that large, had no idea how to cut such an imposing object, and in the process of trying nearly had it fall on him. Of course, nature took care of the tree the next week when a storm blew through and laid it across the porch and two cars.

Without an aggressive, proactive approach, deferred maintenance will always win.

To read the full article, follow this link. 

75 Percent of LEED Cleaning Product Purchases Must Be Green

In order to earn the Green Cleaning Products and Materials credit, BSCs must increase the amount of "green" products they purchase and utilize. Using only pure water to clean your exterior windows, Sky Pro is a wise choice for anyone interested in "Green Cleaning."

Wonderlane, Flickr.com

One of the biggest changes in LEED v4 is the amount of products and equipment BSCs must use to earn the Green Cleaning Products and Materials credit. This credit is still worth one point and covers the procurement of chemicals, paper and can liners. However, at least 75 percent of purchases (based on cost) must meet specific environmental standards, compared to LEED 2009 when only 30 percent of purchases had to be considered green.
“This credit is intentionally designed to raise the bar and drive green products into the marketplace,” says Ashkin.

While BSCs have to purchase substantially more environmentally friendly products, LEED v4 actually makes it easier to earn the credit because there are additional certifications available to choose from. For all product categories, LEED v4 allows products approved by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment standard, in addition to the Green Seal and Environmental Choice certifications.

Besides these third-party standards, BSCs can use ionized water or electrolyzed water in place of chemicals, assuming those products have third-party-verified performance data.

Two other newly accepted options include Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for fiber procurement as acceptable green criteria for paper products and California Integrated Waste Management requirements for can liners.

To help find acceptable products that meet the credit...

To read the rest of the article, follow this link.

Determining A Standard For "Clean"

This CleanLink article deals with the big question many people ask - "What is the standard for clean?" While there can be many expectations, Sky Pro's clean window standard will satisfy any customer.

Life would be far simpler if every area could be cleaned the same way to the same standard but that is not the case. One illustration I like to give in my workshops is to ask attendees if the room we are in is “clean.” The following discussion proves the point that each person in the room has their own opinion of whether is it clean enough to meet their expectations.

When I ask if the room is clean enough to delivery a baby, make microchips or work on a truck, the discussion focuses on many different factors including use of the room, health standards, age of building and even how it should be serviced.

Remember that the final judge on “clean enough” is the customer. Unfortunately they can have as many different opinions as the prior mentioned class when it comes to what is clean. A wise BSC will interview the key tenants to determine what are their “hot buttons.” These usually include items such as front door glass, entrance matting, corners and of course rest rooms (both stocking and/or cleanliness). As stated before, a restroom that smells dirty is dirty in the mind of the user regardless of the time spent servicing it. It will do the BSC little good to argue that they cleaned it as per the contract if the results are unsatisfactory in odor or appearance outcome.

Click here to read the entire article.

Positive Customer Experiences Can Trump Price Tags

Cheaper isn's always better. According to this Clean Link article, when customers look back on their experience with a distributor or product, they rarely put price at the top of their list. Instead they focus on how the sales rep was able to help boost the bottom line and provide a positive service. "At the end of the day, that's what distributors should strive for."

Christopher Sessums, Flickr.com

Even when customers present cost comparisons for comparable products, it’s best for distributors to stay firm on price, says Charles Moody, president of Solutex in Sterling, Va.

He says he has steered away from providing steep discounts to customers by proving that competitors don’t always come out on top when comparing apples-to-apples.

For example, Moody points to “nominal gauging” (an indication of varying product weight) and “cheater sheets” of toilet tissue and paper towels, as examples of how competitors mislead customers with lower prices. Moody also shines a light on longer delivery cycles, shipping costs and chemical concentration to help customers see the differences. Then he reiterates his value.

“A lot of times what appears to be less in price is not the case,” says Moody. “I never want them to buy from me because I am the cheapest guy. We want a little bit of the decision to be based upon how well we do our job and service. A lot of distributors sell lower out of fear.”

To read the full article, click here.

Minnesota Bans Anti-Bacterial Chemical from Soaps

While this headline might appear shocking, Minnesota Gov Mark Dayton and others believe this chemical doesn't provide any greater benefits than traditional hand washing with soap and water. According to this Pharmaceutical Processing article, Minnesota is the first of the 50 states to sign this practice into law, but many pharmaceutical companies are trying to slowly phase this chemical out of production as well. 

