New (OS1)® Green Program of Excellence
A new advanced category has been added to the (OS1) Green Certified Program from ManageMen, Inc. Starting this year, organizations scoring 90% or above on an annual (OS1) Audit will qualify as an (OS1) Green Certified Program of Excellence. Program of Excellence Award winners will be honored at the 2008 (OS1) Users Symposium Awards Banquet in Durango, Colorado August 18th, 2008. Organizations scoring 80% or above on the (OS1) audit will still qualify for the (OS1) Green Certified Program Award.
The certification is earned by cleaning organizations who apply for certification and meet the (OS1) standard based on a rigorous third-party audit. Auditors follow a process based on standards that have been in use for 15 years and performance data collected by (OS1) users. It focuses on documenting (OS1) programs that utilize the benchmarked best practices used by some of the leading organizations in the cleaning industry.
(OS1) cleaning organizations have developed a leadership role in the green movement and an environmentally responsible approach to indoor environments. It started when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the University of Illinois hired John Walker, developer of (OS1), to present education programs about improving indoor environmental quality in the mid 1990s. Since that time the (OS1) process has been recognized for its functional approach to green cleaning. In 2002, Sandia National Labs, a division of Lockheed Martin won the New Mexico Green Zia Award specifically for its use of (OS1).
In 2002, the Salt Lake Olympic Committee selected the (OS1) program as an environmentally friendly Winter Olympics cleaning program and hired ManageMen to produce the training materials for cleaning workers.
In 2004, (OS1) was selected to be the cleaning protocol in the remediation of the Washington State Department of Ecology headquarters building.
Since announcing the (OS1) Green Certified Program in 2005, the number of certified organizations earning has grown annually. Four organizations have earned the (OS1) Green Certified Program of Excellence certification in 2008. They include Qualcomm, Sandia National Labs div. Lockheed Martin, University of Texas - Austin, University of Massachusetts - Amherst (two separate facilities).
The (OS1) program is the core curriculum of Janitor University, a weeklong executive training course held in Salt Lake City several times a year. The basis of the (OS1) approach to green issues is stated in the Janitor University's philosophy of cleaning to "Minimize Environmental Harm."