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Industry News
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Green Seal
Initiates Revision of GS-37 Standard for Cleaners
Green Seal, a national non-profit organization, has begun a
comprehensive review and revision of GS-37, its environmental
standard for institutional and industrial cleaning products, and
invites all interested stakeholders to actively participate.
The revision is expected to take about a year and will include a
formal public review of the proposed revisions about halfway
through the process.
Since GS-37 was first developed in 2000, technology has improved
and new information has arisen about issues such as emissions,
endocrine disruptors and asthmagens. Since major entities such
as New York State have adopted GS-37 for schools, issues have
been raised about its adequacy in protecting the health of
sensitive and vulnerable populations such as school-age children
and custodial workers.
“The primary goal of revising GS-37,” said Arthur Weissman,
Ph.D., president and CEO of Green Seal, Inc. “is to ensure that
it continues to represent an environmental leadership standard
in the marketplace and to incorporate criteria that fully
protect human health, including that of children and custodial
workers.”
The review and revision of GS-37 will be managed by Green Seal
with the help of an executive committee that will include New
York State, which is providing major funding for the project;
the Healthy Schools Network, Inc., a national environmental
health organization that promotes healthy learning environments
for children, personnel, and communities; Routt Reigart, M.D.,
of the Medical University of South Carolina, a leading pediatric
health expert; TerraChoice, administrator of the EcoLogo
Program; and ISSA, the trade association of the cleaning
industry.
The University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products and Clean
Technologies will assist in research and development and also
will manage the stakeholders’ process. Additional technical
assistance will be sought from Greenguard Institute, NIOSH, and
other expert sources.
Green Seal develops its environmental standards in an open and
transparent process. The public will have an opportunity to
comment when the standard is proposed for public review.
Stakeholders will also have the opportunity, through a
representative stakeholders committee, to provide input
throughout the process, including scoping, drafting of the
proposed revised standard, and addressing issues raised in the
public review. For more information, email
greenseal@greenseal.org,
write to Green Seal at 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW Ste. 827,
Washington DC 20036, or call 202-872-6400.
WAXIE Acquires Midwest Chemical in Denver
WAXIE Sanitary Supply has announced its recent merger with
Midwest Chemical & Supply, a leading distributor of janitorial
supplies in the Denver, CO region.
“We are excited to have Midwest as part of the WAXIE family,”
said Charles Wax, president and CEO of WAXIE’s Enterprises, Inc.
For the past 60 years, WAXIE’s mission has been to become the
industry leader of sanitary supply distribution. The merger with
Midwest Chemical & Supply brings WAXIE one step closer to the
accomplishment of that goal in the Denver area by combining
Midwest’s tradition of quality products and services with
WAXIE’s historical success with customer satisfaction, process
implementation, and state of the art technologies.
This acquisition will bring the two companies together, under
the same roof, utilizing one system to service customers in the
Denver area.
“We want to link Midwest’s local knowledge and success with our
proven technologies” remarked Charles, “and look forward to the
strength it will bring to our Denver team.”
Marc Bell, owner of Midwest, will remain with WAXIE as part of
the leadership team.
“I am very excited about the new benefits and capabilities we can
now bring to our customers,” says Bell.
Effective Jan. 29 all operations will be conducted from a brand
new facility.
Additional information about WAXIE Sanitary Supply may be
obtained at www.waxie.com.
Wacker Drive Address Wins Central TOBY Award
Prime Group Realty Trust, a Chicago-based real estate investment
trust (REIT), has announced that 77 West Wacker Drive, a
landmark Class A office tower in Chicago’s central business
district, has won “The Office Building of the Year”(TOBY) award
for the Five State North Central Region by the Building Owners
and Managers Association (BOMA).
The 960,000 square-foot tower was de¬clared the winner in the
500,000 to 1,000,000 square-foot category at BOMA’s Winter
Business meeting in Las Vegas Jan. 27. 77 West Wacker won The
TOBY award in the same category for the Chicago CBD last
September.
Earlier in 2006, Prime Group Realty Trust won TOBY Awards for
its Continental Towers building in Rolling Meadows, Illinois,
for both the suburban Chicago and five-state North Central Region
areas, for the second year in a row.
