Green Cleaning

How can I ensure that the “green” product I am using is truly green and not an example of greenwashing?

J. J., Columbus, Ohio

Selecting products that are truly “green” can be a difficult task, especially in today’s marketplace, where there is no universal definition of green and every product seems to offer environmental and health benefits. Yet, as we better understand and appreciate the connection between effective cleaning and health, and cleaning’s role in the sustainability puzzle, choosing products that are both effective and environmentally preferable has never been more important. This is especially true in healthcare settings where cleaning is the frontline defense against the spread of healthcare-acquired infections and needs to be viewed as an investment, not a cost to be minimized. It is the responsibility of the facility to protect the health of patients, workers and guests, and accomplishing this goal in the most environmentally friendly manner possible is in everyone’s best interest.

Fortunately, reliable third-party certification programs can help guide purchasers through the sea of green claims and offer an easy-to-use solution. Programs administered by independent organizations such as Green Seal and EcoLogo inform purchasers whether a product meets consensus-based environment criteria. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also recognizes cleaning products under its Design for the Environment program. By looking for products certified by a reputable third-party organization, purchasers know that the products have an improved environmental, health and safety profile that meets a published standard. Third-party certification programs such as these are routinely specified in state legislation, government directives and third-party rating systems, such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Choose a certification that is independent and uses an open and transparent evaluation process.

Green “road maps,” such as the LEED program, are also valuable in outlining recognized Environmental criteria for products for which no third-party certification program exists. For example, disinfectants and many types of equipment do not have certification available or the certification cannot be promoted. In such cases, standards and other best practices programs can help healthcare facilities identify products that are truly green.

The proliferation of certified green products in the marketplace creates new challenges. With so many suppliers offering certified products and the inherent limitations of the current programs, healthcare facility purchasers often wonder which products will be the best for their facility. Fortunately, emerging databases that will provide comprehensive information about the specific characteristics of environmentally friendly products promise to help. For example, ISSA is developing Transpare, a program that will allow purchasers to go beyond existing green certification and directly compare environmental and health attributes. Systems like Transpare will allow purchasers to determine how green a product is.

As facility managers prioritize green products and equipment, it is important to realize that this is just the first step in implementing an eco-friendly comprehensive cleaning program. It is equally important to be sure that each step of the cleaning process, including the procedures, policies and products, is sustainable. This includes both an effective management foundation and the capability to deliver comprehensive green cleaning service. There are standards to help facility managers develop a green cleaning program, and tools exist to help in the implementation of the process, such as ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard-Green Building (CIMS-GB) criteria, which ensure that a facility’s cleaning and maintenance procedures are managed in a green and sustainable fashion.

The most important thing to keep in mind when selecting green products is that many factors determine the product’s sustainability status. The key is to identify what is most important to the particular facility or program and look for solutions that meet those goals.

DAN WAGNER
ISSA

Lighting

Does lighting impact the health and wellbeing of staff and patients?

C. H., Mobile, Ala.

There is a lot of information available on how to design lighting and controls to optimize the visual comfort, task performance and energy savings in commercial buildings and healthcare facilities. What is less wellknown to the market are new discoveries in the medical field that indicate our eyes play a large role in regulating body functions. One such groundbreaking finding by Dr. George Brainard from Thomas Jefferson University recently revealed in the eye a set of nonvision photoreceptors called ganglion cells, which are located in nerve pathways. While these ganglion cells play no role in vision, they do impact our natural circadian rhythm of sleep and waking, hormone production, and metabolism. Additional research is currently under way to better understand how ganglion cells detect light, how much light is needed for them to respond and their wavelength sensitivity. As scientists continue to quantify how to best apply this knowledge, it will have a profound impact on the nature of lighting systems in the future, where the effects of lighting on health will become at least as important as vision/visual comfort. This understanding is especially important in healthcare facilities, where patients and staff spend long periods of time working and living under artificial lighting.

Much of the research in this area focuses on the impact that exposure to light has on the body’s ability to produce melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland that signals to the body when it is nighttime and accordingly promotes sleep. Melatonin production is naturally suppressed by exposure to blue wavelengths around 480 nanometers, which is found in daylight and cooler color temperature artificial light sources. Studies suggest that patients should be exposed to blue light during the day, especially in the morning hours, to promote alertness and activity, and then removed from blue light several hours before sleep to facilitate melatonin production. Elderly patients may need exposure to even higher levels of blue light because the yellowing of the cornea seems to filter out blue wavelengths.