Peter Taylor, Flickr.com

It's widely used nationwide as a germ-killing ingredient in soaps, deodorants and even toothpaste, but it's being banned in Minnesota.

Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday signed a bill to make Minnesota the first state to prohibit the use of triclosan in most retail consumer hygiene products. The Minnesota House and Senate passed it earlier last week because of health and environmental concerns about the chemical. The ban isn't due to take effect until Jan. 1, 2017, but one of its lead sponsors, state Sen. John Marty, predicted Monday that the odds are good that most manufacturers will phase out triclosan by then anyway.

"While this is an effort to ban triclosan from one of the 50 states, I think it will have a greater impact than that," Marty said.

The Roseville Democrat said other states and the federal government are likely to act, too. And he said come companies are already catching on that there's no marketing advantage to keeping triclosan in its products. He noted that Procter & Gamble's Crest toothpaste is now marketing itself as triclosan-free.

Click here to read the full article.

Automatic Window Cleaning Systems Save Time and Money

This CleanLink article articulates one of the main concerns regarding manual high-rise window cleaning - as the building height grows, so does the risk to human safety. SkyPro's products deliver this safety and security that many companies desire. To learn more about SkyPro's capabilities, visit their website. 

Jeffery Zeldman, Flickr.com

For high-rise structures, safety becomes an even greater concern, which is why some companies are turning to automated window cleaning equipment. These machines are suitable for curtain wall glass and “climb” up and down the surface of the building via remote control, eliminating the need to suspend a worker from a chair or lift.

According to Jon Arreguin, owner and operations manager of C-THRU Window Cleaning LLC in Saint Paul, Minn., there are two types of automated equipment: heavier units (200 to 300 pounds) that require a hoist motor attached to the machine and lightweight units (under 150 pounds) that have a hoist motor located on the roof.

“Because a hoist motor is attached to the first type of unit, you have to comply with the regulations of the support system,” Arreguin says. “If the hoist motor has a working load limit of 1,000 pounds, for example, that could add up to 2,000 pounds of counter weight that you need to carry to the roof.”

To read more on this article, click here. 

LEED-certified Buildings Reach Three Billion Square Feet

According to this CleanLink article, LEED buildings are on the rise and will be an industry worth around $248 billion in 2016. These high-rise buildings are projected to not only help minimize adverse effects of construction, but maximize sustainability and health-related features as well.

istock.com 

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced today that 3 billion square feet of green construction space has earned LEED certification around the globe.

“This milestone is the result of leaders across our industry making the business and environmental case for healthy, sustainable buildings,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “More than 4.3 million people live and work in LEED buildings. As our numbers continue to gain momentum, the impact is significant — jobs are created, revenue is generated and well-being is prioritized — proving every day that LEED works.”

Green construction has grown massively over a short period of time: McGraw-Hill estimates that it will comprise half of U.S. construction and be worth up to $248 billion by 2016. LEED is the most widely recognized and used green building program across the globe, with more than 1.7 million square feet of commercial building space LEED certifying each day in more than 140 countries and territories.

In the U.S. alone, buildings account for 41 percent of energy use, 73 percent of electricity consumption and 38 percent of all CO2 emissions. Globally, buildings use 40 percent of raw materials, or 3 billion tons annually.

To read more on LEED building, click here.

Inventory Management: Avoiding Costly Mistakes

This FacilitiesNet article targets key questions that need to be asked when evaluating the efficiency of your inventory management. Keeping an eye on these seemingly minimal details will save you cost, labor and time in the long run. 

JvL, Flickr.com

Maintenance and engineering departments rely on a readily available supply of spare parts and equipment to carry out their daily duties. The goal of managers is to deliver a reliable supply of these products using a cost-effective inventory management strategy.

Unfortunately, poor inventory management practices and systems end up costing departments and organizations dearly. By examining common mistakes in key areas of inventory management — including storage equipment, the role of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), and storeroom organization and supervision — managers can avoid costly missteps in this challenging process.

Key Questions
An effective inventory-management system ensures both parts availability and low cost. An operational assessment can reduce inventory costs 20 percent. This assessment is a useful tool for identifying the current status versus the optimum situation and developing an improvement plan. An operational assessment can provide answers to these questions:

To read the full article, click here. 

Contractors' Role In Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! Sky Pro practices green cleaning because we know it can help both the environment AND the bottom line. Read this CleanLink.com article and see how the cleaning industry has such a large impact on health and the environment.

