text: For Total Clean Up Cleaning Systems, green cleaning and environmental stewardship are therefore not just buzzwords we use when marketing office cleaning services. We understand the choices we make in cleaning products, cleaning equipment, cleaning systems and cleaning procedures affect our economy and our very lives. Evidence shows, increases in childhood asthma, falling test scores, student absenteeism, employee sick time, and lower productivity may all have some basis in poor indoor environmental quality.
  Green cleaning can be defined as cleaning to safeguard human health while minimizing the impact on the environment. Its goal is to protect the health of building occupants, visitors, and cleaning personnel, as well as reduce the polluting affects on our air and water.
  Green cleaning is more than just using green products. The success of a green cleaning program is dependent on numerous other factors. While the selection of products is important, it will have little effect in an otherwise inadequate cleaning regime that leaves facilities dirty and the health of occupants, visitors, and the environment at risk. Green cleaning encompasses a total program including chemicals, procedures, equipment, paper, liners, mops, matting, everything used in an effective cleaning program.
  Chemicals are the second greatest source of outdoor air pollution in the Los Angeles region. Think of their impact indoors, where they're used. Levels of pollutants can be from 2 to 5 times higher inside than outdoors. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) VOC'S in daily cleaning chemicals can build up for months and years in the enclosed space of office buildings and homes. In the short term, VOC's can cause headaches, dizziness, watery eyes, respiratory problems, rashes, sneezing, and other allergic reactions. In the long term or in very high exposures, many of these chemicals have been linked to nervous system damage, hormone disruption, and cancer. In addition, we are breathing in a mixture of chemicals rather just one exposure at a time.
  The choice to go green doesn't just look good on paper. Many green manufacturing practices and materials save money and mitigate health risk. Products that reduce energy consumption, for example can deliver savings to organizations for years and years to come. But green building and procurement practices also create healthier places to live and work. It is the smarter and healthier way to clean.
  Q & A — Benefits of Green Cleaning
  » ASTM International » US Green Building Council (USGBC) » Pennsylvania Green Building Operations and Maintenance Manual
  » Green Seal » American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Exchange (ASHRAE) » Spartan Chemical