The TOBY award program, now in its 21st year, is commonly
recognized as the most prestigious and comprehensive program in
the commercial real estate industry related to the management
and operation of buildings. Participants are judged on the
effectiveness of their overall building management in 11
categories, including community impact, tenant relations,
energy management, emergency preparedness and training for
personnel.
The 51-story building received high marks in each category,
particularly in the (i) environmental and regulatory category
because of Prime’s efforts in recycling and energy conservation
and (ii) the community impact category, following the
announcement over the summer that United Air Lines, Inc. was
staying in Chicago and moving its corporate headquarters to 77
West Wacker Drive.
We are proud of our management team and its operation, and want
to thank BOMA for recognizing 77 West Wacker Drive as a top
notch building,” said Jeffrey Patterson, president and CEO of
Prime Group Realty Trust. “We thank everyone at PGRT involved in
running the building for their hard work and these results.”
77 West Wacker Drive is located on the south bank of the Chicago
River at Wacker Drive and Clark Street and features
exceptional-quality, on-site amenities including an Italian
bistro and a state-of-the-art fitness facility. The property is
easily accessible by public transportation and is connected to
Chicago’s Pedway system, with enclosed access to other
amenities such as parking, banking, retail, restaurant and hotel
services. The Class A office building offers 24-hour secured
access as well.
Tennant to Receive Award for Pollution Prevention
The Tennant Co., Minneapolis, MN, a manufacturer of solutions
that create a cleaner, safer world, was chosen to receive a
Governor’s for Excellence in Waste and Pollution Prevention
award.
The award, was to be presented Feb. 28 by the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency/ Minnesota Office of Environmental
Assistance (MPCA/MOEA) at the Minnesota Air, Water, and Waste
Environmental Conference. It honors superior environmental
achievement by Minnesota businesses that have developed
innovative practices that prevent pollution and waste, improve
resource efficiency and lead to sustainability.
Tennant is primarily being recognized for its proven waste and
pollution accomplishments at its own facilities, including
reducing:
-Hazardous raw materials usage by 2,200pounds;
-Non-hazardous raw materials usage by 1,275,046 pounds;
-Water usage by 3.7 million gallons;
-Energy usage by 264,800 kWh/2.7 billion Btu;
-Hazardous waste by 2,200 pounds;
-Solid waste by 49,316 pounds;
-Air emissions by 24,440 pounds;
-Water pollutants by 35,860 pounds; and
- Related company expenses by more than$1,450,000.
Tennant is also being recognized for helping its customers
reduce or prevent pollution and waste through its product
technologies such as ReadySpacetechnology, which reduces waste
water, mold, allergens and odors; FaST foam scrubbing
technology, which uses 70 percent less water and 90 percent
less detergent than traditional automatic floor scrubbers; and
Eco-Advantage floor coatings, which are virtually odor free and
use less solvent.
“I think everyone at Tennant is extremely proud of this
recognition and proud of the steps the company has taken and
continues to take in creating cleaner, safer, healthier places
to live, work and play,” said Mike Reznicek, Tennant’s paint
process improvement engineer who, with the assistance of Deb
McKinley of the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program at the
University of Minnesota, was responsible for bringing Tennant’s
environmental sustainability successes to the attention of the
MPCA.
According to Reznicek, Tennant has many more eco-friendly
projects in the works, including recovering oven energy to
reduce 64,000 therms and save $46,000; controlling efficiency of
unit heaters to reduce 22,000 therms and save $15,900; adding an
on-site water heater to reduce 11,000 therms and save $3,800;
periodically sealing the painting environmental room to reduce
up to 3,350 therms and save up to $2,400; and discontinuing heat
in the receiving dock to reduce 13,000 therms and save $9,400.
For more information, visit
www.tennantco.com.
UNICCO Affiliates With Service Management International
UNICCO Service Co. has become an affiliate member of Service
Management International (SMI) a global consortium of facilities
services providers.
The affiliation gives UNICCO exclusive rights to provide
facilities services to SMI consortium customers in North America
and enables SMI to continue to extend its Soft Services
facilities services to additional global markets.
UNICCO has been delivering integrated facilities services in
North America for over 50 years. SMI provides both business
development and operational services that bring together
top-tier facilities services providers to give multinational and
global companies the flexibility to structure facilities services
contracts that transcend national borders. The consortium
enables companies to post a single tender to be delivered by
multiple affiliated contractors under a single management
structure and reporting system.
