The Utilization of Green Methods and Materials for Cheap,
Safe and Efficient Campus Maintenance
Claudia Anzini
Runey Ghosh
Garrett Davis
Opening
Smoking kills. This message is around us everywhere, on the television, in the news. The
prevalence of this message in our communities has resulted in strong public and subsequent legal
action. In addition to strong campaigns to combat underage smoking with a particularly strong
movement against advertising to youths, much has been accomplished in the fight against the
dangers of cigarette smoking. The trump card of course of such a campaign is the fact that
cigarettes cause cancer; this is a fact, proven by multitude of studies. In like manner however, it
has been shown that there is another monster, just as evil as second-hand smoke lurking in our
homes. Household cleaning products contain incredibly highly toxins, compounds that are not
only detrimental to one’s health but also the environment. Interestingly enough, despite similar
scientific studies linking use of products to cancer, for one reason or another, the household
cleaning products industry has managed to dodge the health risk bullet that the cigarette industry
was forced to bite years earlier. This is rather trivial as there is hard scientific data linking use of
these products to high rates of cancer as well as chronic respiratory illnesses. What’s worse is
that these products are often freely used everywhere, schools, offices, universities, hospitals with
little to no awareness of the threats they pose. Some schools have already identified this threat
and are making strides to implement a new generation of “green” cleaners. These products are
not only as equally effective as their more toxic counterparts but greatly minimize harm to the
environment.
RPI, in its current initiative to become a pioneer of sustainability and green technology
should implement green cleaning products and staff training into their current maintenance
operations. This would not only be cost effective, but would tremendously mitigate exposure to
harmful toxins for both students and staff. Furthermore, LEED certification of buildings, which
RPI has shown tremendous interest in, is beginning to increasingly emphasize the use of green
cleaning products. If steps are taken to educate, train, and implement these greener more
sustainable solutions, RPI would be well on its way in establishing itself as a leader in
sustainable practices.
Aims, Location, Site Justification and Organization
Aim:
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Implement Green Cleaning techniques to improve air quality inside buildings, cut the
cost of expensive industrial cleaners, improve student and faculty health conditions and
improve the campus environment
Location:
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
 Dorms
 Classrooms
 Buildings
 Outdoor Campus
Site Justification:
 Don’t want cancer
 Easy to scale up from small buildings to campus wide to then multiple campuses
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Present cleaning practices are dangerous to both students and faculty (and possibly the
buildings being cleaned)
RPI wants to be LEED certified
Organization:
 Student/faculty oversight committee (Greaning Initiative)
 Campus Maintenance Staff (Environmental Services)
Potential for Scaling Up and Out
From the starting point of dorms, the efficacy of each solution can be easily judged. If it
works better than the status quo, then these policies can be implemented in more buildings.
Eventually, the goal is to have all of campus follow these policies. Once efficacy and costeffectiveness is shown, it should be easy to spread these policies to other campuses.
Related Project and Involved Organizations
There are many projects that currently exist to green up schools. One of the leading
organizations for these projects is the Green Schools Initiative, which was founded in 2004. They
encourage and support students, teachers, parents and faculties who want to transform their
school into a green and healthy learning environment. They provide materials and sources for
schools to look into the harms caused by toxic cleaning solutions and simple to large scale
changes that can be made at the student’s school. Dr. Tim Morse of the University of
Connecticut Heath Center is also leading a project on the exposure of chemicals to custodial
staff. Dr. Morse’s project is a study to discover the ways workers choose to switch to green
cleaning products and its effect on the custodial staff’s health. The custodial staff at Middlebury
College is taking steps to becoming sustainable as well. They have implemented new policies to
ensure that green cleaning products are used within the campus. The custodial staff has also
come up with solutions such as microfiber cloths and ozone machines as a way to eliminate
odors.
