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You are here: Home » What We Work On » Purchasing » Success Stories in Purchasing » Janitorial Cleaning Products

Janitorial Cleaning Products

Choosing green products to clean County buildings is an important step in creating the healthiest environment possible for our janitorial staff and building occupants while minimizing our impact on the environment and providing a high level of service. We use Green Seal and UL/ECOLOGO certified cleaning products throughout the County.

How We Did It:

• Issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) with specific environmental requirements (see below) to ensure best value for the County.
• Specified that products must carry one of the following third party eco-labels: Green Seal, UL/ECOLOGO, or the U.S Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program.
• Involved janitorial staff from the very beginning of the process and worked with them to conduct product testing to ensure performance prior to selecting the winning bid.

Challenges:

• Green cleaning standards do not cover disinfectants due to federal rules, but we need use them on a limited basis, especially in our correctional facilities and laboratories. We referenced the City of San Francisco's report on safer products for disinfecting surfaces to help us identify appropriate specifications to meet our needs.
• Switching to green cleaning practices requires some operational changes that take time and training to implement. We required the winning vendor to provide training at no charge.

Benefits:

• Transitioning to the latest in cleaning technology contributes to a healthy workplace and reduces our impact on the environment.
• New products use controlled dilution systems that take the guess work out of mixing concentrated cleaning chemicals with water. This increases safety and can save money by preventing over-concentration of cleaning solutions.

Documents

• Janitorial Cleaning Products Bid Excerpt (PDF - 644kb) *
• Piggybacking for Green Purchasing Resource (PDF - 297kb) *

Related Links

• Green Seal
• UL/ECOLOGO
• U.S Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program