How State Building Maintenance Limited can do its part

Our company delivers full service Commercial Cleaning to Office buildings, Manufacturing Plants, Warehouses, Condominiums and many other businesses.  Our business offers daily, bi-weekly and once a week cleaning services or on-demand services for specific cleans such as carpet cleaning, floor refinishing, seasonal cleans etc.  We also supply our customers with consumables as part of their cleaning program or on as needed orders of paper products such as toilet tissue, hand towels, hand soap etc.  So it goes without saying our cleaning company purchases many supplies that we either use in the cleaning process or deliver to our customers.

Our readers may wonder why we are choosing in this month’s BLOG to discuss our Carbon Footprint and Global Warming instead of talking about window cleaning, carpet cleaning etc.  To put it simply, our company believes that we all need to do our small part in protecting the planet, that we all need to be stewards of the environment. Global Warming is largely ascribed to an increase in the level of carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas.  Some gases, often referred to as Greenhouse Gases, trap heat and are making the planet warmer.  We see the impact of climate change on our depleting ice flows in Northern Canada, effecting our Polar Bears.  Average overland and ocean surfaces temperatures have warmed roughly 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit, .85 degrees Celsius from 1880 to 2012 according to the scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.  Continents have warmed the most, in the Northern Hemisphere (that’s us) the last three decades were likely the warmest period over the last 1400 years.  We have learned from most scientists the hard facts, that Global Warming will affect the sustainability of some species, some food crops and our health.  Some areas of the world may fair better but others will greatly suffer.

So we all need to reduce our carbon footprint, that is the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted due to our daily activities.  We as individuals personally have no control over the world’s coal mine emissions, oil field emissions etc., but if we all do our little bit to reduce our carbon footprint we will be heading in the right direction in caring for the future of our planet, our children’s world.  Each of us, that’s you and me, need to reduce waste so as to not keep incinerating products that produce damaging emissions.  If we all reduce our carbon footprint we will slow down what will be destructive climate changes.   Our company buys supplies by the van full, all coming in boxes, bins, jugs, jars, cans, plastic wrap etc., containers of various materials and what we do with them is important.

Now that most plastics are recyclable there is no need to dump your plastic containers just anywhere for convenience sake.  Instead of going into a landfill, if put into a recycle bin, that plastic may well be made into your next garbage can, laundry hamper etc. In documentaries, we have all seen those floating islands in the Pacific of what they call “floating islands of microscopic plastic”. These are being created by careless dumping into our waters.  These floating islands can block sunlight from reaching and supporting plankton and consequently effect the food of certain ocean species that feed the world.  So the next time you are on a holiday, relaxing on the beach, sipping that cold drink from a recyclable plastic bottle, please bring it home and put it into your recycle bin. Leave no footprint. Yes, that one small action helps in more ways than one, it protects our ocean species and reduces our carbon footprint.

So what can State Building Maintenance Limited do during our daily activities to protect the environment?

When picking up supplies for our cleaning company or delivering consumables to our customers we fully load our vans so as to not travel the roads unnecessarily, thereby reducing emissions.

Solutions purchased in recyclable plastic gallons, metal containers etc. are recycled or re-used if possible.

Many of our soft cleaning materials used in everyday cleaning can be washed, sanitized and reused so as to not be needlessly dumped into the garbage.

So many of our supplies are purchased in cardboard boxes, so when emptied these boxes are collapsed and put into the appropriate cardboard recycling container.

We can offer green cleaning products that are biodegradable and less toxic.

Because of constant foot traffic, at times all floors whether they be marble, porcelain tile, vinyl etc. require a floor stripping and refinishing with either a sealant and/or impregnator. But during our daily floor cleaning, in buildings where hard floor surfaces don’t often get tacky or scratched, a number of our customers are choosing not to use chemicals. They are requesting that State Building Maintenance Limited bring in our floor steamers to clean their hard-surfaced floors.

When State Building Maintenance Limited gathers garbage we work with two large rolling garbage bins, one specifically to hold garbage and one bin explicitly for recyclables, which we then empty into your cities’ labelled bins.

In our office we try to limit our printing and all our shredded papers are put out for recycling, every positive action helps.

So as we steam clean your carpets, refinish your floors or wash your windows at your Office, Factory, Condominium, Retail Store or deliver your hand towels and toilet tissue, we at State Building Maintenance Limited do constantly ask ourselves how we can better our world.  Please call us for a free quote regarding our various cleaning services at 416-247-1290 or email us at info@sbml.ca as WE DO IT ALL.