Episode #2 - CleaningBiz.tv - David Holly Talks About Green Cleaning

Jean Hanson

Episode #2 -- This is an interview with Green Cleaning guru, David Holly.

In the interview, David talks about:

1. the future of the cleaning industry as it relates to green cleaning
2. is certification necessary and how to prepare if that is your goal
3. how to differentiate your cleaning company from everyone else offering green cleaning

Jean: I'd like to welcome our first guest to the show, David Holly. Welcome David, and thanks for being here today! Let me just take a minute to introduce you to our audience. David started out like many of us, as a janitor, but has come a long way in his 30-plus years in the industry. He is Director of Business Development with The Ashkin Group, which is a consulting firm focused on Green Cleaning and Sustainability; he is Chancellor of ISSA's Green Cleaning University; he is Deputy Director of The Green Cleaning Network; he is an author and frequent speaker at industry events; and he is a Founding Member of Tripod Learning Associates, which produces educational materials for cleaning professionals. Wow David, when do you find time to sleep? Wow David when do you find time to sleep? David: Saturdays. (laugh) Jean: Yea Saturdays. Well I would like to talk briefly about the future of the cleaning industry as it relates to green cleaning. I remember talking to you about this a couple of years ago and you made the comment that you didn't think the phrase green cleaning would be around in a few years. That cleaning for health, for sustainability and the environment would just be the norm in cleaning. So I wanted to ask you if you felt that still to be true? Because it seems like that is the way we are going in this industry. David: You know Jean I feel even more strongly about it now since the last time we talked. You think about green cleaning to protect the occupants in the building including the folks doing the cleaning as well as protecting the environment. Pretty soon you have to ask yourself if you are not doing green cleaning, then what I am doing? Jean: Right. David: Isn't that what cleaning should be about? In our industry we are obsessed with green cleaning because we have been talking about it for so long but our clients really aren't. By and large if you took a typical customer and asked them "do you think your cleaning contractor is cleaning to protect health and the environment?" They are going to say "of course why wouldn't they be?" So when a contractor asks me now "should I get a green cleaning program?" I say you better hurry because if you are talking about a poker game green cleaning just ups the ante. We are moving way far beyond that and that is just the cleaning. Jean: One of the most frequently asked questions that we get about green cleaning is about certification. "Should I be certified?" "What kind of certification should I get?" "Do I even need to do it?" Well there are options out there; there is Green Seal certification, there is ISSA CIMS GB program, so I guess I have a couple of questions for you: First, do you think it is necessary? And second, if there is a company out there that wants to be certified or aspired to become certified what steps should they take to get to that point? David: Those are good questions and again we have to remember that we are obsessed with cleaning and that is all we do. For our clients for the most part we are a necessary evil but we are the person they cut in their budget cuts. So they are not at the same level of thought as we are. So again if we approach that customer and ask should we be a certified green cleaner? They will probably look at you like you are a little crazy right now. Now that may change. I think it is a good idea to be aware of the certifications. There are 2 reasons to be certified and one is to make sure you really doing everything well and the other is for sales opportunities. And again I don't think the sales opportunities are really there at this point. But a certification or the steps going through the certification will help your company be put in a good position to help get it the maximum productivity and doing the best possible to cleaning to protect the occupants in that kind of environment. So the second part of that question I don't know if I would jump in or recommend someone to jump in and go through the expense of actual certification right now unless a client was pushing them. Jean: Ok. David: But the information is certainly available certainly from Green Seal and their GS42 Program and their checklist of what needs to be done. And CIMS, let's put that aside for a moment. The GS42 gives you that checklist and looking at your organization is an excellent way to start. And by starting to move along that path at some point if it becomes necessary to meet a client's request or if you see it is important for marketing at least you have already done most of the work. It makes it a pretty easy job to do to step into that pay check. CIMS is a little different and it goes way beyond green cleaning. It goes into managing your company and there are a lot of good reasons to look into that in terms of putting processes into place. But it really depends on the size of your company and where you are at. So if you are in a company that now you have a number of employees and an office staff, then it is worth looking at. And again there are people that have gone through this and on The Janitorial Store forum you can find some folks that have went through it. Ask them some questions about what they went through and start putting yourself along those steps until you are really ready to pull the trigger. Jean: So all you need to do is go online and you have a whole list of the requirements so you can see what needs to happen in your business if you decide to become certified. David: Exactly. So you have sort of a cheat seat. Jean: Right. David: You can get started on it now and later again if you need to have it you can say I have all of this stuff in place and let's go to the next step. Jean: Alright well I have a marketing question for you and I touched on it just a little bit but we used to say even just a couple of years ago you can differentiate yourself from the competition by having a green cleaning