 Cleaners: Pollution Prevention Calculator
The Green Cleaning Pollution Prevention Calculator quantifies the projected environmental benefits
of purchasing and using "green" janitorial services and products. It is designed to forecast the
environmental benefits of reducing chemical use by doing some or all pollution prevention measures typically
involved in the routine interior cleaning of an office building. This tool also enables users to identify
which green cleaning measures will have the greatest impact in reducing their use of hazardous chemicals and
in preventing pollution.
The Calculator's output applies only to standard office cleaning products and practices,
and does not apply to other building maintenance issues, such as equipment maintenance, pest control, or
landscaping activities.
Who Should Use This Calculator?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed this tool for use by Federal
agency environmental, health and safety facility managers, and other interested parties to estimate benefits
to be achieved by adopting "green" cleaning practices. EPA anticipates that this tool will be
particularly helpful in developing performance-based janitorial contracts.
How the Calculator Works View Example
Users must input the following information about the building and current cleaning
practices to use the Green Cleaning Calculator:
- Estimate of carpeted area of the building.
- Estimate of hard floor area.
- Types and annual amounts of cleaning products currently used to clean the building
(by weight in pounds).
- Current cleaning product handling and mixing practices.
- Changes to janitorial product use and cleaning practices that have been made or
could be made.
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Default values will automatically appear; You should enter
your actual values for each product that you use. The default amounts are
typical for a building of 100,000 square feet. This default was chosen because
it can be easily extrapolated upward to the range of office space typically
occupied by federal agencies. The tool may underestimate chemical amounts for
buildings that are much smaller than 100,000 square feet in size.
The Calculator analyzes this data and provides the user with summaries of:
- How much total cleaning product consumption will decrease by adopting green
cleaning practices.
- How much hazardous materials consumption will decrease by adopting green cleaning
practices.
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The estimated amounts of cleaning chemicals used and the environmental benefits predicted
by the calculator are representative of typical office buildings. You can improve the accuracy
of these estimates by entering your site's specific information into the calculator rather than using
the built-in default amounts.
Acknowledgements
EPA and the Responsible Purchasing Network wish to thank Eastern Research Group (ERG) and Thomas Barron for their support to create this calculator. |
