Custodial Services
Sustainability
The Custodial Services at the University of Oregon started our change to green chemicals in 2003. We changed over to green chemicals for several reasons; provided a safer environment for our employees and building users, promoted indoor air quality by decreasing pollutants from chemical use, and reduced health and environmental impact on our campus. We have succeeded in finding highly efficient safe and versatile cleaners without sacrificing our performance in cleaning with minimal increase to our budget.
Custodial Services uses Coastwide Sustainable Earth green products in our general cleaning, carpet cleaning, and disinfectant and cleaning restrooms throughout campus. Coastwide Sustainable Earth products are green sealed approved. In fact, Coastwide Sustainable Earth disinfectant #66 is the only green disinfectant that is registered with the EPA. Our total percentage by volume in using green cleaning products is 92.3%. We are diligently looking for cutting edge chemicals that are safe, versatile and environmentally responsible without forfeiting performance. There are two main areas that we are not using green products; floor stripping and waxing, and window cleaning. We are testing new products constantly in these areas and hope to come up with a solution soon.
We have also switched our restroom dispensers. Using jumbo toilet paper dispensers, allows us to use two larger rolls of toilet paper with no waste. Before the switch we had to change out the toilet paper before they ran out causing us to waste 25% of our product. Our restrooms have a no-touch towel dispenser that dispenses a 12” towel and has the capacity to hold a stub roll that eliminates paper waste. Our toilet tissue is 100% recycled with 75% post consumer waste materials. “Post consumer materials” are materials that we discard at home and at work that are separated or diverted for recycling instead of going to a landfill. All our paper products are 100% recycled with 40% to 75% recycled waste materials.
We strive to ensure our campus is using the safest cleaning products available. It will help improve student health, increase student and staff performance, diminish harmful environmental impact, reduce potential liabilities, and even save money in the long run.
To find out more information on how facilities services ia activity participating in sustainability issues please see our sustainability website.
All rights reserved. Last Modified: April 23, 2008 X
Webmaster Linda Miller at lmiller@uoregon.edu