Cheryl, Flickr.com

There is no doubt that green cleaning has become a part of our industry, especially in certain building segments and parts of the country. Years ago it was an optional program offered at a premium price to increase profit margins. But today it is often an expected method of doing business and is increasingly being required by customers, especially as the cost of green products continues to move toward cost neutrality compared to their traditional counterparts.

While many contractors care deeply about environmental issues, others do green cleaning for pragmatic business reasons. Candidly, I got over the moralizing and "doing it for the right reason" a long time ago and am just delighted that companies are using greener products, focusing on conserving chemicals and other products, training their workers better, and seeking methods to reduce the use of energy and water even when it is supplied by their customers. Regardless of "why" a company does these things, they result in reduced negative impacts on both health and the environment, and they're good for business.

To continue reading this article on green cleaning, click here.

The Evolution Of Chemical-free Cleaning

Sky Pro has always valued clean, pure, chemical free water and prides themselves in using this water in their window cleaning. Over time, the world of chemical-free cleaning has evolved and grown into what we see in the market today. This Cleaning and Maintenance Management article describes new options, a safer industry and the new generation that is arising, as well as proof that it works and taking the next step towards this way of cleaning. 

Geir Tonnessen, Flickr.com

Over the past several years, green cleaning products have become increasingly less toxic while delivering comparable results to their traditional counterparts.

This, in part, is due to the emerging science of using plant, bio-based and simple tap water formulations that target soils and harmful bacteria instead of eradicating large swaths of microorganisms.

We are slowly realizing that nature can also provide us with some of what we need to safely and effectively clean surfaces without the use of toxic substances.

Taking the notion of environmentally preferable cleaning a step further, some companies have developed non-toxic, chemical-free innovations.

This industry has begun to explore this idea of less harmful cleaning strategies, including completely non-toxic, chemical-free substitutes and technologies that use no chemicals — natural or otherwise — to achieve more effective cleaning results.

We are evolving beyond green to extreme green to chemical-free cleaning.

New Options
Things like electrolyzed water, which separates tap water into positive and negative streams that attract soils and render harmful bacteria inert, have emerged as the new go-to solutions.

Other cosmopolitan, chemical-free technologies like steam vapor and ultraviolet light have begun to emerge as viable solutions to clean sensitive environments such as hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

A recent literature review entitled “Control of the Environment,” which focused on steam vapor as a chemical-free disinfectant, concluded that steam cleaning is effective for periodic deep cleaning of hospital environments.


To read the full article, click here.

28th Street Apartments | Notes of Interest

It's National Architecture Week! This American Institute of Architects article takes a look at one person's unconventional decision to restore an old building to meet todays modern demands. Located in a neighborhood with historic homes, Koning Eizenberg’s design for 28th Street Apartments successfully restored this former YMCA building, which now houses two nonprofits.

Andy Smith, Flickr.com

The 28th St Apartments restores and adds to a distressed historic building (a former YMCA) in south Los Angeles. The project now houses two synergistic programs run by two nonprofits who co-purchased the building: The neighborhood youth training and employment program is housed in 8,000sf of the historic activity spaces and 49 units of supportive housing (serving youth exiting foster care, the mentally ill and the chronically homeless) occupies the remaining space. Supportive services are offered on site and residents have access to a roof garden, laundry and lounge.

The owners developed the program and relied on us to create a setting that both supported informal social interaction to build community and accommodated the privacy and security needed for the two separate but synergistic uses to operate effectively. Together we reached out to the community to gauge interest in the neighborhood programs, expectations for the restoration and identification of neighborhood needs through a series of noticed meetings and focus groups including the family of the building’s well known architect- Paul R Williams. Bringing the building back to life and respecting the historic legacy was key to community acceptance.

The building is on a limited 17,214sf urban site of cultural significance. The context is a chronically underserved neighborhood with a demographic that has shifted from predominantly African American to Hispanic. The historic front entry of the structure forms a neighborhood porch where community kids gather and ice cream trucks pass while the new addition creates a less formal side entry to the housing units above. The existing historic building spawned an efficient urban strategy on a small vacant sliver of land on the back of the building to add square footage for new updated unit types while not triggering costly parking. The project demonstrates that it is possible to provide community amenity, and achieve good innovative architectural design compatible within the context of an historic building in a neighborhood of historic homes and streets.

To view this article online, click here.

Reducing Cleaning Tasks Can Actually Increase The Time

Whether it's due to budget cuts or just begin plan lazy, sometimes we clean less frequently than we should. But according to this article from CleanLink.com , this can actually cause us to exert more effort, time and money due to previous buildup. They found that cleaning more frequently as opposed to less often can actually maintain better results.