Rationale
The most important risk of current cleaning procedure and materials is the impact on
student and faculty health. Numerous studies have confirmed that household and industrial
cleaners pose a health risk when encountered in enclosed spaces, large concentrations, frequent
proximity and inhalation. Unfortunately for RPI, the maintenance staff, students and faculty
encounter the industrial strength cleaners used in classrooms, dorms and laboratories. From
RPI’s standpoint, this is a huge liability for a class action suit on behalf of the students and
faculty for damages and hospital bills, and thus should be an immediate concern to the board.
In addition, utilizing green cleaning methods and materials is a large step towards RPI’s
goal of having every building LEED certified; under which one of the requirements is a shift
towards green/renewable cleaning agents.
Project Design and Context
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To carry out this project, the Environment Services will need to play a big role and
implement most of the practices. To ensure that this project works to its fullest potential,
an oversight committee will be formed called the Greaning Initiative. This committee
will include students, administration, and custodial workers and will function as the
liaison between the project goals and its implementation. Environmental Services will
also have to implement a training program for all the current and future employees. The
program would occur at least once every year and recertification would be required so
that current custodial staff can learn about any new techniques or products being brought
into the school. Since many green cleaning product companies have training seminars,
these programs could come at no cost to Environmental Services.
Key Phases:
a. Replace current stock
i. Change Chemicals Used
ii. Door Mats
iii. Vacuum Cleaners
iv. Microfiber cleaners instead of mops
b. Training
c. New Dorm Policies
i. Set up hallway stations with green cleaners
ii. providing public MSDS Sheets near all cleaners
iii. Not allowing use of private cleaners in dorms
iv. New Window Policy
d. Remove Carpets
Overall Schedule:
1. Form the Greaning Initiative committee – 3 months
a. Make a campus-wide green cleaning policy
b. Go to Environmental Services and perform a green audit on current
practices
c. Form a plan to implement changes that would follow the new policy
2. Train Custodial Staff – 1 month
a. Bring in vendors to train staff on proper use of products (this can occur
while products are being switched)
b. Train all incoming and current staff
3. Switch out old products for new green products – 3 months
a. Choose vendors and products
b. Negotiate vendor contracts
c. Purchase and switch out current products (i.e. chemical concentrates,
microfiber mops, HEPA vacuums)
d. Implement use of products
4. Implement New Dorm Policies – 3 months
a.
b.
c.
d.


Make a new policy to limit use of personal cleaners in dorm rooms
Set up hallway stations with green cleaners for students to use
Post MSDS sheets near all cleaners
Implement a new window policy allowing all windows to open to
eliminate need for odor eliminators
5. Switching out carpets – ongoing
a. Switch carpeted floors to hardwood/tile floors
b. Since cost of this isn’t offset by switching out cleaners, the time frame will
depend on budget and where the switch in plausible
6. Evaluate success – 2 months/ongoing
a. Test air quality
b. Medical health survey of staff and students to see if asthma symptoms
have improved and if they feel healthier overall
c. Have committee to continuously meet to discuss updating cleaners and
policies
d. Retrain current staff and new staff yearly to ensure they are properly using
products
Since most of the associated costs of switching don’t exist, less funding is needed.
Switching the chemicals currently used for greener products will have no increased cost
to the school and might actually save them money. Most green cleaners are sold as
concentrate and one cleaner can be used for multiple tasks. Conventional chemical
cleaners cost roughly about $12.00 per gallon when purchased as 55 1-gallon bottles.
Green cleaners cost about $.96 per gallon when purchased as concentrate. Not only are
these products less costly, but certain practices can be implemented to decrease their use.
By negotiating long term contracts with vendors, we can decrease the cost even more.
Also by using fewer brands and asking for metered distribution units, the amount of
concentrate needed will be more accurately measured. Switching to microfiber mops and
backpack HEPA vacuums, fewer cleaners will be needed to remove dust and
contaminates. For the parts of the project that would create costs for Environmental
Services that their current budget doesn’t account for, there are some solutions that can
be implemented. Grants, such as the Do Something Grant, can be applied for. While
some are a onetime only and others can be renewed, grants can help offset the costs of
switching vacuum cleaner out or help pay for some of the new flooring that would
replace the carpets. Another way to offset the costs would be through writing a proposal
to Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson asking for money to switch out some of the carpeting in
buildings on campus.
