By Tara Kennon, The Healthy Schools Campaign

Green cleaning advocates have had their eye on New York since September 2006, when a law requiring green cleaning in schools went into effect throughout the state. The big story now may simply be ease of the transition. School officials and state leaders said the change has been smooth and feedback so far has been positive.
 
“It’s been a non-issue, really,” said Sue Rau, chair of health and environment for the NY State PTA. “I haven’t heard any complaints from anyone. Schools are doing what the law says, and it looks like their vendors are making it easy for them.”

Fred Koelbel, superintendent of buildings and grounds for the West Islip school district and president of the New York State Association for Superintendents of School Buildings and Grounds, agreed.

“From what we see, things are progressing well,” he said.

A comprehensive survey of school districts’ response to the green cleaning legislation is set to be released in June 2007. Until then, the most notable observation of those close to the law may be the absence of a dramatic response.

“It wasn’t a big movement for us,” Koelbel said. “In my district, for example, we were already moving in that direction.”

Kurt Larson of the State Office of General Services Environmental Services Unit (OGS), the group responsible for state purchasing, said that his organization has focused on providing the tools and information that make it easier for school systems to meet the law’s requirements for purchasing environmentally preferable cleaning products.

School leaders can access an automatic cost calculator, for example, which assists them in comparing the unit cost of products at different levels of dilution.

Larson’s unit at OGS conducts workshops for those responsible for purchasing cleaning products, and provides detailed listings of vendors for green cleaning products, floor finish products, floor finish stripper products, hand soaps and vacuum cleaners. In response to public feedback, he recently added the option of purchasing green products from smaller vendors that had not been included in initial listings.

“This is a living, breathing, changing document,” Larson said.

Koelbel explained that this flexibility is one of the law’s strengths that will keep it relevant for years to come. In working with the office of then-Gov. George Pataki to write the legislation, Koelbel and his colleagues in the Association for Superintendents of School Buildings and Grounds emphasized the importance of a law that would remain relevant as new green cleaning products were developed.

For that reason, the law does not include specific product listings or technical specifications; instead, it charges a coalition of organizations with the work of developing and maintaining the technical definitions of “green” and the listings of products that fit within the definition.

“What was state of the art two years ago isn’t state of the art today,” he said. “And what’s state of the art today won’t be two years from now.”

With the technical and purchasing aspects of implementation proceeding smoothly, Koelbel said that for him, “the biggest adjustments were more cultural.”

“The thing people have to understand is that janitorial staff members, especially in school buildings, are very concerned with making things right for the customer – with doing the job in a way that satisfies the teachers, the principal, the parents. If they’re already doing a good job and making these customers happy, you have to explain why we’re replacing one product with another. You have to explain that it’s better for them, better for kids, better for the customers. Then it’s no problem.”

Wendell Chu, superintendent of Fire Island Union Free School District, said that green cleaning has been a sensible transition and the health benefits have been  noticeable. Information about green cleaning had come across his desk before the law took effect, he said, but his work was so busy that he hadn’t been able to make it a priority.

"It made so much sense, there was no reason to not do it before," said Chu, "but it took the legislation to make us start thinking about it and implementing our program."

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Visit www.greencleanschools.org for updates from New York and other news on Green Cleaning in Schools.

 

 

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