Champions of Change
In 2015, the administrative building was recognized as Green Clean Institute’s (GCI) first gold-certified building on an Indian reservation. According to Baidwan, tribal council was so pleased with this achievement that it set the goal to have two additional buildings certified over the next two years. We credit Jess Baidwan for being full committed to Green and healthy buildings in a place that some may not think "Going Green" is a pressing issue.
Green and healthy buildings are not an accident. They require adjusting many of the contributing factors to create a healthy environment. More than product choice, Jess is very committed to his workers. He hold monthly meetings, requires each worker to go through the Green Clean Institute training, and uses the Green and Healthy Building Partnership system to prove the proper implementation of his Green cleaning program.
“Our goal has been to move away from the traditional role of cleaning toward a green standard, and for the most part, we’ve accomplished this,” he says. “We want to have healthy buildings, because if we have healthy buildings then hopefully, by extension, we have healthy building occupants.”
Under Baidwan’s direction, the custodial department is reaping the rewards of its labor and receiving accolades from other staff members, as well as the public.
“My crew has done an amazing job embracing these changes,” notes Baidwan. “We’re reaping the benefits not only for ourselves as a crew, but our buildings are in great shape. We get, on average, close to 30 emails a month from building occupants saying thank you for doing such a good job.”
“My crew has done an amazing job embracing these changes,” notes Baidwan. “We’re reaping the benefits not only for ourselves as a crew, but our buildings are in great shape. We get, on average, close to 30 emails a month from building occupants saying thank you for doing such a good job.”
Times have moved on and the Green Clean Institute has now upgraded the process with 24/7 monitoring of indoor air quality on ten important levels.
It is one thing to claim that your service Green and contributes to a healthy building. It is quite another thing to PROVE the value of your service with a real-time and independent review of building health.