Aside from the impact on sleep, there are ongoing efforts to better understand the apparent relationship between low melatonin levels and depressed immune system function, psychological disorders, tumor growth, inflammatory diseases and more. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as early studies indicate that light exposure through these newly discovered photoreceptors influences the production of a wide range of other hormones and biological functions. While there is still much to be understood,it seems clear that exposure to natural light during the day and structuring our interactions with artificial illumination to mimic the natural dusk-to-dawn cycle that our human biology evolved with will increasingly become good practice. You can already see applications of this in the color-changing illumination of passenger cabins of international aircraft to help combat jet lag.

With all this data emerging and continuing to evolve, it is clear that we will soon be able to quantify balanced exposure to light with improvements in health, well-being and lower patient care costs. To ensure that these items are addressed when considering light-ing and controls options for your healthcare facility, I would recommend bringing these points to a qualified lighting designer. He or she can come up with recommendations on lamps, fixtures and controls that can provide for blue-rich light during the day and bluedeficient light at night. This can be achieved with conventional light sources or more elegantly with solid-state LED lighting, which can be programmed and controlled to change color temperatures throughout the day. There is a lot of information on this topic on the Internet.To learn more, type key phrases such as “non visual photoreceptors,” “impact of light on health” or “blue light + melatonin into your search engine.”

SCOTT ROOS
Juno Lighting Group by Schneider Electric

Concealed Cove Lighting

What are the benefits of concealed cove lighting, and how have LED product offerings evolved?

NEED INITIALS, Need Location.

Concealed cove lighting is a patient-friendly alternative to the harsh, institutional character of recessed direct lighting – perfect for patient waiting areas, nurses’ stations and exam rooms. Rather than staring up at bright, concentrated light sources surrounded by comparatively dark ceiling surfaces, light projected across surfaces From a concealed cove creates a more controlled brightness over a broader area. The nature of the reflected and indirect illumination is far softer or more diffused than directional recessed lighting.

Although linear fluorescents have typically been used for such applications, long hours of operation and global energy concerns have caused healthcare facilities to look for newer technologies that might reduce maintenance and power consumption. On both fronts, LED lighting has made significant waves in the market, thus creating a demand for this type of architectural lighting products.

Early LEDs relied on efficient but unnaturally “cool” emitters, which were unflattering to skin tones as well as many architectural finishes. Fortunately, the situation improved over time, as warmer/more natural color temperatures became available. Despite these advances, color consistency between individual LED emitters remained a problem until recent years.

Today, LED technology is nearly on par with linear fluorescents in terms of the light generated (lumens) per unit of power consumed (watts). The addition of phosphor technologies – similar to those used in linear fluorescents – have increased both the palette of colors available as well as the color consistency between individual emitters,which carries over the entire cone of light produced by each emitter and eliminates the spotty light output LEDs were known for.

This optimally positions LEDs for use in highly efficient refractor optics, allowing the light to bend into asymmetric beam distributions without noticeable color separation, like a light passing through a prism.

It is important to note that LED cove lights are uniquely qualified for some more specialized healthcare applications as well. In MRI rooms, for example, where DC-powered incandescent sources have long been used, the LED emitters are capable of withstanding the associated magnetic fields as long as their power supplies/drivers are located outside of the space. Compared to their incandescent predecessors, service life is greatly extended and energy use is greatly reduced. LEDs are also dimmable; offering the ability to adjust light levels provided by a comfortable, indirect lighting system as patients await sometimes stressful testing in a totally reclined position.

ZACH ZAHAREWICZ The Lighting Quotient

Our Expert Panel

Dan Wagner is director of facility service programs and facility service legislative affairs for ISSA, a not-for-profit organization that acts as the voice of the $150+ billion global cleaning industry. He is an expert on green cleaning and a sought-after speaker on environmental standards, sustainability, and green operations and maintenance. With ISSA, he is primarily responsible for leading the association’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and CIMS-Green Building Certification Programs. For more information on these standards, as well as a checklist to determine if your services are in compliance, visit issa.com/standard.

Scott Roos is the vice president of product design at Juno Lighting Group by Schneider Electric. He can be reached at sroos@junolightinggroup.com.

Zach (Joseph R.) Zaharewicz is vice president of design for elliptipar, a division of The Lighting Quotient. He manages the Applications Group and provides specifiers and sales representatives with design support. Zaharewicz has been with the company for 25 years and was a member of the Sylvan R.Shemitz Associates lighting design heritage.He can be reached at Jzaharewicz@TheLightingQuotient.com.