GCA 2011 Grand Award Higher Education: Central Michigan University
Dec 1, 2011 12:00 PM
GCA 2011 Grand Award Winner for Higher Education: Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, Michigan)
Program Information
Number of students: 21,290
Square footage maintained: 5.7 million
Number of full-time custodians: 114
Annual cleaning budget: $4,195,684 (2011-2012)
Green cleaning team members: Jay Kahn, Director of Facilities Operations; William Bremer, Richard Sochacki, Robert McCormick, Brian Senn, Building Supervisors; Romanow Building Services (26), CMU (88), AFSCME, Cleaning Contractor; Arnold Sales, Lansing Sanitary, and Nichols, Janitorial Product Distributors; Isabella County Material Recovery Facility
Central Michigan University’s green cleaning program began in 2007 with the purchase of Stephen Ashkin’s book, Green Cleaning for Dummies. In February 2008, we developed our first Green Model Report, which began with only one certified green product. Today, we have 26 EPA and seven Green Seal-ertified products.
Over the last three years, we have eliminated more than 35 chemicals. In 2008, we introduced color-coordinated microfiber cloths and mops, which replaced all disposable paper cleaning products, cutting our budget by $24,000 a year. About 40 hand driers have been installed to curb paper towel use. We installed dilution-control systems on every floor of 130 buildings to ensure proper mixing of custodial chemicals. Also, CMU’s windows are cleaned using only de-ionized water so no chemicals are spilled on the ground. All buildings have entrance matting, low mercury lighting, recycling, and all 5.7 million square feet of buildings are cleaned by custodians who receive a minimum of 24 hours of training each year.
Our program’s goal is to protect the health of building occupants by reducing air and water pollution while saving money. In FY 2007, cleaning supplies cost $296,000; in 2010 supplies cost $209,000, a 29.4 percent decrease and a savings of more than $87,000. CMU is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Since receiving a 2010 Honorable Mention in American School & University Magazine, CMU continues to make advancements by introducing outdoor recycling, expanding our composting program to all five on-campus dining halls, applying an anti-microbial coating to all athletic and recreation areas, increasing our custodial training program from 24 to 30 hours on all three shifts, installing heated sidewalks in new buildings, and introducing LEED requirements on all new construction ensuring environmentally responsible practices.
In 2011, we added anti-microbial coating in our fitness and athletic facilities. It is designed to stop H1N1, MRSA, fungi and bacteria from growing on surfaces with no environmental impact. We have also provided extensive training to our custodians on disinfection, prevention of illnesses, germ control and cross contamination. Particularly, a registered nurse spoke to the custodial staff on sanitation against contagious illnesses. We have also doubled the frequency of bathroom and locker room cleaning. Also, we established a communication strategy to increase outreach to building occupants about health concerns through Web-based communication and by installing large signs in bathrooms discussing the H1N1 virus, emphasizing hand washing and installing more than 100 hand sanitizer dispensers.
CMU has an extensive recycling program that recycles on average 48 tons monthly. In 2004, we began recycling newspaper, magazines, cardboard, aluminum, glass, plastic bottles and jugs, and since then added styrofoam, CDs, DVDs, lamps, batteries and TerraCycle recycling. In 2008, we started competing annually in Recyclemania and more than 2,500 recycling bins were placed in classrooms and hallways. We also hosted an in-house recycling competition between the residential halls, awarding prizes totaling $10,000 to more than 600 students. To make recycling more accessible, we have placed more than 2,000 recycle bins in residential kitchenettes and suites, purchased 30-yard roll-off recycle tanks, and budgeted $15,000 annually for employing student Recycle Coordinators. This year, we purchased 100 outdoor recycling bins to place at events and high-traffic areas. In March 2010, we began a compost program using prep food waste from the residential dining kitchens. Currently we have collected more than 65,000 pounds of prep waste to be used in the two on-campus organic gardens.
In the past year, we began emphasizing custodial training to increase our custodian’s awareness of green cleaning best practices. The training given to custodians is hosted by our vendors and allows for custodians to ask questions from experts. In 2010, our custodians averaged 19.5 training hours, but this year we increased the requirement to a minimum of 24 hours of training. We currently offer more than 30 hours of in-classroom and hands-on training, as well as online training. We track the training hours received by each custodian, and reward those meet their goal with a pizza party.
One new strategy at CMU is to build greener buildings that are more custodial-friendly. Examples of this are installing ice-melt systems in sidewalks to reduce salt use and installing floors that do not need floor finishes. We also notify our building occupants of the products we are using in their buildings, and timing of vacuuming and floor care for noise sensitivity, hazardous floor conditions, and sensitivity to chemicals. Along with notification of cleaning, we track buildings that have asthmatics to schedule project work for off-hours and ensure the use of fragrance-free, Green Seal products. We also continue to promote first-shift, daylight cleaning to maximize outreach to building occupants and for energy savings. In 2010, we began requiring that any mold remediation has air-clearance samples to ensure air quality and started testing out low-impact cork flooring on campus We also wash our microfiber cloths in-house with energy-star washing machines.
Monthly, we track all green vs. non-green purchases for each building on-campus. We also analyze our product purchases and sort out the top 10 products that are the most costly in each category; green, neutral and non-green. The goal for 2011 is for 85 percent of purchases made to be EPA or Green Seal certified products, up from 80 percent in 2010. CMU presents this information along with their custodial training topics and achievements monthly to CMU’s Sustainability Committee and Building Coordinator meetings. We also began managing custodial workloads with a software program in order to track labor cost, distribute manpower, and meet customer requirements. Through our green cleaning efforts, we were able to hire three more custodians for our athletic facilities with the information gathered from CleanOps.
