University of Oregon
OP-13: Cleaning Products Purchasing

Have a standard practice of purchasing Green Seal Products and products from the Sustainable Earth Product Line. The Custodial Services at the University of Oregon started our change to green chemicals in 2003. We changed over to green chemicals for several reasons; provided a safer environment for our employees and building users, promoted indoor air quality by decreasing pollutants from chemical use, and reduced health and environmental impact on our campus. We have succeeded in finding highly efficient safe and versatile cleaners without sacrificing our performance in cleaning with minimal increase to our budget. Custodial Services uses green products in our general cleaning, carpet cleaning, as well as disinfecting and cleaning restrooms throughout campus. Our total percentage by volume in using green cleaning products is 99.1%. We are diligently looking for cutting edge chemicals that are safe, versatile and environmentally responsible without forfeiting performance. There are two main areas that we are not yet using green products: floor stripping and waxing, and window cleaning. We are testing new products constantly in these areas and hope to come up with a solution soon. Housing purchases Green Seal Products from Coastwide whenever possible. We were the testers for the Coastwide Products.

Cleaning products are an important part of keeping and maintaining our campus, from using glass cleaner for the windows, or shampoo for the carpeting. We understand how important it is to keep the faculty and staff informed of all the MSDS on the products we use. We have made a commitment to change over to green cleaning products for a healthy building environment. We are using Sustainable Earth products for general cleaning purposes. More on the Material Safety Data Sheet for UO and Sustainable Earth Products here: https://campusops.uoregon.edu/custodial-services/custodial-products We have a commodity code 486 to track green purchases. We are constantly evaluating new green products as they become available as a standard operating procedure. Also always looking at reduction of product usage.

All of the values above are for Calendar Year 2010. The total dollars spent on janitorial supplies is an estimate provided by Bob Swanson- UO Property Coordinator. A big reason for the gap between green and total cleaning supply purchases is possibly that many of the purchases accounted for include more than just "cleaning products" and also include other janitorial products for which there is no Green Seal/EcoLogo alternative. We will work on finding a more refined way to track these purchases in the future. UO Facilities Services purchases nearly all Green Seal certified cleaning products, as does UO Housing. They are working on a written policy to address this. In Athletics, nearly all of the paper, soap and chemical purchases are either EcoLogo or Green Seal Certified. The totals above, except for the total purchases, do not include the EMU.

Have a standard practice of purchasing Green Seal Products and products from the Sustainable Earth Product Line. The Custodial Services at the University of Oregon started our change to green chemicals in 2003. We changed over to green chemicals for several reasons; provided a safer environment for our employees and building users, promoted indoor air quality by decreasing pollutants from chemical use, and reduced health and environmental impact on our campus. We have succeeded in finding highly efficient safe and versatile cleaners without sacrificing our performance in cleaning with minimal increase to our budget. Custodial Services uses green products in our general cleaning, carpet cleaning, as well as disinfecting and cleaning restrooms throughout campus. Our total percentage by volume in using green cleaning products is 99.1%. We are diligently looking for cutting edge chemicals that are safe, versatile and environmentally responsible without forfeiting performance. There are two main areas that we are not yet using green products: floor stripping and waxing, and window cleaning. We are testing new products constantly in these areas and hope to come up with a solution soon. Housing purchases Green Seal Products from Coastwide whenever possible.