Implementing this project at RPI will only benefit its outcomes. Students at RPI are more
educated than younger students who attempt similar projects within their schools and are
more motivated to make this school green. With the current sustainability projects
occurring all over campus, this will only be another way the students can help transform
the college they go to into a leader in sustainable practices. Also, the students are the
major stakeholders in this project. With improved air quality from less toxic chemicals
being used, the students will experience improved health and increase their learning
capacity. The custodial staff would also benefit from improved air qualities because their
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health would improve and they would be able and willing to work. The administration
would benefit from RPI using green cleaning solutions because it would help RPI to
make their buildings LEED certified.
To involve stakeholders in this project, an oversight committee will be formed. This
committee, the Greaning Initiative committee, will be comprised to students,
administration, and custodial workers. Each member of the committee will be able to
voice their own opinion and ensure that each stakeholder is mutually benefitted during
this process. By allowing all of the stakeholders to work together, they can come up with
multiple solutions to this one problem while still achieving their personal goals.
Fortunately, the public view on green cleaning agents is on the rise, pressuring more
companies to produce and use renewable and safer materials. This is a great boon to the
project as it will assist in the transition from classical cleaning agents toward these new
materials. The economic policy is following in LEED certification, something that RPI is
currently pursuing, giving government grants and subsidies towards green companies and
schools.
The most significant barriers to this project would be the initial startup for the project; i.e.
getting RPI to switch purchasing policy for cleaning products. After that, the amount of
time that training maintenance workers to utilize the new products and equipment and
finally, finding the most effective and cheap green alternatives to industrial solutions
currently employed by RPI.
The success of the project will be measured primarily through the use of surveys unless
the RPI authorizes more in depth medical evaluations. The first phase of evaluation will
be conducted within the first week of the first semester after the project has been
implemented. Evaluation will be conducted using a two-step method. One will be health
surveys of both students and faculty while another survey will be regarding student
satisfaction and opinion. This survey would measure student and faculty opinion
regarding the shift to more sustainable maintenance operations whether or not they view
the change as favorable and beneficial to their overall RPI experience. Towards the
culmination of the first semester after implementation review of program effectiveness
will be conducted once again in the form of similar surveys. A similar method will be
used in the second semester with start of term and end of term surveys. At the
culmination of the first year after implementation the student/faculty oversight committee
will review and evaluate the success of the program in terms of health effects as well as
student and faculty response to the initiative.
Home cleaning products are one of the largest sources of airborne toxins within
households. In addition many of the compounds used in these products are incredibly
harmful to the environment and result in ozone degradation. Most importantly of all
perhaps is the fact that this issue is on that is largely under the radar. In the media, the
dangers of household cleaning products seem to receive little to no attention at all despite
their prevalence in nearly every home. By taking the intuitive in identifying a true
environmental and health hazard and taking appropriate action well before the rest of the
country would make RPI a true pioneer in sustainability. Though directly such a project
would only affect RPI campus, hopefully other schools will learn by our example and
follow suite.
Closing
Imagine a university that is not only fully conscious of the consequences of its actions but
takes active strides to reduce them. Imagine a University that truly cares about its students and its
entire faculty, not just the professors or faculty that are in the spotlight. Imagine the peace of
mind, in entering a building, knowing that you are not constantly breathing in thousands of
chemicals and compounds that are slowly breaking down your body. The implementation of
green cleaning products already seems to coincide with the mission of the school as a whole,
using the latest most cutting edge technology to bring about true, long lasting change in the
world. If implemented, RPI would be making true, sincere, and effective strides towards
achieving its vision of being a pioneer in sustainable technology and philosophy. The motto of
the school is “Why not change the world?” To which we would respond, “Why not change
RPI?”