Sustainability is a huge concern for businesses and, understandably so, within their facilities management departments too. We want to help you make the best choice in commercial cleaning services by giving you a checklist to consider when planning your outsourcing.
Important factors when choosing a sustainable commercial cleaning service
From our years of experience, we have compiled the most important factors when choosing a sustainable cleaning service into one easy-to-digest blog post.
1. Understand your sustainability policy inside and out
The key to any service hire is understanding what your goals are and this is no different when it comes to hiring commercial cleaners. Your sustainability policy will give you a set of aims your provider must meet.
2. Know where your commercial cleaning service is falling short
If you aren’t starting your search from scratch, in other words, you currently employ a commercial cleaning company that you’d like to replace, then you need to ask where they are falling short.
Question 1 - which service provision(s) within the current contract isn’t (aren’t) being fulfilled?
If your provider isn’t able to provide a fully sustainable approach, then ask yourself
Question 2 - what is it about the service or products used that is holding back your sustainable advancement?
A clearer idea of where you currently stand will help you establish a goal list that aligns with your sustainability aims for future partnerships.
3. Research sustainable commercial cleaning companies
Sustainability in commercial cleaning services has different meanings. Firstly, service delivery and secondly, business practice.
You need to look for a commercial cleaning company that works with eco-friendly products and delivers sustainable and recycling practices whilst in your business.
You should also go further and look for a partner who treats their own business as a sustainable entity. This means not just balancing their own carbon emissions, but striving to be part of systemic change.
This is something our founder, Antoni Dimitrov, is incredibly passionate about, which you can see in a recent LinkedIn post about the falsehoods of current carbon-balancing exercises. You see, we treat our business exactly as you hope us to act in yours, sustainably and efficiently.
4. Sniff out the greenwashing
There’s a heck of a lot of “greenwashing” out there, meaning businesses and organisations effectively marketing green products and services that do not actually stack up as sustainable practices.
Dive deeper into your research and ask questions about how the providers you have highlighted work to deliver the bold promises they make. Ask them important questions where you feel they might not have been clear.
5. Make sure there’s a wider philosophy around innovation
We touched on the idea of sustainable philosophy on point 3, but we feel that you could take this further and consider sustainable innovation as a factor too.
Eco Drift Ltd started life as a waterless carwash, only growing into facilities management when one of our biggest clients suffered a major flood at their premises. Right from the start, we wanted to take what we had learned in car cleaning and push it forward to provide cleaning services that use dramatically less water, using fewer chemicals and providing safer environments for workers. This is when we came across 4D cleaning and adapted the process for our specific clients.
Our approach continues to remain forward-thinking, upholding our sustainable values when we design.
6. Understand their services and cleaning products
Meeting with your potential cleaning partners is crucial in our mind because this gives you the opportunity to really understand the service offer and both processes and products used.
How will their sustainable solutions work in your unique situation and how does this align with your sustainable goals?
Most commercial cleaning service providers will come out and meet you to assess your business needs before they quote. This is an important time to probe them on anything you couldn’t glean from their website and marketing materials. It’s also a great opportunity to get a sense of a working relationship.
7. Consider waste implications
Finding a stand-out service provider who considers sustainability in service provision is one thing, but how they handle their waste and how much waste they produce is also something to think about. If they use chemical-free soap to fill your dispensers, but it comes in small batches that produce more plastic waste, then that causes problems elsewhere.
Likewise, if their innovative process uses more water than your current cleaning processes, well, again you may see yourself facing bigger issues down the line.
Looking for balance in sustainable commercial cleaning services
Balance is a hard thing to achieve for businesses today and in sustainable commercial cleaning services, it is no different. This is because we are all still finding our feet in a more environmentally-minded world. We believe that it is possible, however, to find a more sustainable choice than you are using currently and whilst we wouldn’t want you to explore alternative providers before collaborating on how to move together towards your eco-goals, we would implore you to look at processes and products.
In writing this article, we aim to have given you plenty to think about when considering your greener business plans and if you are in the Hampshire and Reading areas we welcome an opportunity to consult with you.