DIMENSIONE PULITO INTERNATIONAL ::: Monthly magazine for industrial cleaning sanitization and environmental hygiene- GREEN CLEANING

::: Green Cleaning is a MISSION
trends by Chiara Merlini
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Ashkin, America’s leading expert in this field, is committed to spreading the concept of ecology in the professional cleaning sector. He feels that the whole sector must become increasingly involved in this.

In June 2010, during the Ecocleaning Day organised by AfidampFAB in Milan, Stephen Ashkin, the leading American expert in Green Cleaning and advisor to, among others, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US General Services Administration (GSA), presented a preview of the Study entitled “The Cleaning Market in the USA”, commissioned by the ICE on behalf of AFIDAMP.
The aim of this study was to depict the current state of the professional cleaning market in the USA and the potential opportunities for Italian manufacturers to recover their previous share of the market, lost over the past five years (while in 2005 Italian products accounted for 25.7% of USA imports of professional cleaning machinery, today this figure is just 5.28%).

::: AN IMPORTANT MARKET
It is estimated that demand for cleaning equipment in the US will be worth 7.6 billion Dollars in 2013 with an interesting annual growth rate of 2% (though still less than the +2.4% annual increase recorded in the period 2003 - 2008). This upwards trend will be particularly strong in the services sector, whose turnover (+2.7% per annum) in 2013 is expected to be worth 2.1 billion Dollars (+27.6% in terms of value and even more in terms of volume).
Foreign manufacturers must, therefore, get ready for this by reorganising their structures and increasing their reliability and product innovation. This calls for better production efficiency, keeping production costs low and producing multipurpose products that meet the needs for environmental sustainability, that have a long useful life and that allow users to save resources: water, energy and time.

::: GREEN CLEANING
Green Cleaning is the way ahead: not just a future goal - stresses Stephen Ashkin - but now, in the present time, as it lets us both save the environment and enjoy better profi ts. The Green Economy is now a popular theme in the USA and Green Cleaning is an important part of this. Today the new “green” path is a major opportunity for cleaning fi rms to develop and grow and to see good returns on their investments.
For Stephen Ashkin, however, who has been actively involved for the last twenty years in promoting this way of thinking, Green Cleaning is more than an important business, it is a passion, a vocation: the mission to make a wide-ranging major change in the cleaning industry.
He has explained some of his thoughts on the subject to Dimensione Pulito.

Which is the most open and receptive sector (health, food industry, educational, communities…) to green cleaning proposals and which is the most averse?
«In the U.S. the most open and receptive sectors have been those in the public sector such as government buildings and publically funded universities, along with building owners in multiple sectors who have publically stated their commitment to “green” and sustainability. For example, this includes members of the US Green Building Council and buildings in their various LEED Rating Systems1. Those sectors that have been slowest to adopt green practices are those segments where the building owner fi nds less direct impacts on their employees. For example, hotels, restaurants and retail establishments have been slower to adopt green. While these sectors are not adverse to green, but their rate of adoption compared to others has been slower. Hospitals have also been slow, but this is due to the challenges of working in a very highly regulated industry».

Do you think Earth Day has positively infl uenced the adoption of good practices?
«Earth Day in the U.S. is an opportunity to highlight what is going on relative to our environment. As such, it has been helpful for generating awareness. But beyond Earth Day there is a growing consciousness about the issue especially as energy prices increase, environmental disasters like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, etc.»

Do the Social networks play a significant role in driving customers into the “green” and ultimately raise green products demand?
«Everyone is trying to fi gure out how social networking can help drive “green” especially in the consumer marketplace. While most companies have Facebook pages, Twitter and other social networking programs, it is unclear to me how effective they are. But it is my suspicion that while we cannot point to a specific example of how a single program is or can make an overall impact, but collectively these efforts are probably contributing to increasing demand for green products. And I suspect that as time goes on social networking will become increasingly important».

Stephen Ashkin is known throughout the professional cleaning as the "Father of Green cleaning." Ashkin has worked professionally in the cleaning industry since 1981; and on the issue of green cleaning since 1990. He is President of The Ashkin Group, a consulting firm specializing in the Green cleaning process, and executive director of the Green cleaning network - both based in bloomington, Indiana. He is the coauthor of The business of Green cleaning and Green cleaning for dummies.