Effective & Sustainable: The Next Era of Disinfection
By Brian Rominski
Dir./Buildings & Grounds
Prospect Heights SD 23
Tyler Williams
Dir./Scientific Services
PathoSans, USA
In a time where disinfection kill claims have become the focus for an effective building maintenance program, it is easy to forget the environmental impact of daily cleaning and disinfecting. Facilities are going through more boxes, containers and barrels of different chemistries all in a quest to assure their buildings are cleaned and disinfected. The chemicals are being dumped, sprayed, wiped, misted and fogged into these environments. Unchecked, these disinfection programs have become a major burden on building sustainability initiatives. To illustrate the sharp increases, a recent Wall Street Journal article sites an increase in hand sanitizer sales from 2019 to 2020 sales of over 600 percent. While we may not fully understand the broad impacts of a dramatic increase such as 600 percent, there is little debate that the impact will be far reaching.
So how can a facility successfully meet sustainability initiatives, while assuring facilities are effectively cleaned and disinfected?