MoreDecember 13, 2006, Lincolnwood, IL, USA-Building service contractors (BSCs) and in-house service providers (ISPs) now have until January 26 to apply to become one of the first North American organizations to certify to the Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS).
ISSA, the leading association for the cleaning industry worldwide, spearheaded the effort to create CIMS and is in the process of reviewing applications from organizations interested in being certification case studies.
The association already has received more applications than it can process in the first round of case studies and continues to receive requests to participate. To accommodate the influx of interest, ISSA has extended the application deadline an additional month.
“We had an overwhelming response to the standard since its November 14 release,” said Dan Wagner, ISSA Standards Development Manager. “More than 1,000 industry professionals have downloaded the document thus far, and it already is being referenced by organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a guideline for cleaning operations.”
ISSA anticipates certifying an estimated 20 BSC and in-house custodial departments during the first half of 2007. The association will officially open certification to the entire industry next fall. To download an application, visit www.issa.com/standard.
Case-study participants will go through the full certification process and, if they achieve compliance with the standard, will be honored as ISSA’s charter certified cleaning organizations. Such organizations will then be featured in marketing case studies promoted to the purchasing and facilities management communities as ISSA markets the standard and certification program throughout 2007. Case-study participants also will receive valuable benchmarking data gathered during the case-study process and be recognized at the ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America tradeshow in Orlando, FL, October 23-26, 2007.
To become certified to the standard, applicants will be required to submit written documentation supporting their compliance with the elements outlined in the standard’s five key sections. ISSA’s registrar, the American Institute of Cleaning Science, will then assign an ISSA-accredited assessor to conduct an on-site review. To achieve certification, an organization must meet 100 percent of the mandatory elements and 60 percent of the recommended elements, per section.
Associations, certification bodies, and other interested stakeholders representing more than 100,000 professionals from the cleaning, facility management, and purchasing fields came together to develop CIMS, choosing five areas of management which they felt represented a well-run, customer-centered cleaning organization: Quality Systems; Service Delivery; Human Resources; Health, Safety & Environmental Stewardship; and Management Commitment.
The standard applies to a cleaning organization in its entirety, rather than to an individual program or product, and is intended to allow individual companies to choose the most effective ways to comply with its management requirements.
ISSA, the leading association for the cleaning industry worldwide, spearheaded the effort to create CIMS and is in the process of reviewing applications from organizations interested in being certification case studies.
The association already has received more applications than it can process in the first round of case studies and continues to receive requests to participate. To accommodate the influx of interest, ISSA has extended the application deadline an additional month.
“We had an overwhelming response to the standard since its November 14 release,” said Dan Wagner, ISSA Standards Development Manager. “More than 1,000 industry professionals have downloaded the document thus far, and it already is being referenced by organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a guideline for cleaning operations.”
ISSA anticipates certifying an estimated 20 BSC and in-house custodial departments during the first half of 2007. The association will officially open certification to the entire industry next fall. To download an application, visit www.issa.com/standard.
Case-study participants will go through the full certification process and, if they achieve compliance with the standard, will be honored as ISSA’s charter certified cleaning organizations. Such organizations will then be featured in marketing case studies promoted to the purchasing and facilities management communities as ISSA markets the standard and certification program throughout 2007. Case-study participants also will receive valuable benchmarking data gathered during the case-study process and be recognized at the ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America tradeshow in Orlando, FL, October 23-26, 2007.
To become certified to the standard, applicants will be required to submit written documentation supporting their compliance with the elements outlined in the standard’s five key sections. ISSA’s registrar, the American Institute of Cleaning Science, will then assign an ISSA-accredited assessor to conduct an on-site review. To achieve certification, an organization must meet 100 percent of the mandatory elements and 60 percent of the recommended elements, per section.
Associations, certification bodies, and other interested stakeholders representing more than 100,000 professionals from the cleaning, facility management, and purchasing fields came together to develop CIMS, choosing five areas of management which they felt represented a well-run, customer-centered cleaning organization: Quality Systems; Service Delivery; Human Resources; Health, Safety & Environmental Stewardship; and Management Commitment.
The standard applies to a cleaning organization in its entirety, rather than to an individual program or product, and is intended to allow individual companies to choose the most effective ways to comply with its management requirements.
