Green Cleaning in the Office

While your office cleaning team do a great job of keeping your workplace clean, they can generally only remove surface mess and clutter. They generally have very little control over the air quality inside your office unless they've been given the correct equipment. If you or your co-workers suffer from asthma or any other form of respiratory issue, you will want to do everything you can to ensure that the air inside your office is of the highest possible quality. Speak with the cleaning team to see if some small changes can be implemented in order to improve the air quality inside your office. It might be that your company (or building) might need to provide additional equipment to achieve these changes, but this should not be a major hurdle. These changes might be small, but they can make a huge difference.

1. Dusting

No doubt your office cleaning team are already diligent with their dusting, but what do they actually use to dust? Many cloths (whether they're made from natural or synthetic fibres) pick up a large amount of dust but also simply push a large amount of dust around. Is your cleaning team able to use a combination of microfibre dusting cloths and static dusters? Microfibre dusting cloths pick up and retain dust particles without the need for any kind of cleaning solution. Static dusters are great to clean areas where a microfibre duster cannot reach. They look like an old-fashioned feather duster, although the fibres can be charged with static electricity, attracting dust and making it stick to the fibres. The duster is simply charged by friction, wherein the duster is covered with a plastic bag before being vigorously rubbed. These dusting methods result in far less dust being left behind, thus improving air quality.

2. Vacuuming

What kind of vacuum cleaner is used in your office? Many traditional vacuum cleaners expel dust and other particles back into the room via its exhaust vents. While it can be an investment, a vacuum cleaner with a high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filter will not expel dust back into the room. This is essentially a high-density filter that catches the vast majority of airborne particles. The vacuum cleaner will have a stronger motor than a non-HEPA vacuum cleaner to compensate for the added filtration so that it can maintain its suction strength. This can be a reasonable investment for your office, but it will result in improved air quality.

3. Cleaning Chemicals

A certain number of cleaning products will need to be used by your office cleaning team, and it's not possible to clean without the use of certain products. But not all cleaning products are the same. Most cleaning products expel a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which can cause respiratory irritation, particularly when long-term exposure occurs. Avoiding this is as straightforward as requesting that your cleaning team uses low-emitting cleaning products (which are usually certified as such on the label). It's as simple as making the correct choice when it comes to the types of products used to clean your office.

These three simple steps can greatly improve the quality of the air inside your office. You spend enough time there each week, so you want to breathe easily! Contact an office cleaning company like SKG Pty Ltd to learn more about services they can provide to improve your office space.