Partners in Success

Last spring, Marie Walley and her team at the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Charlotte’s Housing and Residence Life Department were actively looking for a green cleaning certification program to validate their commitment to delivering a healthy indoor environment for university students, staff, and guests as well as to demonstrate their dedication to protecting the health and safety of their housekeeping staff. It was at that time thatshe participated in a seminar on ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS), hosted by Kelsan, Inc., a leading distributor based in Knoxville, TN. Initially intrigued by the management and operations focus of the traditional CIMS criteria, Walley was sold on the inclusion of a set of CIMS green building (GB) criteria focused on the delivery of a comprehensive green cleaning program.

CIMS and CIMS-GB had everything her team was looking for–national recognition, a framework to improve performance in multiple areas, including sustainable product usage, improved occupant wellness, asset preservation, and waste diversion. Walley also appreciate the fact that the program offered independent, third-party verification of compliance to the CIMS and CIMS-GB criteria.

After that initial introduction to the program, Marie contacted her Kelsan territory manager, Bill Everhart, who immediately put her in touch with Teresa Farmer, a sustainability consultant with Kelsan who also holds the CIMS ISSA Certification Expert (I.C.E.) and I.C.E.-GB designations. Walley and Farmer then met to discuss the process UNC-Charlotte’s Housing and Residence Life Department would need to go through to attain CIMS and CIMS-GB certification.

The first step was to conduct a comprehensive review of the CIMS/CIMS-GB checklist in order to determine which criteria the university already met and to identify areas of noncompliance as well as opportunities for improvement. The review included collecting all required policies and documents, which at first glance, appeared to be quite a challenge. However, Farmer used her deep understanding of the various elements of the standard and the specific documentation needed—knowledge gained during her I.C.E. training—to make the process much easier.

The next step was to define the scope of the department’s certification pursuit. Although Walley and Farmer recognized that they were not required to comply with all of the elements in the standard, they agreed that the best goal was to achieve Certification with Honors, a designation requiring compliance with all mandatory requirements and at least 85 percent of all recommended elements. They believed that the university already had a good cleaning program in place, and green processes were already being utilized. Yet, Walley and Farmer also recognized that investing fully in CIMS/ CIMS-GB would improve UNC-Charlotte’s existing program.

The two then set out to ensure compliance.One of the main tools that Farmer used for the process was a task log. The log essentially used to monitor the university’s progress toward certification, allowed them to easily keep track of the tasks that needed to be completed and which tasks were being worked on by which people within the department. One of the main tasks was developing a scope of work for each employee in the Housing and Residence Life Department. This was seamlessly accomplished by taking advantage of Kelsan’s workloading program, WorkWise, allowing the department to easily determine the university’s staffing needs for various facilities on campus.

In an effort to ingrain the principles of CIMS into the individual employees of UNC-Charlotte, Farmer created a manual for each resident coordinator as well as one for each and every Housing and Residence Life Department housekeeper. These books contained all of the information necessary for becoming CIMS and CIMS-GB certified, making them immensely valuable for bringing operations into compliance. Going forward, Farmer and Walley see the manuals as having envisioning them as living documents that contain all of the university’s training and procedures to be accessed by the housekeeping staff at any time. Further, any changes to policy can be easily referenced in the manuals, copies of which are kept at all residential dorms.

The process was not without its challenges, though. The process of becoming certified created some natural stress for the Housing and Residence Life Department staff, as they strived to achieve Certification with Honors and do as well as they could. Further, the university’s compliance efforts occurred during the summer, a particularly busy time of the year for housing operations. But, ultimately, the benefits of achieving CIMS and CIMS-GB Certification with Honors made it well worth the effort for both UNC-Charlotte and Kelsan and helped solidify their relationship and take it to another level.

The achievement of CIMS and CIMS-GB certification had a big effect on the staff of UNC-Charlotte’s Housing and Residence Life Department as well. As a result of the process and certification, Walley says, the staff feels a strong sense of pride, especially given that UNC-Charlotte became the first university in the state of North Carolina to achieve the certification. This has resulted in greater confidence and a keener sense of the crucial role cleaning plays in providing healthy living and learning spaces for the student body and the faculty. As Walley puts it “There has been a lot of bragging on the subject of CIMS.”

To celebrate its accomplishment and show their pride, the department held a picnic for everyone on staff. They have also proudly hung their official certification plaque in the department’s main office where it can be viewed by visitors. The plaque will also be placed at the site of the UNC-Charlotte’s annual SOAR program, which welcomes incoming new students. They have even embroidered the CIMS/CIMS-GB certification logo onto their new staff uniforms!

Farmer stresses that the process has been equally beneficial to Kelsan and to herself personally. “Going through the process with UNC-Charlotte was a great experience for me as a sustainability consultant,” she says. “I have worked with many of our customers to establish green cleaning programs but to see a customer go through this process was an eye opener. The process of CIMS certification encompasses all areas of a cleaning program in a manner that leaves nothing unnoticed and that naturally leads to process and outcome improvement.”

UNC-Charlotte’s journey towards certification held difficulties and challenges. But with the aid of Kelsan and its I.C.E. professional Farmer, the university was able to reach its green cleaning goals and become the first university in North Carolina to receive the CIMS-GB Certification with Honors. All this while instituting a sense of pride and validating the department’s commitment to delivering a clean and healthy indoor environment.

David Schweizer is an ISSA customer service representive. He can be reached at david@issa.com; phone, 800-225-4772 (North America) or 847-982-0800

Reprinted with permission from ISSA Today (April  2011), published by ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association. For more information, visit  www.issa.com and www.issa.com/cims.