Global warming and the environment are on everyone’s mind these days. The concerns have sparked a ‘green’ revolution where every business, big or small, is getting scrutinized for how environmentally safe their business practices and products are.
Carpet cleaning is no exception. The most successful companies will be the ones who can navigate thru the maze of good, but sometimes misguided, intentions and separate hype from reality. Lets take a look at how you can use ‘green’ to protect the environment and improve your business at the same time.
Why should you be concerned about being green? If approached from a realistic perspective, it can be a win-win for all parties involved. The environment benefits from safer chemicals and proper treatment of waste water. Your employees benefit from not having to breathe or handle harmful chemicals and solvents. Your business benefits as you market your ‘green’ focus while still providing the best carpet cleaning experience for your customers..
How green is carpet cleaning? It’s impossible to say. Green is not a ‘place’ you get to but a way of thinking about how you run your business. If you consciously consider the effects on the environment when selecting products, disposing of waste or any other business activity then you’re green. It’s that simple. From there it’s just a matter of working towards incremental improvements as opportunities arise to find new and better cleaning products and methods to reduce your impact on the environment.
What can be done to minimize your impact on the environment? Your cleaning products are the first thing to look at. What’s in them and are they good or bad for the environment? You can try to learn about the chemicals to understand what they all mean but many products don’t list their ingredients and you need to be a Chemical Engineer to interpret the rest.
A better alternative is to use green certified products. These products have been certified by independent labs and carry their respective seal of approval. There are lots of products to choose from so it’s important to understand your alternatives. Pay particular attention to spot removers, odor removers, stain removers, etc. These products are used because your need extra cleaning power but also means they have stronger or harsher chemicals.
The links below are the most widely used certification organizations. Check them out so you recognize their seal of approval next time you’re shopping for products.
Keep in mind your first job is to clean the carpet. Products that don’t perform that basic function can’t even be considered no matter how safe they are for the environment. We use chemicals for a reason…they work! It’s not just for the esthetic value of a clean carpet but also to prevent bacteria, mold and other bad stuff from breeding in dirty carpets.
How are you handling waste water and chemicals? This is another area where you can show-off your green. Many states already have laws that dictate where and how to dispose of the recovered water from steam extraction cleaning. Explaining to your customers how you approach this problem demonstrates your commitment to green cleaning principles.
Energy usage is another area to improve your green footprint. While carpet cleaning machines are a necessity for getting the carpets cleaned, well maintained machines will use less energy. Keep your carpet cleaning van and truck mount carpet cleaning equipment in good working order to minimize their energy usage.
Training your team is also important. Proper operation of the wand will use just the right amount of water to get the job done without waste or soaking the pad underneath. Also, using the right mixture of cleaning solution will insure a clean carpet with less chemical usage.
Lastly, make sure they know how to use the various spot removers, stain removers and the like. These usually have stronger and harsher chemicals that can not only harm the carpet but pose a health hazard if not used correctly. These are just good common sense business practices that have the added benefit of reducing your impact on the environment.
Should you get your company ‘green’ certified? Company certification is much more difficult and much more expensive than product certification. It usually centers around your business processes and leans heavily on documentation to describe and verify what is to be done.
I’ve had experience with some of these organizations outside the carpet cleaning industry and have not been impressed. These organizations like to get Governments or other large industry associations to sanction their certification so that everyone who does business with them has to get certified or be left out. It’s a effective and profitable cash grab when they can pull it off.
I would recommend holding off on company certification unless it’s absolutely necessary. Most customers have no clue what these certifications mean so where’s the marketing value? The added expense and trouble is usually not worth the effort.
The green revolution is here to stay so ignore it at your peril. Most of it is just asking some basic questions about how you run your business. Concern about the safety of your employees and how to dispose of waste is just good business management whether you buy-in to ‘green’ or not. In the end, it’s about providing a service that delivers clean, fresh smelling carpets that look good and improve the quality of the home for your customers.
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Good day, Just what I was scouring the web for! I was looking into articles and reviews for our site when I came across your page on ” Your Must-Know Guide to Green Carpet Cleaning | Guide to Carpet Cleaning Vans ” which I found on AOL. We would love you to create content for us, if interested. I’ve bookmarked this post for future reference. Nice comments here as well -
I agree it’s important to be “green” and as well as providing professionally trained domestic cleaners, we do that little bit extra by posting helpful cleaning tips on our website, so that people can keep their homes tidy without needing to buy products that cost the planet. This was a really nice article, keep them coming.
http://www.fastklean.co.uk
Dust mites, bed bugs as well as fleas perish at temps over 50° Celsius or 120° Fahrenheit. So while using temperature of vapor at greater than 100° Celsius, Sream cleaning is exceedingly successful.
With over 25 years experience as a phoenix carpet cleaning professional it is strongly recommended that you clean your carpets around once a year for health reasons as well as appearance. To see an EPA schedule click on my user name or the link below.
Richard Sparta,
Owner / Apex Carpet Cleaning
http://www.theapexcc.com