Sam, Flickr.com

Most of us have encountered situations where cleaning task frequencies have been reduced to reflect budget cuts. This can be a difficult time for the Building Service Contractor since the customer needs to understand the relationship between tasks, frequencies, expectations and time standards.

Change in frequency can impact time standards. The usual rule of thumb is that the less often a task is performed the longer it takes per visit. This principle applies primarily to tasks considered “daily” (5 x week) such as trash removal, dusting, vacuuming, sweeping/mopping and restroom cleaning.

For example: if it takes 30 minutes per 1,000 square feet to perform a task daily (250 x year) it can take longer to perform the same task to the same standards (such as 1 x week or 52 x year). When services are reduced to 1 x week (52 x year), more detail work must be performed at the same visit thereby usually taking longer.

To read more about cleaning frequency, click here. 

Installed Base of Smart Water Meters to Surpass 153 Million by 2022

Cleaning with pure water isn't just important for sanitary purposes but drinking purposes as well. This Water and Wastes Digest article examines the evolution of the smart water networks market, with a focus on drinking water systems.

John "K", Flickr.com

Traditionally a conservative business, the water utility industry is being forced into change by growing demand, aging infrastructure and tougher environmental targets. Smart water networks promise to help reduce non-revenue water losses, increase reliability and improve operational efficiency. Smart water meters are a key component of smart water networks, but other monitoring and control technologies are becoming increasingly important, as well, for leak detection, pressure management, and water quality monitoring. According to a recent report from Navigant Research, the installed base of advanced and smart water meters will reach more than 153 million worldwide by 2022.

“Providing an integrated view of all the elements of the water network, smart water networks will enable better management of water and energy resources while improving customer service,” said Eric Woods, research director with Navigant Research. “Yet, this transformation will take time, spanning decades rather than just a few years.”

Although water is becoming a focal point of many cities’ sustainability agendas, capital constraints present a major barrier to the modernization of existing water systems, according to the report

Click here for the full article.

H2Only Renewable Cleaning Puts Water Tech Into Practice

Sky Pro isn't the only one using water to clean and disinfect. According to this Cleanlink.com article, water can stand in for a closet full of chemicals, when used appropriately. See how others are helping to reduce these chemicals while still maintaing effective cleaning results. 

brendonhatcher, Flickr.com

When cleaning K-12 schools, the aim is to keep occupants safe and healthy, particularly as children are among the most vulnerable of populations.

And the students’ health habits aren’t always up to par. There’s a reason that viral outbreaks tend to occur in school environments: Not only do children have daily close contact, touching the same items, eating lunch together and sharing a restroom, but proper hand washing is not yet ingrained in their young minds. This article looks at two approaches to green cleaning in schools. Both building service contractors profiled share the same goal of reducing illness and therefore, absenteeism.

Ruben Rives’ belief in his cleaning system becomes apparent in the first few minutes of conversation. The owner of H2Only Renewable Cleaning in Doral, Fla., is passionate about his cleaning processes and his clients, including about 20 schools scattered throughout Dade County and Broward County in Florida, as well as several in Atlanta.

Rives uses “renewable cleaning technology,” which is the removal of chemicals and pathogens utilizing water as the key ingredient.

He devised and completed a pilot program with a school in Broward County four years ago, reducing chemical usage and incorporating microfiber cloths, ionized water and a dry steam vapor system in its place.

“For us, it has to do with chemical-free cleaning. It’s basically making sure that you do touch-points on a daily basis, and use as few toxic chemicals as possible,” says Rives

To read more about the extraordinary power of water in this article, click here.

Sky Pro’s Skydrowasher™ High Pressure Window Washing System

For window washers who use boatswain chairs or scaffolding, navigating buildings with irregular window offsets, overhangs, insets, recesses or other architectural challenges can be dangerous and time consuming. Even flat building surfaces require highly trained employees, which makes it more difficult to find qualified professionals.

Since each building is different, window washers must decide the best course of action for each individual descent. Adjusting the boatswain’s chair or scaffolding requires precision, which makes this traditional window washing method a slow, steady process. There is additional downtime when workers have to make adjustments each time they are ready to move on to the next section.

