Introducing the Green Clean Schools Leadership Council

Dec. 1, 2014
The Green Cleaning Award for Schools & Universities is now in its eighth year and the quality of the nominations and winners has continued to improve.

The Green Cleaning Award for Schools & Universities is now in its eighth year and the quality of the nominations and winners has continued to improve. Some of the most important best practices exhibited by this year’s winners:

• Audited cleaning activities at least once per year, identifying opportunities for improvement and preventing backsliding, a problem with any program as the novelty wears off.

• Upgraded green products as the cleaning industry continues to make strides in developing products in every category from chemicals to paper to equipment to plastic liners and more that are safer for the kids in our classrooms and the custodians using them.

• Transitioned from green to sustainable as the winners pushed their distributors, manufacturers and service providers to do more than just provide a line of green products, encouraging them to operate more sustainably.

• Trained custodians using innovative training tools, ensuring their staffs understand what’s expected of them and how to do the job right the first time.

• Engaged students, staff, suppliers and visitors to foster awareness of green issues and to encourage others to actually adopt these practices in their own lives.

Additionally, over the past eight years some incredible schools and universities have been identified. Take, for example, the small elementary school in New Jersey that recruits its third-graders to diligently monitor lunchroom waste, or the large school district in Oregon that has made training and team building a cornerstone of their successful green cleaning program.

That’s why Healthy Schools Campaign recently launched the Green Clean Schools Leadership Council. The council is made up of school facility operators who have won the Green Cleaning Award for Schools and Universities in the past and are giving access to those in charge of these award-winning schools. These men and women come from small schools, large universities, rural districts and urban centers. But they all have a few things in common; namely, a desire to support student health through green cleaning and a proven track record and inspiring ideas for getting it done.

The council is composed of:

• Tom Adams, Director of Facilities Operations, Portland Public Schools District, Portland, Oregon

• Mervin Brewer, Assistant Custodial Supervisor, Salt Lake City School District, Salt Lake City, Utah

• Olivia Claus, Manager of Custodial Services, Howard County Public Schools, Ellicott City, Maryland

• Jodi Krause, Assistant Director Housekeeping, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

• Patrick Pizzo, Director of Facilities, East Meadow School District, Westbury, New York

• Keith Webb, Executive Director of Plant Services, Newport News Public Schools, Newport News, Virginia

• Gene Woodard, Director of the Building Services Department, University of Washington, Seattle.

Each of these individuals leads a Green Cleaning Award-winning program and is fully dedicated to promoting more sustainable cleaning practices through product evaluation, peer mentoring and continual improvement of their own programs.

The council will provide up-to-date guidance to Healthy Schools Campaign on new developments in green cleaning. Council members will also provide advice directly to school facility leaders using the new green cleaning assessment tool. If interested in getting the council’s help, take a moment to fill out the assessment tool on HSC’s new website www.greencleanschools.org. This form will ask questions about your school and its cleaning program and help the council determine how it can best help you.

Whether you’re starting a new green cleaning program from scratch, improving an existing program, or submitting your application for the Green Cleaning Award for Schools and Universities, the council is now here to help.

Ashkin is executive director of the Green Cleaning Network, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit educational organization.

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