Go green, and save some green

Going green can positively impact the environment and your bottom line. Eighty percent of building owners, developers, architects, engineers and consultants surveyed in 2004 said green buildings repay any additional upfront costs through lower operating costs and other benefits.

ServiceMaster Green is an active member of both the U.S. Green Building Council and the Building Owners and Managers Association International. These two organizations announced in November 2006 they would work collaboratively to promote energy efficiency and environmentally responsible building operations and maintenance practices. As a building owner, operator or manager, by hiring ServiceMaster Green you are getting more than outstanding contract cleaning service. You are also getting a proud partner in environmental stewardship that believes in and lives out the industry-wide efforts to promote energy efficient and environmentally responsible buildings.

The Building Owners and Managers Association launched a Market Transformation Energy Plan and 7-Point Challenge in July 2007. BOMA’s goal is to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings by 30 percent by 2012. When you go green with ServiceMaster Green, it helps you to meet some of the BOMA challenges:

• decreasing energy consumption
• implementing low-risk
• low-cost and cost-effective strategies to improve energy efficiency with high returns
• positively impacting your community and your planet by helping to reduce your industry’s role in global warming
• positioning yourself and the industry as leaders and solution providers to owners and tenants seeking environmental and operational excellence

Buildings also have a significant impact on human health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is among those who have linked poor indoor air quality to problems such as cancers, asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Indoor air typically contains between 2 and 5 times — and sometimes greater than 100 times — more pollutants than outdoor air. Consider the health implications of that, as most people spend 90 percent of their work day indoors.

The direct bottom-line impact of green buildings is unmistakable, according to the results of that 2004 survey of building owners, developers, architects, engineers and consultants:

• 79 percent reported higher building values;
• 76 percent reported higher worker productivity;
• 63 percent reported higher asking rents.

Other recent studies show that with better indoor environments, U.S. businesses could reap billions of dollars in positive bottom-line impact from lower employee sick time and higher worker productivity and retention rates. To let us show you how you can start saving money while helping save the environment today, just contact us.

Sources:

• Turner Corporation Green Building Issues survey, July 2004.
• “ Health and Productivity Gains From Better Indoor Environments” Environmental Building news, Vol. 13, No. 10. The author shows that U.S. businesses could save as much as $58 billion annually in lost sick time and gain $20 billion in worker productivity.
• “ Indoor Air Facts No. 4: Sick Building Syndrome (SBS): “ An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality,” Environmental Protection Agency, 2006.
• “ The Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) Study.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1987.
• “ The fundamentals of mold-related illness: when to suspect the environment is making a patient sick.” Postgraduate Medicine Online, Frederick Fung, MD, MS; William G. Hughson, MD, PhD, 2003.