January 11, 2005 - McGill University... Small Case Studies in Campus Facility Magazine

First College to Go "Certified" Green

McGill University in Quebec, Canada, is approximately 150 years old, has more than 30,000 students, and its 170 buildings are situated on 1,600 wooded acres.

Giovanni Nuzzi, the school’s director of buildings and grounds, says, “It has always been my goal to go Green. There have been biodegradable products since the 1980s, but until recently, there have been few effective, cost-competitive cleaning products that were also certified Green.”

About five years ago, Nuzzi sought out jansan manufacturers and distributors that could provide the university with professional Green Cleaning products. “We wanted products that had been certified by an independent source—such as Environmental Choice here in Canada—that they were indeed Green.”

According to Nuzzi, few manufacturers were producing environmentally preferable cleaning products at that time, and fewer still had products certified by a third party to be Green. One of the few exceptions was Enviro-Solutions, a chemical company that produces only Green Cleaning products.

Nuzzi had his custodial staff test many of the cleaning products produced by Enviro-Solutions, replacing the college’s traditional cleaning chemicals during the test period. “Our first concern was that they be effective; the products had to be as good as or better than the cleaning products they replaced. Then, of course we had to look at price.”

Over time, the cleaning crews started reporting their findings and were happy—and somewhat surprised to say—that product after another were as effective as the traditional cleaning chemicals they replaced. Moreover, Nuzzi says, “They were also cost-competitive. Now, because of Enviro-Solutions, I’m proud to say we were the first college in Canada to go Green.”