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Why Green Cleaning in Schools
Each school day, some 56 million students and six million staff attend our nation’s schools, representing some 20 percent of the American population.
Yet according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), half of this population may be exposed to polluted indoor air, lead, asbestos, chemical fumes, pesticides, molds and other toxins, along with overcrowding and poor sanitation. Numerous states have passed state laws to make sure schools address this issue, and more states are likely to follow suit. A well-designed green cleaning program can help reduce these harmful exposures and yield many other positive benefits for students, custodial staff, administrators and the environment, including:
1. Green Cleaning Helps Students Stay Healthy and Learn:
Research shows a clear link between poor indoor air quality, sick students and teachers, and poor academic and occupational performance. Furthermore, according to the EPA, children miss more than 14 million school days each year due to asthma exacerbated by poor indoor air quality, which disproportionately affects low-income and minority students. Green cleaning can help reduce the environmental hazards that negatively affect children's growing, developing bodies. See Resources and Tools for more information on the link between indoor air quality and illness.
2. Green Cleaning Protects the Health of Custodial Staff:
Members of the custodial staff, especially women of child-bearing age, are particularly susceptible to health problems caused by their frequent and close interaction with cleaning chemicals and equipment. In fact, six out of every 100 custodians are injured on the job each year. Choosing safer products and training staff in proper usage can help reduce the number of injuries caused by caustic chemicals, respiratory irritation and inappropriate or dangerous equipment. This can also decrease workers' compensation claims and lower insurance costs.
3. Green Cleaning Increases the Lifespan of Facilities:
Proper maintenance and effective cleaning extends the longevity and performance of school building materials and furnishings by preventing damage and premature aging, which in turn reduces waste and unnecessary spending. For example, school districts allocate a significant amount of money to carpeting, which is expected to have a useful life of 10 to 15 years. A square foot of typical carpet can hide as much as three times its weight in dirt and sand, which act like thousands of small knives, cutting and wearing out fibers in a few short years — long before its useful lifespan and before the district had budgeted to replace it.
4. Green Cleaning Preserves the Environment:
Traditional cleaning products can contain harmful chemicals. Depending on the duration, rate and extent of exposure, they can cause cancer, reproductive disorders, major organ damage, and permanent eye damage. These cleaning chemicals are also routinely washed down the drain where they find their way into drinking water, lakes and streams, adversely affecting plant and animal life, threatening public health and adding to pollution. According to ISSA, the cleaning industry consumes six billion pounds of chemicals, including non-renewable natural resources such as petroleum, and generates 4.5 billion pounds of paper products, requiring the cutting of 35 million trees annually. Buying recycled paper and plastic products can help conserve precious natural resources for future generations.
Triple Bottom Line
If all parties understand the impact of cleaning on the triple bottom line, it is much easier to appreciate the changes a green cleaning program can bring about. Like a three-legged stool, which needs three stable legs to function, balancing these three bottom lines can make your program more effective and more sustainable over time. The three bottom lines, discussed in detail below, are economic, environmental and social.
Economic
The economic impacts of a green cleaning program come about in many ways including reducing actual product cost; using more durable products that last longer reducing costs over the product's useful life; energy and water savings, fewer incidents of accidents from chemical and ergonomic injury; healthier students and staff which can result in reduced absenteeism; and improvements in attracting and retaining students, teachers and staff.
Environmental
The extraction of raw materials and manufacturing for products including cleaning chemicals, janitorial paper, equipment and tools, have significant environmental impacts, as does their transportation, use, and disposal. Many of the raw materials are limited and nonrenewable, which means that once depleted, they are no longer available to future generations for their use. Additionally, the manufacturing consumes large quantities of energy and water, while producing significant emissions to the air, water and waste.
Social
For any program to be sustainable, it must take care of its people. After all, how can a school function if students and staff are always sick or don’t want to be there because the building is unhealthy? This component of the triple bottom line also helps us appreciate the role that schools play as part of a larger community and the important interaction that affects the health and success of all. Click here to read more about schools and sustainability.
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