University of Georgia Receives Maintenance Award
ATHENS, Ga. — The University of Georgia received Cleaning Industry Management Standard Certification with honors by the International Sanitary Supply Association, making it the second university to achieve the distinction.
The award was given to the university’s physical plant building services department for the maintenance of 28 buildings on the north campus that is referred to as the green corridor.
The CIMS certification was developed in 2006 and recognizes the management, operations and performance systems of cleaning organizations.
The UGA services department submitted documentation outlining its efforts to meet the five key requirements under the ISSA standards: quality systems, service delivery, human resources, health, safety and environmental stewardship, and management commitment.
The department can apply for re-certification every two years.
“I sincerely believe this is an invaluable tool for our program and by going through this process we learned quite a bit about our operation and where improvements can be made,” says Al Jeffers, the University’s building services interim superintendent. “Our intention now is to roll our green program with CIMS across the entire campus.”
Bruce Stark, of Stark Consulting, who served as the independent certification assessor, says there are three programs that highlight the university’s commitment to the environment:
• A green cleaning initiative was introduced in 2007 to improve indoor air quality. It led to the removal of more than 300 products from the university’s overall chemical inventory.
• A building services academy program puts new building service workers through two weeks of orientation and training prior to their work assignment on the campus.
• Health and safety training programs for building service employees emphasize hazardous material spill containment and response and other overall worker safety programs.
The University of Michigan was the first university to receive CIMS certification in 2007.