Even the timing of when cleaning is conducted can have profit generation impact. There are numerous methodologies that can be used to schedule cleaning activities, and a multitude of factors need to be considered when setting up the cleaning plan. Daytime cleaning is one approach that has produced energy savings at some locations.
In 1997, General Motors Worldwide Facilities Group faced an increasingly competitive landscape and the need to reduce costs while maintaining quality. They began exploring the benefits and challenges of moving the night custodial crew to cleaning during the day.
The team reviewed schedules, potential interruption, tasks, labor, and productivity. They also considered occupant perspectives and disturbances to facility tenants. Energy consumption also was a consideration as the project began to unfold. After analyzing all of the data, they presented a case for daytime cleaning that included best practices and a way to perform cleaning during the day.
Steve Spencer, Facilities Specialist at State Farm, reviewed GM’s work several years later and built on their practical experience. During the decade since GM’s initial work, energy costs had risen steadily. Steve quantified the substantial energy savings that daytime cleaning could deliver. He found that daytime cleaning produced energy savings of between 7 and 8 percent per year in the 30 State Farm buildings that were transitioned to daytime cleaning.
The Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 Headquarters in Denver employs a daytime custodial service that schedules service from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. each workday. As a result, the 292,000 sq. ft. facility is able to turn off lights and HVAC requirements between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Energy costs have been reduced by 28 percent, saving the building owner nearly $250,000 annually.
Gene Woodward, Director of Facilities Services Custodial Division at University of Washington, also researched daytime cleaning and deployed it using an in-house cleaning operation on a large campus with more than 280 custodians (Zudonyi, 2012).
Table 4 summarizes the impact that moving to daytime cleaning produced. Service levels improved as measured by APPA scores and assurance scores. The productivity rate per hour increased with less worker fatigue, resulting in a reduction in staff from 315 full-time equivalent employees (FTE) to 282 FTE. Cleaning worker absenteeism also fell.
In addition to the many benefits of daytime cleaning, The University of Washington discovered that the campus reduced their carbon footprint by reducing fuel consumed by employees because more than 40 percent of the custodial staff now van-pooled to work, an option not available during the night shift. This also freed up valuable campus parking spots and gave the custodial staff additional income as gasoline costs continued to rise.
Diversey, a part of Sealed Air, launched the Healthy High Performance Cleaning (HHPC) Day Certification Program in the United States in 2010 for property management companies and building service contractors. The global chemical and equipment company also implemented the system in their LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) corporate headquarters.
Reduction of day porter personnel needed in some single tenant facilities. This may save an organization $25,000 or more per year per porter.
Type of Fixture: T8’s are 1″ in diameter; T12’s are 1 1/2″. T8’s run on an electronic ballast and will not run (efficiently) in a fixture with a regular ballast. A four-foot T8 is 32 watts, while the four-foot T12 is 40 watts. The commercial lighting industry is rapidly shifting towards T8 bulbs because they are more energy efficient. The driving force in the United States is the new United States Federal Minimum Energy Standards for fluorescent lights.
Number of Fixtures: The typical commercial facility has a light fixture for every 50 sq. ft. of office space.
Occupancy Sensors: If an organization has installed occupancy sensors to further manage lighting, the estimated percentage of savings derived from these sensors should be included.
Hours per Night: Most night cleaning operations consume between 5 and 7 hours of lighting per shift on at least 260 days a year. These numbers are then multiplied by the kilowatt-hour (kWh) that a facility consumes.
Cost: Electricity is measured by the kilowatt-hour (kWh). When a customer uses 1000 watts for 1 hour that is a kilowatt-hour. The most recent utility bill provides an organization’s cost per kWh. Alternatively, there are a number of Websites that provide cost ranges by geographic region. One such link is www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly.
Figure 2 illustrates the energy savings generated when a 500,000 square foot office building converts to daytime cleaning.
The leading trade association for the cleaning industry worldwide, ISSA has a membership that includes more than 6,100 distributors, manufacturers, building service contractors, in-house service providers, and others interested in the cleaning industry. ISSA helps its members and their employees make valuable contacts through the industry’s largest cleaning shows, produced in conjunction with Amsterdam RAI, under the brand name ISSA/INTERCLEAN®.
ISSA also helps increase professionalism and networking opportunities through its global Web site, ISSA.com, and by offering business tools, industry standards – including the popular CIMS/CIMS-GB program – and legislative and regulatory services. It is through these initiatives that ISSA increases awareness of the true value of clean and its impact on human health, the environment, and a better bottom line. The association is headquartered in Lincolnwood, IL, USA. For more information, visit www.issa.com.
Dan Wagner is ISSA's Director of Facility Service Programs and has been with ISSA since November of 1999. He is primarily responsible for leading the association's sustainability and facility service programs, including the Cleaning Industry Management Standard & CIMS-Green Building Certification Program and Transpare. Dan has published numerous articles and spoken at various conferences, workshops and seminars on CIMS, standardization, management principles, and the true value of clean.
Dan is also a noted "subject matter expert" on green cleaning and a sought after speaker on environmental preferability, sustainability and green operations and maintenance. He has served as an SME for the International Facility Management Association and IFMA Foundation and is a co-author of the Foundation's "Global Guide on Green Cleaning," as well as a primary contributor to the "Business of Green Cleaning" manual.
Dan is also the association's Director of Facility Service Legislative Affairs and in-house legal counsel, having received his Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University in 1998. He is also a licensed attorney in the State of Illinois; a member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association, the American Society of Association Executives; and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Floor Safety Institute.
ISSA also helps increase professionalism and networking opportunities through its global Web site, ISSA.com, and by offering business tools, industry standards – including the popular CIMS/CIMS-GB program - and legislative and regulatory services. It is through these initiatives that ISSA increases awareness of the true value of clean and its impact on human health, the environment, and a better bottom line. The association is headquartered in Lincolnwood, IL, USA. For more information, visit www.issa.com.