University of Tennessee at Knoxville
OP-13: Cleaning and Janitorial Purchasing

Institution’s main cleaning or housekeeping department(s) and/or contractor(s) purchase cleaning and janitorial paper products that meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified
• Green Seal certified
• UL ECOLOGO certified
• U.S. EPA Safer Choice labeled (formerly Design for the Environment)
• Local equivalents for institutions outside the U.S. and Canada

Cleaning products include general purpose bathroom, glass and carpet cleaners; degreasing agents; biologically-active cleaning products (enzymatic and microbial products); floor-care products (e.g. floor finish and floor finish strippers); hand soaps and hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and metal polish and other specialty cleaning products.

Janitorial paper products include toilet tissue, tissue paper, paper towels, hand towels, and napkins.

Other janitorial products and materials (e.g. cleaning devices that use only ionized water or electrolyzed water) should be excluded from both total expenditures and expenditures on environmentally preferable products to the extent feasible.

This credit applies to all institutions. 

Institutions earn the maximum of 1 point available for this credit by purchasing exclusively green cleaning and janitorial paper products. Incremental points are awarded based on the percentage of expenditures on cleaning and janitorial products that meet the credit criteria. For example, if 50 percent of cleaning product expenditures were on Green Seal certified products and half were on conventional products, an institution would earn 0.5 points (half of the points available).

Points for this credit are calculated automatically in the STARS Reporting Tool as follows:

Timeframe

Report the most recent data available from within the three years prior to the anticipated date of submission.

Sampling and Data Standards

Include purchases made by all major housekeeping or cleaning departments, including outsourced or contracted service providers.

Institutions may track purchases over a one-year time period or take a representative sample to determine the percentage of expenditures on green cleaning and janitorial products. When using a sample, institutions should strive to ensure that the sample recognizes seasonal and other variations that influence purchasing behavior.