To help manage these challenges, there is a solution that is both safe and effective. Sky Pro’s Skydrowasher™ High Pressure Window Washing System uses high-pressure water to effectively scrub a building surface from a distance up to three feet. It is ideal for cleaning buildings with irregular exterior surfaces where traditional efforts are very difficult or even impossible. They are available in 4-foot and 8-foot cleaning path models to meet a range of needs. Find out more about the Skydrowasher on the Sky Pro website.

USGBC Releases the Top 10 States in Nation for LEED Green Building

According to this article on CleanLink.com, Minnesota has recently been added to the top 10 list of states in the Nation for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Buildings with 1.55 square feet of LEED space per resident. As part of Pure Water Window & Building Cleaning Systems, Sky Pro does its share in helping contribute to this cause. 

Tim Evanson, Flickr.com

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released the Top 10 States for its LEED green building rating system. The list highlights the regions around the country that are at the forefront of sustainable building design and transformation. Utilizing less energy, LEED-certified spaces save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce carbon emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

“The list of the Top 10 States for LEED is a continuing indicator of the widespread recognition of our national imperative to create healthier, high-performing buildings that are better for the environment as well as the people who use them every day,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “As the economy recovers, green buildings continue to provide for jobs at every professional level and skill set from carpenters to architects. I congratulate everyone in these states whose contributions to resources saved, toxins eliminated, greenhouse gases avoided, and human health enhanced help guarantee a prosperous future for our planet and the people who call it home.”

To continue reading, click here.

Major Cities Unite to Cut Building Pollution

Minneapolis isn't the only city "going green". This Buildings article sheds light on what other cities are doing to help the environment.

Doug Kerr, Flickr.com 

The mayors from 10 major U.S. cities announced they will undertake a united effort to significantly boost energy efficiency in their buildings.

The mayors will be participating in the new City Energy Project (CEP), an initiative from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market. The following 10 cities will be CEP’s first participants: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Orlando, Philadelphia, and Salt Lake City.

HOW IT WORKS
Through this new project, the cities will develop their own locally tailored plans to advance energy efficiency and reduce waste in their large buildings, which can represent roughly 50% of their citywide square footage. These plans, which will include multiple integrated strategies, can make more progress in each city than any one program or policy could alone.

The CEP will offer energy expertise to help guide the cities through the planning, designing, and implementing processes. The energy efficiency solutions that CEP will help the cities develop are flexible to each city’s unique situation, supporting the following goals:

To read the full article, click here.

Testing Chemical-Free Cleaning Efficacy

According to this article on cleanlink.com, some studies show that the effectiveness of sanitizing technologies produce differing results when tested in working environments vs lab tests. 

soapylovedeb, Flickr.com 

Vince Elliott, president and CEO of The Chemical Free Cleaning Network, Baltimore, Md., and author of “Extreme Green Cleaning,” is no stranger to water-activated cleaning solutions; he’s been studying their efficacy for some time.

Recently, Elliott connected with a custodial cleaning executive overseeing a high-traffic facility to examine the following questions:
• Do the various water-activated sanitizing technologies actually reduce Reflective Light Unit (RLU) levels as measured by an ATP meter?
• How do the differing technologies compare to each other? Does one perform better or worse, or are they all basically the same?
• What differences in efficacy are there between plain tap water and water-activated technologies?

While Elliott’s research is ongoing, he has tested 760 surfaces in the facility so far and has learned a thing or two about the sanitizing products being used.

Click here to read more. 

One World Trade Center Officially U.S.’s Tallest Building

The One World Trade Center in New York will be the 3rd tallest building in the world upon completion. Look at what else this buildings.com article has to say about the new construction. 

Chicago’s Willis Tower can no longer lay claim to being the tallest building in the U.S.

Shannon, Flickr.com 

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat convened its Height Committee to rule on the official height of One World Trade Center (1WTC) in New York. The committee reached a consensus that the New York building’s height to its architectural top is 1,776 feet.

The two issues regarding the true height of the building were:

The nature of the mast structure on top of the tower.
The datum line (bottom point) from which the height to architectural top was determined.

Due to design changes that resulted in the removal of the architectural cladding around the mast at the top of the structure, it became unclear whether the structure was in fact a “spire” – a vertical element that completes the architectural expression of the building and is intended as permanent, or whether it was an antenna – a piece of functional-technical equipment that was subject to change.

To read more from this article, click here.

What You Need to Know About the FDA-Proposed Rule on Antibacterial Soap

From an article posted on issa.com, the FDA is reevaluating "active ingredients" in antibacterial soap due to its widespread use and pressing concerns from certain health care groups. 

