Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 77.56
Liaison John Pumilio
Submission Date Oct. 11, 2022

STARS v2.2

Colgate University
OP-13: Cleaning and Janitorial Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.32 / 1.00 John Pumilio
Director of Sustainability
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Cleaning products 

Total annual expenditures on cleaning products:
21,800 US/Canadian $

Annual expenditures on certified green cleaning products:
7,955 US/Canadian $

Janitorial paper products 

Total annual expenditures on janitorial paper products:
58,500 US/Canadian $

Annual expenditures on certified green janitorial paper products:
17,450 US/Canadian $

A brief description of the time period on which the figures reported above are based :
Spending is for FY 2022 (July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022).

Metric used in scoring

Percentage of expenditures on cleaning and janitorial products that are third party certified to meet recognized sustainability standards:
31.64

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s cleaning and janitorial purchasing is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The following information came from Colgate's Custodial Supervisor, Michelle Butzgy.

Green Cleaning Supplies Used and Purchased at Colgate FY 22:
3M Stone Floor Finish
Bona Supercourt Athletic Floor Care
Crew 44 Scale Remover
Glance Glass Cleaner - RTD
Neutralizer Packets - Floor Cleaning
Stride RTD Floor Cleaner
Stride Smart Dose Floor Cleaner

Colgate has the RTD (ready-to-dispense) system for the three Sealed Air cleaners - basically, the bottles are of the concentrated cleaner, there is a connector you use to hook these up to a water source. There is a dial on the container that mixes the cleaner at different ratios depending on what it is being used for (e.g., bucket filling vs. spray bottle). Link to a short video of the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPhl4p20Ik

The Stride floor cleaner is for flooring - it is usually put into mop buckets and/or floor machines (some but not all)

Bathroom cleaners are usually applied directly to the surfaces of the RTD system (for shower walls etc...) or into mop buckets and/or spray bottles.

The Glance glass cleaner is only used in spray bottles

Floor cleaners are also concentrated chemicals that are diluted. It doesn't have the same RTD system but does have a hand pump that goes on the bottle and measures out a certain amount so you can make sure it is diluted properly. We primarily use this one to clean the new LVT flooring that has been installed on campus recently - it is used in a mop bucket.

Lately, Colgate has been trying out some new mop buckets - they are much smaller than the larger standard yellow ones. This works better for some of the staff (we use them in Bryan Complex, Cutten Complex, Dana Arts & a few other locations). These small buckets result in using less cleaner and water. The mop heads on these are like the others that Colgate uses - they are washed and reused many times.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.