ISSA Announces First Group of CIMS-Green Building-Certified Organizations

18 Additional Organizations Recognized for Achieving Traditional CIMS Certification

October 22, 2009, Lincolnwood, IL, USA—ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, is pleased to announce the first 12 organizations to achieve certification to both the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and the recently introduced CIMS-Green Building (CIMS-GB) criteria.

CIMS-GB, which serves as an optional sixth dimension of CIMS, offers cleaning organizations a certification that is closely tailored to provide customers with precisely what they need to secure points under the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) green-building rating system while greening operations overall. Accordingly, CIMS-GB certification demonstrates an organization’s capability to assist customers in achieving LEED-EB: O&M points and offers customers assurance that the organization they select is prepared to partner with them in the LEED process.

“ISSA congratulates the pioneer organizations who are the first to achieve CIMS-GB certification and have, therefore, demonstrated a commitment to delivering environmentally preferable cleaning service,” said ISSA Director of Facility Service Programs Dan Wagner. “Not only do these organizations represent the professional cleaning industry as companies of operational excellence, they depict a commitment to sustainability and providing added value to their customers.”

The first group of organizations to achieve CIMS and CIMS-GB certification includes:

• Bee Clean Building Maintenance, Edmonton, AB, Canada
• Bravo! Group Services, Piscataway, NJ
• Castle Keepers of Charleston, Inc., Charleston, SC
• DMS Facility Services, Monrovia, CA
• GMI Building Services, San Diego, CA
• Matrix Integrated Facility Management, Johnson City, NY
• Metropolitan Building Services, Inc., Washington, D.C.
• P&R Enterprises, Inc., Falls Church, VA
• Pegasus Building Services, Long Beach, CA
• Shellville Facility Services—A Division of Matrix, King of Prussia, PA
• University of Maryland, College Park: Department of Residential Facilities,
College Park, MD
• Varsity Contractors, Inc., Pocatello, ID

Cleaning organizations interested in pursuing certification should visit www.issa.com/cims-gb for more information on the CIMS-GB criteria. In general, CIMS-GB is an optional designation under the CIMS program umbrella, and those organizations that wish to achieve GB certification are required to also undergo an assessment to the traditional CIMS management criteria.

18 Additional Organizations Recognized for CIMS Certification
In addition to the 12 organizations that achieved both CIMS and CIMS-GB certification, 18 cleaning organizations were recently recognized at the ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2009 tradeshow in Chicago, IL, for certifying to the traditional CIMS criteria. All 30 organizations were recognized as part of a CIMS-certification ceremony held immediately before Mike Ditka’s feature presentation at the show.

“The CIMS certification program continues to grow, indicating that the cleaning industry’s need for a consensus-based, nonprescriptive management standard is well served,” noted Wagner. “Further, we continue to see that more end-users require certification to be eligible to be awarded a cleaning-service contract, including Region One of the U.S. General Services Administration and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which recently made CIMS certification a requirement in its statewide contract.”

With the addition of these companies, the total number of CIMS-certified cleaning organizations has reached 48. The following 18 organizations have most recently achieved certification to the traditional CIMS management criteria:

• ABM: Morgan Stanley, New York, NY
• Alpine Building Maintenance, Richmond, BC, Canada
• Bee Line, Inc., Elk Grove Village, IL
• Cristi Cleaning Service, Hackensack, NJ
• Crothall Services Group, Wayne, PA
• Grosvenor Building Services, Inc., Orlando, FL
• Janitronics Facility Services, Albany, NY
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
• KleenMark, Madison, WI
• Mitch Murch’s Maintenance Management (4M), St. Louis, MO
• Pro Clean Building Maintenance, Altamonte Springs, FL
• Sodexo Campus Services—Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
• Team Clean, Inc., Honolulu, HI
• Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
• The Granite Club, Toronto, ON, Canada
• University of Georgia Physical Plant Division – Services Department
(North Campus “Green Corridor”), Athens, GA
• Upper Merion Area School District, King of Prussia, PA
• Wellington Building Maintenance, Guelph, ON, Canada

About CIMS & CIMS-GB
CIMS applies to management, operations, performance systems, and processes. Compliance with the Standard demonstrates that an organization is structured to deliver consistent, quality services designed to meet the customer’s needs and expectations. It sets forth processes, procedures, and supporting documentation proven to be characteristic of customer-driven organizations. Given that CIMS is nonprescriptive, each organization has the flexibility to choose the most effective ways in which to meet its requirements.

The new CIMS-GB dimension focuses on the delivery of environmentally preferable cleaning service and offers organizations a certification that is closely tailored to provide customers with precisely what they need to secure points under the LEED-EB: O&M rating system while greening operations overall.

The Standard and GB criteria were created through a true consensus-based process that brought together representatives of the cleaning, facilities-management, and purchasing communities. In total, more than 100,000 constituents were represented in the process, which included a full peer review and was administered by ISSA and the American Institute for Cleaning Sciences.

About Certification
To become CIMS and CIMS-GB certified, an organization must submit written documentation supporting its compliance with the requirements described in the sections of the Standard. An independent, accredited assessor then conducts an on-site review of the applicant’s systems, processes, and documentation to ensure compliance. To achieve certification, an organization must meet 100 percent of the mandatory elements and 60 percent of the recommended elements, per section.

To date, 48 organizations have achieved certification. Other organizations interested in pursuing certification are encouraged to submit an application to officially enroll in the program. For more information or to download an application, please visit www.issa.com/standard. The CIMS Certification Guide, which helps organizations better understand what is required to comply with the Standard, is also available to provide more in-depth explanations of how to meet the Standard’s various requirements.

About ISSA
The leading trade association for the cleaning industry worldwide, ISSA has a membership that includes more than 5,500 distributor, manufacturer, manufacturer representative, building service contractor, in-house service provider, and associated service members. ISSA offers the industry’s largest cleaning shows in conjunction with Amsterdam RAI under the brand name ISSA/INTERCLEAN®, the popular Web site ISSA.com, educational products, industry standards, periodicals, and legislative and regulatory services that specifically focus on the professional cleaning industry.

The association is headquartered in Lincolnwood, IL, USA, with regional offices in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Leicester, United Kingdom; Monterrey, Mexico; Singapore; and Shanghai, China. ISSA also works with more than 75 associations, alliances, and government agencies around the world to represent the cleaning industry. For more information, visit www.issa.com.

CONTACT: Dan Wagner, Director of Facility Service Programs
daniel@issa.com
Phone: 800-225-4772 (North America) or 847-982-0800, ext. 1326

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