This approach has several advantages for customers. It enables
them to simplify their tender process; sets international
benchmarks for performance, training, safety, environmental
stewardship and other metrics; and helps companies expand
internationally, either through expansion or acquisition, by
enabling them to quickly and efficiently integrate facilities
services.
“At UNICCO, we know facilities services well — from custodial
through operations and maintenance, for commercial, industrial,
educational and government customers,” said Michael Dunn, senior
vice president, UNICCO Service Company. “We also know the North
American market and quickly ramp up new accounts on a routine
basis. With SMI, we have the flexibility to offer the same level
of service internationally to our customers, and SMI gains
immediate access to the market through what we consider to be
the best facilities services company in North America.”
“SMI welcomes UNICCO,” said Juergen Kulka, managing director,
SMI. “Through UNICCO, SMI now has substantial access to the
North American market. We can offer our customers the same
package of services that we provide in Europe, Middle East,
Africa and Asia from a prestigious facilities services
contractor. We look forward to working with UNICCO to develop
and support new business in the North American marketplace.”
Service Management International Ltd. was founded in 2000 as a
joint venture of three major European facility service
companies. It can deliver solutions to European, Middle Eastern,
African, Asian and North American multinational corportions for
a broad selection of support and facility services. The SMI
model provides a single or multi-service contract capability
with national service delivery platforms.
UNICCO Service Company, based in Newton, MA, is one of North
America’s largest integrated facilities services companies with
more than 16,000 employees and $700 million in annualized
revenues.
For further information, call 617-527-5222 or visit
www.unicco.com.
Salt Lake City Airport Chooses CleanTelligent Software
BG Service Solutions’ airport division, based in Denver, has
successfully bid a service contract with the Salt Lake City
International Airport for use of its online tracking system,
CleanTelligent.
BG Service Solutions specializes in large-space facilities,
including shopping centers, schools and airports. They service
the Denver and Orlando airports, and had been working for
several years to get a contract with the Salt Lake City
International Airport as well.
Eight years ago, Salt Lake City International was accepting
proposals from building service contractors to take the place of
their existing cleaning company. BG put in a bid and was scored
highly. However, because the airport was not familiar with BG
they ultimately decided to keep their existing service provider.
After this first attempt, the BG Airport Division decided to
prepare for the next time Salt Lake’s contract came up. They
worked to build a stronger relationship with the airport, and
they implemented a new online tracking system — CleanTelligent.
The Salt Lake contract came up again recently, and BG had done
their homework. They knew what was important to the airport and
tailored their proposal accordingly.
“It was truly an eight-year effort to get it, and CleanTelligent
played a major role,” said BG’s Airport Division Manager Scott
Murray. “CleanTelligent was one of the key decision factors in
obtaining the Salt Lake contract. Reporting capability was a big
issue for them. We knew that they wanted something like that,
and we were building some tracking software of our own, but it
didn’t have the functionality we wanted. So we looked around for
other options.
“CleanBrain Software’s CleanTelligent was just what we needed.
CleanBrain was flexible and willing to do whatever needed being
done.”
The tracking system was well-received by the airport. “They were
impressed right from the start,” says Murray. “We spent about a
third of our proposal explaining the CleanTelligent system. They
could look at it and see where the problems were by time of day
or by area. Now we can even do reports to see the work quality
of our individual custodians.”
For more information on CleanTelligent, contact CleanBrain
Software, Inc. at 1-877-272-4648 and visit
www.CleanBrain.com.
Acquisition Establishes Ecolab in UAE
Ecolab Inc. has purchased a distributor it used to sell through
to establish a direct operation in the United Arab Emirates.
Ecolab previously operated in the country through the
distributor, and has purchased that business to form the new
direct Ecolab operation in the country. Sales for the acquired
business were approximately $3 million. No further details
regarding the transaction were announced.
“As our customers’ operations have grown in the Middle East, and
Dubai in particular, the need for us to more closely support
them through our direct presence with our premium products and
services has increased,” said Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Ecolab’s
chairman, president and CEO. “This action will enable us to
better assure we meet those needs today, as well as the growth
expected from the region in the future.”
With 2005 sales of $4.5 billion, Ecolab is a global developer
and marketer of premium cleaning, sanitizing, pest elimination,
maintenance and repair products and services for the
hospitality, foodservice, healthcare and industrial markets.
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