Green Cleaning is a worldwide movement that is being driven by governments, business leaders, environmental groups and concerned citizens alike. The movement seeks to provide additional health protection for building workers, employees and visitors who are exposed on a daily basis to toxic cleaning products which form air pollution in building maintenance areas and office space.

 The Canadian Federal Government, Environmental Protection Agency, has documented the effects of airborne contaminants in buildings, which come from billions of pounds of cleaning products being used in commercial buildings. These products have contributed to a much higher rate of allergies and chemical sensitivities, sometimes known as Sick Building Syndrome, within the workforce who is exposed on a daily basis.

 Together government, business leaders and suppliers are seeking to provide additional protection to building users and the environment by educating people about green building operations and maintenance cleaning programs. Researchers have linked building environments to productivity levels of employees, absenteeism, injury claims, workplace moral and health care cost for companies. As a result of this information, building owners and managers are integrating several janitorial and maintenance elements into workplaces:

Interior Care is focused on helping companies achieve their environmental goals by ensuring that Green Cleaning Products are used at no additional cost to the consumer. Interior Care also ensures that janitorial and maintenance staff are adequately trained to help you plan and implement the operational steps necessary to achieve your Going Green directives..

 The employees, visitors, tenants and contractors who work in your building or office will recognize you as an environmentally responsible company. This goal can be achieved by taking small steps in the right direction.   

 Establishing a Green Cleaning Program is an important element in reducing your buildings’ carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Interior Care can make this a reality for your company. “Just Ask Us” for a no charge consultation. 

Interior Care’s customers own and/or occupy many different types of commercial buildings. They meet a wide variety of workplace needs, from corporate headquarters, warehousing spaces, fitness clubs, professional offices and office towers. Not surprisingly, Interior Care has noticed that each building type uses energy differently. At present, electric lighting is the most common every-day energy use.  However, increasingly, we have also noticed that office and miscellaneous equipment such as computers, space heaters and radios are adding to energy bills.

Generating and harnessing energy for business purposes relies on many different natural resources, and in some cases, air pollution results. For this reason Interior Care’s “Going Green Building and Office Program” offers our customer the opportunity to take small, positive steps to contain energy usage and rising cost. Some customers may suggest energy bills are not a major percentage of the cost of doing business, but environmentally responsible companies worldwide are “Going Green” and cutting their electrical expenditure. Cutting energy usage will also become important as the Province of Ontario brings in its new “peak period” energy fees. As a result, many commercial businesses will see significant increases in their energy bills.

Many commercial businesses rent or lease their business space, but pay their own utility bills. This fact stops many from taking action because they lack complete control over a building’s operation. Some customers may have little or no control over some systems (such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) but they definitely can control lighting. Interior Care is standing by with electricians to perform simple electrical retrofits that will make a difference to your bottom line and the environment.

For example, the simple installation of Occupancy Sensors can help minimize electrical consumption and cost in situations where your office employees keep irregular work schedules by turning out the lights when the space is empty. This simple retrofit can be wall mounted for small spaces or ceiling mounted for larger ones.

Installation of new, more energy efficient bulbs & tubes is another way you can add to your bottom line. On average, lighting fixtures consume the most energy in a commercial building. Any business can replace old, inefficient light bulbs with new, energy-efficient models. Lighting retrofits are generally low cost, offer short payback periods, and yield immediate energy savings. In fact, they can reduce the lighting portion of your electric bill by up to 40%. Best of all, they are easy projects to carry out.

In the most common lighting upgrade, old T12 fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts are replaced with T8 lamps and electronic ballasts. T12 and T8 lamps fit into the same sockets, so installation is easy. It is also worth replacing the magnetic ballasts with electronic ones for several reasons: they use less energy as well as reduce flicker, glare, noise, and heat output, creating a better work environment for your staff. A business using the outdated incandescent light bulbs should replace them with comparably-sized compact fluorescent models. For example, you can exchange 75 to 100 watt incandescent bulbs for 15 to 32 watt compact fluorescent models. These new bulbs also last 10 times longer (10,000 hours versus 1,000 hours) which means they need to be replaced less often.

Take action now on these simple energy saving retrofits if you’re paying the electrical costs and want to participate in our “Going Green Building and Office Program”.

When commercial buildings require interior decorating, paints containing high levels of VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds), toxic gas vapours, are released into the interior atmosphere where employees work.  In some situations, the smell of these vapours can result in respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and can cause headaches. In addition, some non environmental paints contain benzene, formaldehyde, ammonia, toluene, and other known carcinogens and neurotoxins, increasing the likelihood of employee sensitivity.

