The Clarke County School Districts Green Cleaning Program has been successful in it’s approaches to cleaning in a more healthy and environmentally friendly way. Associate Superintendent of District Services Ted Gilbert says he has seen a great reaction from the CCSD community. “What I’ve seen is an appreciation in the school community for using a sustainable approach to cleaning and not introducing harmful chemicals and yet we’ve seen the buildings equally, if not better,” Gilbert said. “Most of our custodians have embraced this as the right thing to do.”
By KARLA DOUGAN – Broadcast Editor
The Clarke County School District Green Cleaning program was recently awarded for its successful green cleaning efforts.
In December 2015, the Clarke County School District’s Green Cleaning Program was recognized as the Grand Prize Winner by American School and University magazine.
“Last year, we were named Honorable Mention by the American School and University magazine for the Green Cleaning Program and this past December, we re-applied and we were named the Grand Winner out of schools all across the United States,” Plant Services Director Kimberly Thomas said. “A lot of that thanks goes to staff and to our head custodians, who are invested in making sure that we are doing everything we can at all the schools across the district to make sure that we are making everything as clean as possible.”
The Green Cleaning program was first implemented in Fall of 2011. Thomas was hired by the CCSD with the purpose of implementing a program across the district that promotes a healthier and cleaner learning environment.
“What we really tried to do is to number one, really look at the program that we had in place and try to focus on hiring good people and then implement training and get people to understand that the custodial staff is more than just pushing a mop bucket or wiping a window,” Thomas said. “They are really on the front line of public health. They can really impact how healthy a school can be and that translates into making sure the students stays healthy, making sure the staff stays healthy.”
According to the CCSD website, the program “launched with custodial staff using color-coded microfiber cloths, adding HEPA-filtered backpack vacuums, reducing the number of daily cleaning products from 45 to two and using green-rated products.”
“The main thing is that we want clean and healthy schools and we don’t want to have to bring in a lot of harsh products to do the job that environmentally friendly jobs can do that still do the same thorough job,” Thomas said.
The program has been implemented at 21 schools around the district.
“It’s now expanded onto all of our campuses,” Associate Superintendent of District Services Ted Gilbert said. “From my position, we’ve gone from a start of two or three campuses or buildings to now on every campus. So I would say we’ve reached that goal.”
Going forward, Thomas hopes to continue incorporating healthier and more environmentally friendly cleaning products into schools around the county.
“(In the future), we are going to branch more into the engineered water cleaning. With that, we wouldn’t have to use a traditional disinfected because the engineered water produces it just by the good old Clarke County water,” Thomas said. “Every chance we have an opportunity to get a product that is not as harsh but does just as good, we use that.”
