September 25, 2007
AU will soon be ‘Green Clean’
When Willy Suter, director of Facilities Management, enters
a building that’s been scrubbed with environmentally-friendly cleaning products, he said “it just feels cleaner and
healthier.”
And as AU begins to implement its own green cleaning program, Suter expects students, faculty, and staff will feel the difference here, too. By implementing a few small but important changes, the university will reap big rewards: better air quality, fewer pollutants and allergens, and an increased commitment to sustainability.
“This is a great opportunity for us to reduce the footprint of the university,” said Suter.
All campus restrooms will soon be equipped with recycled hand towels and toilet paper, along with new dispensers and foam hand soap. More environmentally-friendly vacuum cleaners will suck up dust bunnies and debris on office and residence hall floors.
The green clean program will also focus on employee training and proper maintenance of janitorial closets.
“These are very basic things, but when you apply them to 50 buildings across campus, the environmental impact will be that much greater,” said Suter.
AU is following guidelines set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for existing buildings, which offers a road map for creating environmentally responsible, healthy, and productive places to live and work. The university, which is part of a pilot program focused on multibuilding campuses, has registered 30 buildings with the council and is currently in the process of greening them. By the end of the academic year, Suter hopes to submit some of those buildings for LEED certification.
“That third party certification is very important to us,” said Suter. “It lends tremendous credibility to all our green efforts.”
Certification aside, Suter said the new cleaning program is just simply “the right thing to do.”
“Probably not since World War II has the planet been faced with such a huge challenge. If we don’t start doing things very differently, we’re going to lose everything,” he concluded.
