Green Seal's recently revised standards combine the GS-1 and GS-9 standards into a single GS-1 Green Seal standard for Sanitary Paper Products, 3rd Edition. In December 2010, this non-profit, third-party certifying
organization issued a major revision that includes facial tissue, bath tissue, paper towel and napkins, as well as new categories such as paper table cloths, tray liners and toilet seat covers under one single-use product standard.


"Our standards are intended to be leadership sustainability standards, but they are also snapshots of the marketplace as it currently exists," says Mark Petruzzi, senior vice president of Outreach and Strategic Relations for Green Seal.

The GS-1 standard says that the fiber source for sanitary tissue
and towel products must be 100-percent recovered material, made from up to 85 percent agricultural residue, with the balance made from post-consumer material. Or, it can be made from any combination of recovered material and agricultural residue, with the balance being from post-consumer material. The post-consumer levels were increased with the new standard and must meet requirements including:

• Paper towels, general-purpose wipes and napkins: 50 percent
• Bathroom tissue: 25 percent
• Facial tissue: 5 percent

For all products, the papermaking process must be chlorine-free,
and not include any additives or contaminants that are known to produce or release carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins.

Green Seal also looks at social responsibility, manufacturing sustainability requirements, as well as packaging and labeling requirements before issuing the certification mark.

"Our role, first and foremost, is to help consumers and purchasers
find sustainable products that will meet their performance expectations," says Petruzzi. In the jan/san world, he says if you have to pull 8 sheets off a roll of toilet paper that doesn't work as well and it doesn't matter how green it was.

"Purchasers have moved past the 'buy recycled' and are looking at
multiple product life-cycle considerations."

In May 2012, OSHA decided to do away with its current – and most frequently cited Hazard Communication Standard, and align with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals.

The result?

A new, far-reaching standard requiring the stringent labeling of hazardous chemicals in the workplace, and in-depth training for any staff that handles them. Millions of Material Safety and Data Sheets and labels currently in circulation must be revised, rewritten and republished to comply with GHS provisions.

The standard becomes mandatory on June 1, 2015.

Get "A Guide to The  Globally Harmonized System of Classification and
Labelling of Chemicals  (GHS) from OSHA's site when you CLICK HERE.

Juan Rangel runs the United Neighborhood Organization, an increasingly  influential community group known as UNO that, with the help of tax dollars, operates charter schools catering to Chicago’s growing Latino population.

UNO also has a political dynamic: Rangel was co-chairman of Rahm Emanuel’s
mayoral campaign, and has been a vocal backer of the first-term Chicago mayor.

Now comes word UNO is branching into a new line of public-sector work – janitorial services – and stands to benefit from a $99.4 million cleaning contract at O’Hare Airport that recently was awarded by the Emanuel administration.


But how that contract came to be awarded is raising questions – and
accusations that the Emanuel camp unfairly steered the work to the winning bidder, United Maintenance Co., a Chicago-based company that indicates in bid-related documents that it planned to pay UNO up to $5 million to help fulfill the contract.


"The city predetermined whom they wanted to give the contract to," says John W. Tyler, CEO of Kaleidoscope Cleaning Co. The Maryland firm had the lowest bid out of 11 interested companies – $66.4 million – but was disqualified from the process because, city officials say, its financial projections weren’t realistic.


United Maintenance is run by Richard Simon, a former cop and long-time neighbor of former Mayor Richard M. Daley whose ties extend not only to politicians, but to union and reputed organized crime figures.


Tyler says the whole situation reeks of "dirty dealing" and prompted him to  have a congressional ally, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), contact Emanuel, a former member of Congress, to ask him to reconsider the disqualification.


Emanuel’s chief procurement officer, Jamie Rhee, confirms Bartlett’s office contacted City Hall but says officials were not persuaded. The bid review process was legitimate and fair, she says, as is the decision by United Maintenance to partner with UNO and other community groups, if it so chooses.


Rhee says Kaleidoscope was disqualified because the city determined it couldn’t afford to "pay the required wages" at the amount it had proposed. The living wage is $11.53 an hour, Rhee says, adding that United Maintenance’s starting pay of $11.90 an hour, plus benefits, is higher than what’s required.


Tyler, who says he is considering filing a lawsuit over his losing bid,
counters: "We agreed to pay whatever the city demanded. We have a warehouse full of supplies. That’s how we can pass along the savings to the City of Chicago."


Emanuel personally signed the United Maintenance contract, as is standard in such cases, but relied on his staff to vet the proposals and make a recommendation, city officials say.


"I can tell you unequivocally that [Emanuel] doesn’t get involved in
contracting processes of this sort," mayoral spokesman Tom Alexander says.


Rangel echoes this, saying he didn’t discuss this deal with Emanuel and that the mayor played no role in connecting Rangel with Simon.


The United Maintenance contract stretches five years and takes effect Dec. 15, at which time hundreds of union workers from a now-expiring janitorial contract with Scrub, Inc., are being fired and replaced with lower-paid nonunion workers. Union officials have been staging protests, accusing Emanuel of "making it possible for millionaires and profitable corporations to help themselves to even bigger profits at the expense of good middle-class jobs."


O’Hare is owned and operated by Chicago’s municipal government, so it falls under Emanuel’s control.


UNO, a nonprofit, is perhaps best known as one of the state’s largest charter school networks, with 13 schools serving 6,500 students in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods across the city. Though privately run, the group receives public funding, with much of the cash routed from the Emanuel-controlled Chicago Public Schools. (This year alone, UNO is budgeted to receive $44 million from CPS, according to a CPS spokeswoman.)


