The International Sustainability Standards Board was created in 2021 by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The board’s goal, as defined by the IFRS website, was to establish voluntary sustainability disclosures focused on investor requirements.

As a service supplier to the banking industry, cleaning professionals may be required to submit this report every year. Companies may have different initiatives to drive sustainability throughout their organization.

The first step is to create a sustainability policy and assign the responsibility for creating metrics to a person or committee. The staffing and hours employed will be directly related to how simple or complex your policy and metrics can be.

The second step is to make sure the initiatives are cost effective. There is no value added to the contract by increasing costs.

If you are a cleaning company currently putting together a report, or if you want to explore ways to increase sustainability, take a look at some examples of initiatives.

Example 1:

Reduction of waste. Some cleaning service providers have moved from using paper wipes to using microfiber wipes in daily cleaning. To establish this initiative, you must first divide the paper used for cleaning from the paper used for restroom supplies.

As an example, you find that two boxes a month of paper towels are used for cleaning. Your company will use a total of 12,000 feet of paper per month or 144,000 feet of paper per year. Now you must research the costs of purchasing microfiber wipes and a cleaning system for them.

If the cost of the microfiber is less that the paper, you have a reduction of waste to landfill of 480 pounds a year (amount of boxes x weight of box).

Example 2:

Reduction of plastic. Many cleaning chemical manufacturers have moved from creating and shipping ready to use chemicals to concentrates that can be diluted with water at the worksite. These chemicals come with a higher price tag, but they make 50-80 gallons per concentrate, usually at a lower cost per gallon. They do require equipment for the dilution.

This initiative allows the contract cleaner to reuse all spray bottles and gallons at the worksite. For example, there is an initial purchase of 50 spray bottles and gallons to reuse for the basic seven cleaning products. If the contractor had used all ready-to-use products (non-diluted), the plastic waste would be 600 bottles a year. You must subtract the 50 gallons from the 600 that you would have used to report saving 550 gallons of plastic from the landfill.

Reduction in transportation: A reduction of plastic can save transportation costs as well. Calculate the cost of transporting 550 gallons from the distributor to your facility. It can be reported in reduction in fuel or mileage. These reductions depend on size, payload, and environment, but an average would be 6-10 gallons per 50 miles. If your transportation was 50 miles with monthly deliveries in a smaller truck, you could report 72 gallons of diesel saved a year.

Example 3:

Reduction in plastic: This initiative requires customer participation and training for the affected employees. In the original account, small trash bags for individual trash receptacles were changed daily. Employees were encouraged to use individual trash cans for non-food items only so they could be used without plastic bags. Central trash cans were used for food and drink waste and changed daily. In a multitenant building, they were able to reduce small trash bags by 4,000 a week, or 208,000 a year. Medium bags were increased 180 per week or 9,360 a year. Reporting would be 198,640 less plastic bags in the landfill for the year.

Example 4:

Reduction in transportation: This initiative looks at your distribution fleet and how many miles they travel in a year to deliver equipment and supplies. Some companies have implemented route planning software, driver distribution by zone, combining collections and deliveries, and streamlined communication to reduce driver wait time at the collection/delivery site. Every mile you save can be calculated as reduction in fuel usage and maintenance of the vehicle.

Identifying Trends and Goals

Based on the examples above, the proposed goals would be:

1. Reduction of paper waste by 10% on select locations.
2. Reduction of plastic spray bottles and gallons by 30%.
3. Reduction in transportation miles by 5%.

Companies will only be measured against their own designed goals and performance. We recommend that measurements be made often so you can identify trends during the year. This report should include real numbers regarding each goal.

Sustainability is a road, not a destination. All contractors can investigate how to incorporate sustainability initiatives into their services to help maintain both our environment and their bottom line.