6 Questions to Ask About Green Home Cleaning

6 Questions to Ask About Green Home Cleaning

Looking for a green home cleaning service? Ask these questions to ensure that the companies you’re researching can deliver!

• What certifications does your company have?
• How do you minimize waste?
• What kind of cleaning products do you use?
• How do you reduce the carbon footprint of your vehicles?
• Do you use independent contractors?

If choosing environmentally friendly products and services matters to you, you’re not alone. Nearly 6 in 10 consumers say that sustainability influences their choices.

There’s a wide range of steps you can take to be greener, and they go far beyond installing solar panels or driving an electric car. Choosing an environmentally friendly cleaning service is an easy way you can contribute to a cleaner planet. This is often a healthier option for your family, including your pets, since green cleaning services often use fewer harsh chemicals.

But what makes a home cleaning service “environmentally friendly?” Here are a few questions you can ask to determine if you’ve found the right green home cleaning service.

What Certifications Does Your Company Have?

One great standard to look for is Green Seal GS-49 standard, which establishes standards for green home cleaning services. It provides 17 pages of guidance on products and methods that are better for the environment.

Obtaining and maintaining this certification requires 8 hours of annual training – not only for field employees, but for owners and managers, as well.

The GS-49 also specifies certain products that a home cleaning service can’t use if they want to get certified. These include ozone-depleting compounds, carcinogens, formaldehyde donors, and mutagens.

How Do You Minimize Waste?

It’s smart to ask how your potential home cleaning service deals with waste. For example, using microfiber towels instead of paper towels is a great way for them to keep items out of the trash. It also allows them to use smaller amounts of cleaning products.

Then you have bottles used for cleaning products. Do they just toss them when they’re done, or do they refill and reuse them?

Home Clean Heroes is focused on utilizing renewable sources and environmentally friendly practices during our cleaning services. Both microfiber towels and refillable bottles are used during cleaning to ensure we’re doing our part to minimize waste.

What Kind of Cleaning Products Do You Use?

This question can help you figure out whether a cleaning service uses toxic substances to clean – and in what proportions.

For example, Home Clean Heroes uses a cleaning agent that meets Green Seal Standard GS-37 along with other EPA-certified solutions.

Aside from less toxic or non-toxic products, be sure to ask about air fresheners. Conventional cleaning services might use artificial scents instead of enzyme-based solutions.

How Do You Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your Vehicles?

For a green home cleaning service, reducing their carbon footprint should start long before they arrive. That means getting to your home using as little fuel and producing as few greenhouse gases as possible.

Ask whether the cleaning service has GPS tracking in its vehicles and whether they use software to plan their routes and manage work orders. Many businesses use these techniques to improve their bottom line – but it has the added benefit of using less fuel and reducing emissions.

Aside from route planning, GPS tracking also discourages speeding and harsh driving, both of which impact gas mileage. Many companies also use GPS tracking to schedule maintenance. When vehicles are properly maintained, they also use less gas and emit fewer greenhouse gases.

Some green home cleaning services may even be switching to hybrid and electric vehicles to reduce their carbon footprint further.

Do You Use Independent Contractors?

There’s a long list of reasons why you should insist on companies that use employees rather than independent contractors, and many of them go far beyond being environmentally friendly. But let’s focus on the green issue.

First, green home cleaning is a skill. If a company focuses on being green, they need to train employees in green cleaning techniques. It’s far more likely that they’ll adhere to the policies and procedures if they’re employees rather than contractors.

Second, it’s much easier to track vehicles owned by a company. GPS trackers installed in a vehicle provide much more information to help management reduce miles traveled, which saves fuel and cuts emissions. Since this is one of the best ways for a cleaning company to be greener, this should matter to you!

Summing it Up: Finding a Green Home Cleaning Service

These questions should help you find companies that really do offer green home cleaning. From there, it’s just a matter of which one fits your schedule and budget best.

At Home Clean Heroes, we believe that a clean home is a healthier home. To find out more about our services and the eco-friendly practices in place, give us a call at 844-HEY-HERO (844-439-4376).

 

Justin Schmid is a content writer for GPS Insight.