Soap Bubbles, The Italian Voice 

After more than 20 years in the making, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought to bring closure on its rulemaking regarding antibacterial hand and body soaps by issuing a proposed rule in the December 17, 2013, edition of the Federal Register, the official journal of the federal government of the United States.

The FDA’s proposed rule would require manufacturers of antibacterial hand and/or body washes to demonstrate that their products are safe for long-term daily use and are more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of certain infections. Under the proposal, if companies do not demonstrate such safety and effectiveness, these products would need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.

The scope of the proposed rule is limited to antibacterial hand and/or body washes that are intended to be used with water. Hand sanitizers not intended to be rinsed off with water, antibacterial wipes, and antibacterial products used in health care settings will be the subject of future FDA rulemakings.

Click here to read the full article on issa.com 

Use Disinfectants Wisely

The Great Clean Up by zepfanman.com via flickr.com

An extended winter season means concerns about spreading cold and flu in your buildings are higher than ever. This excerpt below is from an article on cleanlink.com about using disinfectants wisely, and with less risk. 

Cold winter weather, now gripping most of North America, usually means cold and flu season is here and likely sticking around for a few months.

Many cleaning professionals may be asked to use disinfectants this time of year more frequently than at other times. While disinfectants can be helpful because of their ability to kill germs and bacteria, they also can pose a risk to cleaning workers, building users, and the environment.

Charlotte Products/Enviro-Solutions, a manufacturer of traditional and green cleaning products, has offered the following tips on how to use disinfectants wisely:

-- Use only disinfectants that have been registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the EPA registration will be clearly printed on the label.

To read the full article, visit cleanlink.com

Caring More Deeply About Safety

Safety Sign by David Person via flickr.com

"How can we get workers to care about safety?" might not be the right question to ask to improve organization safety, says Terry Mathis in an article on EHSToday.com. 

Leaders of organizations constantly are reminded that safety must start at the top. They also have learned that it can't stop there – it must permeate all levels of the organization.

More and more leaders want to know how to do that – how to turn a workforce on to its safety potential. As one executive put it: "What is the key to getting workers to care more deeply about safety?"

This question illustrates the root of the problem: We're asking the wrong question! Why have we assumed that workers don't care enough about safety, and that making them care more is the solution? Of course workers care about safety. They are the ones who get injured when it doesn't work. Their families are the ones who have to learn to live on reduced pay and juggle medical bills while nursing a breadwinner back to health.

Read the full article on EHSToday.com. 

Safety Maturity: Three Crucial Elements of Best-in-Class Safety

Three by Hub via flickr.com

When safety is seen as a pointless expense, instead of how business is done, it can create unnecessary downtime and threats to worker safety. What does it look like when a company excels at both safety and business? Read an excerpt from EHSToday.com on this topic below. 

The human cost of occupational accidents is vast. Worker safety is a fundamental human need and requirement in industrial settings. It protects workers, prevents unnecessary downtime and satisfies standards compliance.

However, plant-floor safety long was viewed as a costly obligation that added little value to operations. Today, best-in-class manufacturers realize that combining employee behavior, procedures and technology enables them to go far beyond simple compliance to deliver improved productivity and dramatically lower injury rates.

Every manufacturer's approach to safety is unique and dependent on factors ranging from vertical market, company size and operations, potential hazards and regional safety standards. Looking beyond the makeup of a company's safety programs and examining the larger trends of the best performers can provide valuable insights into what can be accomplished when safety is implemented holistically, with consideration to a manufacturer's larger operations.

Read the full article on EHSToday.com. 

Good facilities and IT boost employee happiness and productivity

Photo by Ryk Neethling via flickr.com

When it comes to worker morale, the place where they work might matter more than just more money or other factors, according to a survey of office workers in the UK. Read the full story on at FMJ.co.uk. See an excerpt below. 

New research has found that temperature, lighting, noise and quality of IT facilities can affect the happiness and productivity of office workers.

The research* from a UK-based engineering, IT and facilities services firm sought to identify which factors most affect well-being and productivity in the workplace. It found that more than half (59%) of respondents felt that noise, lighting and temperature are key for their happiness in the workplace. In comparison, about a third (31%) believed that the right hardware, software and networking drove satisfaction in the office.

When it comes to productivity, however, over half (53%) of respondents believed having a good IT set-up is crucial, compared to over a third (35%) who thought that having the right bricks and mortar provisions is most important.

Read the full article on Facilities Maintenance Journal.