State records show that UNO’s for-profit janitorial arm, UNO Janitorial and Maintenance Service LLC, was formed in June 2008. The firm of about 60 employees mainly cleans UNO’s charter schools and other commercial venues but has never held a city contract, Rangel says.


On an economic disclosure statement and affidavit that United Maintenance filed last year with the city as part of the O’Hare bid process, UNO’s janitorial division was listed as an "anticipated" subcontractor.


The statement estimated it could be paid 5 percent, or nearly $5 million. But Rangel and United Maintenance indicate those plans have changed. The UNO’s cleaning operation isn’t a subcontractor, or even listed on the contract, they note.


But UNO is hosting job fairs and performing other tasks as needed to help United Maintenance fill some 300 open jobs, Rangel says, adding he expects UNO to be compensated, though it won’t be anywhere close to $5 million.


"We’re interested in doing outreach because Hispanics in our community need good jobs," Rangel says.


"I would expect they would pay us," he adds. "But I expect it would be more modest" than what was mentioned in the bid-related paperwork.


Simon, president of United Maintenance, didn’t return numerous phone calls.


He is the onetime chairman of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, and has been an investor in the Park Grill Restaurant at Millennium Park along with a host of other politically connected individuals – including Emanuel’s chief of staff, Theresa Mintle, who happens to be a cousin to Daley. (Meanwhile,  the Chicago Sun-Times
reported that Simon also partnered in another business venture
with a reputed mob figure.)


A statement released by United Maintenance says, "UNO was originally
anticipated as being able to provide as much as 5 percent of our workforce. With 300 jobs available through this contract, that’s roughly 15 positions. Given the broad reach and strong community ties that UNO has, it is not unreasonable to think that 15 hard-working people could be employed by United after learning about the job through UNO."


United Maintenance no longer plans to pay UNO, according to the
statement.


If Tom Balanoff has his way, United Maintenance won’t need help filling any jobs. As president of Service Employees International Union Local 1, he’s calling on the mayor to rebid the janitorial contract, even as city officials stick to their guns.


Balanoff says of the situation, "It’s backwards."

This story was written and reported by the Better Government Association’s Andrew Schroedter. He can be reached at (312) 821-9035 or aschroedter@bettergov.org.

You can see the original story when you CLICK HERE.

Did you realize that some of the greatest discoveries came about when an individual wasn't learning but actually began to think for themselves. You may be saying to yourself, "What is he talking about?" Well let me explain.

One famous example of this is Sir Isaac Newton. In 1665 Isaac Newton was at the University of Cambridge. However, at that time Cambridge had closed due to the Plague. Newton couldn't attend his studies, but that didn't stop him from thinking. At that time he began thinking about a problem in astrophysics, specifically, he wanted to calculate the motion of the moon around the earth. In order for him to figure this problem out, he ended up creating Calculus, Newton's Three Laws, the Universal Law of Gravitation, a reflecting telescope, and optics in the two years that he had "stopped learning".

The point is, we wouldn't have benefited from Newton's incredible theories if he didn't stop learning and started thinking in his own unique perspective in order to create his theory. So, you may be thinking, what does this have to do with janitorial services or sustainability? Actually, it applies to janitorial, sustainability, and every other aspect of your life.

The advances in janitorial services over the years, such as the increasing production rate (number of square feet cleaned per hour) have occurred because individuals stopped learning how everyone else was doing things and started thinking how they could do it better. This change was the product of thinking outside the box.

One of the secrets to the success of CJ Maintenance is that we are always looking for ways to provide better and more cost effective solutions to service your facilities. We have proven this time after time, surprising the facility managers that even though our cost of service was substantially less, we were able to provide even better service than our competition. This isn't an accident. We are constantly looking for innovative ways to provide better service for our customers.

So if you are currently a customer of CJM, we thank you for your business and look forward to serving you for many years to come. If you are not yet a customer, please feel free to contact us and see why we are so highly raved about by others. You can send your questions or request to us when you CLICK HERE.

There are many ways to incorporate green technologies into a new building of any size. This will make it a friendly addition to the planet. The New Freedom Tower of New York City has used many of these features to become one of the largest structures to take advantage of renewable sources of energy as well other environmentally friendly practices.

 Here are a few examples of green technologies that are being utilized:

Low VOC Paint
Renewable Energy Resources
Using Glass to Conserve Energy
Recycling Rainwater

Outside of MCC's Applied Technologies Center, is a new building being put up
by students.
It's not your average set-up.  This training center is
designed to test out the latest green technologies. 


"It incorporates a couple of wind turbines, some photovoltaic panels, and a  solar thermal system, so that entire structure is all self-sustaining  incorporating all those technologies into it," says Kevin French.  He is the Department Chair for Applied Technologies at MCC.

See the video and read the rest of the story when y

A study by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley Labs reports that the  installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems continues to fall rapidly. The
biggest reason is that the PV modules have become much less expensive. But other costs, including installation, are also falling. In 2011, the average cost was $4.90 for larger commercial systems of 100 kW or more in size, but prices have continued to fall since then and systems today are being sold for less.

Click Here to read the entire article

A recent Maintenance Insider Newsletter from Maintenance Solutions highlighted an article and video appeared on FacilitiesNet.com that
featured an interview with Transwestern's Senior VP, Allan Skodowski. Allen spoke about LEED and why it is the standard they use for measuring their progress with sustainability. You can watch this short video when you CLICK HERE.

By being the very first GS-42 Green  Seal Certified janitorial company in the Mid-Atlantic region, we also feel as  Allen articulated, that LEED is the best report card that we have at this time to measure the progress of best practices for sustanable facility management.

Transwestern in committed 442 buildings totaling 78 million square feet to the Better Building Challenge. Their goal is to reduce energy consumption by twenty percent by the year 2020.