Bunzl Canada is pleased to congratulate Queen’s University on being one of the top Canadian universities to be awarded the CIMS-GB with Honours certification! The Cleaning Industry Management Standard – Green Building (CIMS-GB) is awarded to organizations that have demonstrated they deliver quality, customer-focused services through a comprehensive green cleaning program.
Bunzl is proud to have collaborated and supported the Queen’s Custodial Support Services Team as they worked to establish a facility maintenance program that would exceed industry standards. Over the last 18 months, the Queen’s team worked to take cleaning quality to the next level while implementing new green initiatives at the same time. Bunzl and Queen’s collaborated on revamping the university’s cleaning program by focusing on outcome-specific cleaning, comprehensive staff training on new cleaning tools, enhanced cleaning processes and making the switch to greener products.
Outcome-specific Cleaning
Led by Sam Whyte, Director of Quality and Service Excellence at Queen’s, the initiative began with a fundamental change to the cleaning team structure. Cleaning teams were organized according to the cleaning requirements of specific areas of the facilities, which enabled them to become specialists in those areas. They gained and in-depth understanding of the required cleaning protocols, associated cleaning products, tools and equipment and required cleaning outcomes for each area. Each team is now designated by colour:
- Red – focuses on restrooms, change rooms and specialized cleaning for health and hygiene
- Blue – focuses on meeting rooms, staff lunch rooms
- Yellow – focuses on classrooms, lecture theatres, research labs and recreation areas
- Green – focuses on hallways, stairwells, cafeteria and elevators
Training and Two-way Communication
Queen’s understands that cleaning teams are the heart of an effective cleaning program, and ensuring they are properly trained is essential. With support from Bunzl Cleaning & Hygiene’s local experts, they provided their teams with extensive training that covered specific cleaning processes and how to use green cleaning supplies. In addition, teams were provided with Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) certification training.
The Bunzl team participated in town hall meetings with front line teams to demonstrate how new cleaning tools and green products should be used to help improve efficiency and overall cleaning quality. Town halls also provided an additional opportunity for two-way communication between leadership teams and front-line staff, which helped to make changes to the cleaning program a collaborative effort.
Cleaning for the Future
Queen’s launched its enhanced cleaning program just before the start of the pandemic and was able to keep its cleaning teams and residence buildings healthy thanks to having well-trained teams, the necessary supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the required cleaning products and tools to deliver exceptional results.
Queen’s demonstrates the impact that the right cleaning program can have on a facility. By implementing a highly efficient program design and keeping its team well-supported, well-trained and well-resourced, it has showcased how to take a cleaning program from base level to best-in-class industry standard. The University was awarded CIMS-GB Certification with Honours on March 31, 2021.