program. So now it seems that everyone has a green cleaning program. Now whether it is the right way to do green cleaning, well that is a whole other topic. But I guess my question is, how do you differentiate yourself from the competition who is also saying that now they have green cleaning? David: Well let's take it even step back farther. We first started talking about green cleaning a decade ago there were folks out there that thought they could have a green cleaning program and charge more for it verses their normal program. I always thought that was a tough sell. How could I tell you "this is to protect the people in your building and it is going to cost you $x" but or else "this might not protect quite as good and will cost you a little less." Jean: Right. David: I always thought that was a tough sell and I don't think anyone ever succeeded in that. So differentiated became the norm then. And I could say I have a good green cleaning program if I wanted and the competition maybe doesn't. And you are right I think those days are pretty much passed. I think if you went to the typical customer and said "I use green cleaning to help protect your health and the environment" they are going to say "of course." You can call it green, purple or orange but people kind of expect that. So I don't think that is a differentiator anymore. I think what is important if you are on the green journey, I think it is important not to differentiate between green and whatever you use in your own company. Just do it. The products are there, the equipment is there and the processes. It is fairly easy and the cost is about the same. If you really get going you will probably save money. So just do it. Looking ahead to how you differentiate, you know the big companies are looking at sustainability. They are looking at energy savings, water savings and why are they doing that? Because it saves them money. It improves profitability. Now they are starting to come to all of their vendors including us and saying "what are you doing from the sustainability standpoint?" I hear carbon footprints mention and so on. Most contractors are going to look at that and say "oh man how I am going to do that?" And the beauty is there are a couple of programs out there that can really help them get a handle on what they are doing you know the old saying if you don't measure it you don't manage it. These help you measure it simply and manage it so in the end if it is important to your clients it is something that you can report to them and show them in this organization and this arena. I think that is where we are headed. Sustainability is the topic of the future. Jean: So it all comes back to educating your client. "Here is what we are going to be able to do to save you money" through energy savings or whatever it is and so that is what you are using to market it. Not that you are saying "we are green or that we offer green cleaning" but it is what we are doing to help you. David: Exactly. Absolutely right. Jean: Ok. Well I wanted to talk to our audience about you a little bit. You are an educator in the cleaning industry and you've been doing it for a long time. So I just wanted you to tell our audience what you have been up to lately and what you are doing to help educate cleaning business owners in particular since that is who is mainly watching today. David: Ok. Thanks Jean and I do appreciate that opportunity. You saw all of those things that I am doing. The Ashkin Group, to Green Cleaning University, the Green Cleaning Network and The Tripod Learning Associates. And you know they all have something in common and that is education. That is really important. There are a lot of good training programs out there that will tell you how to sweep a floor, mop a floor or strip a floor. But not a lot of good solid education out there at this time and that is what all of these are geared to do. So as I think about those folks who are watching today; you folks out there one of the things I would like to point out is that through Tripod Learning Associates we have something called Tripodcasts. These are free weekly podcasts that come on every Monday morning about how to improve your organization; management, sales, operations. All of those things. And we try to make it broad enough that is covers contractors as well as in house operations, distributors and manufacturers. Easy to find at tripodcast.com. Again it is free and we don't bother you with emails. Matter of fact we don't even collect your email address except for having it for the email that comes out to you automatically every Monday morning. We have a number of other products that that you can see if you go to Tripod Learning Associates from DVD's, CD's, books and our inner circle which is a subscription based podcast that comes out monthly. And I would also like to mention Green Cleaning University. Although it is primarily directed at sales and learning to sell green and sustainability I think it has a lot of impact on contractors for selling as well. But it also helps you understand what your customers are looking for. So you can go to the ISSA website at ISSA.com and have a look at Green Cleaning University. And of course I would be remised if I wouldn't mention coming back here to The Janitorial Store because there is just a ton of information available here as well. Jean: And just too also mention that David briefly mentioned the Inner Circle, which is a longer version of their free tripod cast and you can subscribe to that. If you are a member of The Janitorial Store you do get a discount for subscribing. So if you are a member go back to the site and we have the information there for you. Well David thank you very much. It was a pleasure having you. David: Thank you very much and I am very glad to be here. Thank you for the opportunity. Jean: You bet. Well that is it for this show and I would like to give a special thanks to David Holly for being my guest.

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Jean Hanson helps owners of commercial cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through her online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Jean is also the host of the popular Web TV show CleaningBiz.tv and author of the newsletter Trash Talk - sign up today!