August 7, 2009—To meet the growing demand for “green” and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, ISSA is expanding its Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and certification program. The expansion includes a new designation based on environmental-preferability criteria focused primarily on the specific green cleaning requirements of the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) Green Building Rating System.
Intended to be implemented as the sixth dimension of CIMS, this new designation, CIMS-GB, will offer cleaning organizations an optional certification that is closely tailored to provide their customers with precisely what they need to secure LEED-EB: O&M points while greening their operations overall.
Development of the CIMS-GB program is underway, through a consensus-based process. All criteria will then be subject to public review during the month of August 2009. Criteria will be based primarily on those elements of LEED-EB: O&M that allow a facility to achieve points toward certification for green cleaning activities.
ISSA intends for the final CIMS-GB criteria to be published at ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2009, in Chicago, IL, October 6-9, 2009. Organizations will then be able to certify to the CIMS-GB designation following publication.
