The greener clean: Skaneateles schools host buildings and grounds event

Miranda L. Pennock 03/03/09

Miranda L. Pennock/Ron Wagner, business development manager with Hillyard, demonstrates some of the features on the C3, an all-in-one custodial closet on wheels that allows for a hands free cleaning.

How green is your air? Can you be a greener cleaner?
Those two questions were posed during various workshops at Skaneateles High School as members of more that 30 school buildings and grounds departments around Central New York met for the Superintendents of Buildings and Grounds Association Mid-State Chapter 13th annual trade show.
The show included information on new products and greener ways to go about the daily rituals of cleaning and caring for school buildings.
During the workshop “How green is your air?” with Bob Krell, president of IAQ Technologies in Syracuse, the group of buildings and grounds employees were given information about LED — or light emitting diodes — versus ballast base lighting technology. According to Krell, LED technology has to be changed less frequently at about once every 10 years.
With only 30 minutes per workshop, Krell quickly went through a PowerPoint slideshow touching on radon, air infiltration, moisture problems, lead paint and asbestos.
“In a school environment there’s a lot more at stake than mold,” Krell said.
Custodians and others have to be aware of the paints, plaster, art products and dry erase markers, along with the solvents used to clean various surfaces in the schools.
“People have a tendency to get hysterical about indoor environmental issues,” Krell said.
Along with talking about how green the air is inside, he also discussed various myths about going green. The first myth is indoor air quality, also known as indoor environmental quality, versus energy, which involves cutting costs.
Krell said the terminology is changing “because it’s not just air anymore that people need to be conscious of — it’s also lights and sounds.”
The second myth is that going green will take all your green because it’s based on the premise of the “triple win,” meaning the companies involved need to be making money and the green product need to be good for the environment.
However, Krell said if everyone is getting the “green” cleaning products and they don’t work, then no one wins.
“For this to work we need to invest in it,” he said.
But along with investing, the path we’re on also needs to change, such as how chemicals are disposed of.
Krell’s third myth is “you have a choice” about going green, which he followed by saying “you don’t.”
A second workshop dealing with green cleaning was taught by Ron Wagner of Hillyard, which is based in St. Joseph, Mo., but has a manufacturing plant in Akron, Ohio, and distribution plants in the Rochester area.
Wagner, a business development manager, talked to a crowded room about the C3 machine, which has been out for two years. For the most part, the machine is a no-touch cleaning device.
“It holds three products so it really becomes your custodial closet on wheels,” Wagner said.
The apparatus holds seven and a half gallons of clean water, has room for disinfectants, sanitizers and floor cleaners, a tool holder, a place for cleaning rags, a vacuum attachment and the entire unit is battery operated. Also, a newer feature is the bottle fill so the user can fill spray bottles for cleaning smaller surfaces like desktops.
The battery charges in 10 to 12 hours, Wagner said.
“You can charge it every night if you need to,” he said.
The cost is approximately $1,500 for the base unit, which doesn’t include many of the tools that custodians typically have.
The machine offers a greener clean for many reasons, though. For instance, there’s no contamination of the water and solution that is seen with a traditional mop and bucket.
“If the custodian doesn’t change that mop water, they’re just bringing in that solution,” Wagner said, adding that a disinfectant is only active if the soiled solution is less than five percent.
In its 13th year, Skaneateles’ Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds Vincent Sicignano is pleased with those who provided workshops and the people who attended them.
“It’s all about the education. It doesn’t cost any of the schools anything,” Sicignano said.
Skaneateles has been hosting the event for the last four years and is already set to host next year’s event. When it began, there were a few vendors and a handful of schools, and “look at it now,” Sicignano said. He estimates more than 400 people attended the tradeshow and workshops during the event on Feb. 18.
“We take education serious,” he said.

CATEGORY: Environment
TAGS: green, cleaning, custodians, schools
EDITION: Skaneateles Press