To understand green cleaning, one must first understand the value of a healthy building. Can one assert a facility is green unless that facility can also be determined healthy? With this question in mind, can a facility be healthy, unless it is determined clean?
Further, can a building be clean without the proper management structure and environmental policies in place to maintain its assets? This table addresses these questions and relates how ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) Green Building (GB) criteria works in concert with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) Green Building Rating System.
LEED-EBOM
CIMS & CIMS-GB
DEFINITION
LEED-EBOM is a set of performance standards for certifying the operations and maintenance of existing commercial or institutional buildings and high-rise residential buildings of all sizes, both public and private.
CIMS defines management, operational performance system, process and performance measure requirements for both building service contractors and organizations that self-perform cleaning.
OBJECTIVES
LEED-EBOM encourages owners and operators of existing buildings to implement sustainable practices and reduce environmental impacts of their buildings over their functional life cycles.
LEED-EBOM promotes high performance, healthful, durable, affordable, and environmentally sound practices in existing buildings.
CIMS encourages cleaning organizations to implement management best-practices to ensure a thorough understanding of the customer’s service requirements, and therefore deliver quality, sustainable service
CIMS-GB ensures that a cleaning organization utilizes environmentally preferable cleaning practices and products in line with LEED-EBOM.
STRUCTURE
Prerequisites and credits in the LEED-EBOM system address seven topics: sustainable sites (SS); water efficiency (WE); energy and atmosphere (EA); materials and resources (MR); indoor environmental quality (IEQ); innovation in operations (IO); and regional priority (RP).
Compliance with CIMS-GB is dependent on dedication to quality and meeting customer requirements in six management principles: quality systems; service delivery; human resources; health, safety and environmental stewardship; management commitment; and green buildings.
CORRELATING CREDITS
IEQ Credits: Green Cleaning: Purchase of Sustainable Cleaning Products and Materials; Sustainable Cleaning Equipment; Indoor Chemical and Pollutant Source Control; Indoor Integrated Pest Management
MR Prerequisites:
Sustainable Purchasing Policy; Solid-Waste Management Program
SS Credit:
Integrated Pest Management, Erosion Control, and Landscape Management Plan
Requires a green cleaning policy—separate from CIMS’s general environmental policy—addressing how green cleaning practices will be utilized, managed, and evaluated
Requires a dedicated green/high-performance cleaning program that satisfies IEQ credits outlined in LEED-EBOM
Requires the purchase of sustainable cleaning products and materials, satisfying specific IEQ and MR credits and prerequisites in LEED-EBOM
Recommends provisions for chemical and pollutant source control
Recommends an integrated pest management program to fulfill SS credits in LEED-EBOM
Our certification to the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and CIMS-Green Building (CIMS-GB) criteria provides a variety of benefits to our customers. Consider how we can add value through management best-practices, exemplary service, and a commitment to sustainability.
CIMS certification identifies us as a quality, customer-focused, professional organization that should be the first considered for service.
CIMS helps our customers to distinguish between those companies that are truly professional and capable of getting the job done and those who are just talk.
CIMS offers assurance that our management systems and processes have been assessed by an independent third-party and are in compliance with the industry's preeminent standard and best-practices.
CIMS enables us to cut costs associated with poor efficiency and service and allows us to pass along service improvements and savings to our customers.
CIMS-GB certification illustrates our commitment to providing green and sustainable cleaning service.
CIMS-GB enables us to assist customers in achieving points for the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) Green Building Rating System.
The cleaning industry is moving towards standardization and PMS is in the forefront. We can incorporate LEED-compliant documentation and standards into any cleaning program.