The Interior Care Going Green Building and Office Program promotes the use of environmentally friendly paint, which not only improves the work environment for employees, but also reduces the impact on climate change that occurs when paint fumes are mixed with sunlight and fossil fuel.

Going Green Paints Contain:

water, synthetic binders or resins (water-based - non toxic) 
pigments (various - all non toxic)
mineral fillers - limestone, clays (non-toxic)
viscosity builders - cellulose & resinous (non-toxic)
opacifiers - titanium dioxide (non-toxic)
leveling aids (non-toxic)
waxes & modifiers (non-toxic)

Interior Care’s paint technicians use paints that have zero or low VOC’s and provide a quality finish. Our Going Green Building and Office Program helps owners and tenants participate constructively in protecting the environment as well as the long term health of their employees. Our painting technicians are trained to meet the tough standards set by our Going Green Building and Office Program which includes disposal of surplus paint and other materials.

Our Going Green Painting Program is available to Interior Care customers at no additional charge and is much more environmentally friendly in comparison to conventional gloss and emulsion paints containing solvents. Ask us how we can help beautify your interior, the environmentally friendly way.

Interior Care’s Going Green Program is also about helping customers conserve water in their offices and/or building workplaces. Business owners and managers can play a vital role in protecting the environment by helping conserve water.

There are several simple and inexpensive opportunities for customers to take water conservation action as part of their Going Green initiatives and Interior Care has qualified plumbers on standby to guide customers by helping in the selection the most cost effective approach and installation of equipment. 

Remember that you are not only creating a Green Office and/or Building but you are saving dollars for you company by reducing Regional water where it is metered and costs are directly proportional to usage.

Interior Care’s water conservation measures are divided into two categories; domestic water and landscaping:

Domestic Flow Rate Guidelines for Conservation Purposes:

• All Faucet Aerators to have a flow rate of not more than 4 L/min @ 413 kPa
• Office Shower Heads to have a flow rate of not more than 7.6 L/min @50 kPa.
• Water Closets to have a water consumption of not more than 6.0 L/flush
• Urinals to have a water consumption of not more than 3.8 L/flush
• Office Dishwashers - Residential type models shall use no more that 24 L/cycle. Commercial load type washers shall use no more than 5.3 L/rack.

Domestic Water Saving Strategies by Interior Care:

The following simple changes in grounds keeping practices can also lead to significant reductions in water use:

• eliminate sidewalk spray-downs
• replace annual plants with perennial plants and shrubs, which tend to be more resistant to drought
• mulch all flower and garden beds to reduce evaporation
• raise mower blade heights to leave turf longer
• over seed turf areas with drought-resistant grass seed in spring and winter
• water gardens and turf between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. or between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to reduce surface evaporation (use an automated system if possible)
• automated sub-surface irrigation systems that reduce loss from evaporation
• cisterns to collect water for irrigation 

Interior Care – Your Green Service Provider

As your Building Maintenance Service provider we understand how important it is to conserve water in Ontario workplaces. It is a great way to protect the environment, lower the cost of operations and show that saving water is possible and economically feasible. While office staff should be mindful of their water use in the office/building, Interior Care management think it’s a responsibility of everyone to be committed to conserving water in Ontario.

Consult with Interior Care on these water saving strategies and incorporate some of these easy strategies into your Going Green Program. Interior Care is a full service building Maintenance Company handling all your indoor and outdoor maintenance needs. “Just Ask Us” and we will be there to help with your Green Program.

The Going Green Interior Care Program includes Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. These office initiatives play a major role in reducing the amount of waste that is directed to Land Fill Sites in Toronto, Peel, and Halton Regions.

Interior Care’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Program elements are part of our larger Going Green Program and have been created to assist employers in setting-up an Environmentally Responsible Office as it relates to:

Reducing the amount of office waste produced

Reusing office resources in their present state

Recycling office resources into new materials 

Public opinion in Ontario has changed in the last several years and businesses that reduce waste are regarded more favorably by their customers, the public, government, and their own employees. The trend is growing to create sustainable offices that, reduce waste and preserve renewable and non renewable resources in our environment.

Interior Care is now offering commercial business offices an opportunity to advance their role and responsibilities as good corporate citizens by helping them update their existing practices and/or design, implement and maintain a new program for Office Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle initiatives.

Examples: the organization of Office Clean-Up Days, office kitchen recycling, printer cartridges recycling, offices battery recycling, collection of waste to be separated and recycled, telephone book recycling, electric hand drying units, measured paper hand drying units 

If you want to learn more about how to create, deliver and manage a waste minimization strategy for your office/company, please give us a call.