Longtime school custodian David Hallinan was on his way to work in December 2022 when his state senator telephoned with news two years in the making: Legislation had established the commemoration of School Custodian Day every Oct. 2 in Massachusetts. Although National Custodians Day had long been observed informally on that date, the new law made it an official statewide observance. “My state senator said the governor signed the bill that night,” Hallinan recalled. “And it was just a wonderful feeling.” From an idea to state law Hallinan has worked in school custodial services for 38 years. During the pandemic, he noticed that while many front-line workers were recognized, school custodians received comparatively little public recognition. “It has been my mission and privilege to get recognition for the dedicated contributions provided by school custodians,” he said. Hallinan contacted his state representative, Alyson Sullivan-Almeida (Republican), and state senator, Walter Timilty (Democrat, currently the Norfolk County Clerk of Courts). With their support, his proposal entered the Massachusetts legislative process. Hallinan continually contacted legislators and committee members to check on the bill’s progress before the state’s two-year legislative deadline expired. He was later honored for his persistence at the Massachusetts State House with Citations of Achievement from both Senate and House legislators. “I was told when I was being recognized at the State House [that] I was definitely a squeaky wheel,” Hallinan said. For Hallinan, however, the recognition has never been about himself. “It’s more about the profession,” he said. “I think we have a very important job, and we maintain and provide clean, healthy, and safe schools and a safe learning environment.” Recognition beyond Massachusetts Hallinan viewed Massachusetts as the beginning of the race rather than the finish line. He contacted legislators in other states to encourage similar recognition. Hallinan said his efforts have already helped inspire official recognition in West Virginia and Tennessee. Along the way, Hallinan has also been recognized by Plymouth Public Schools in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he has worked for the past 14 years, as well as by his union. Hallinan’s experience illustrates the patience, persistence, and passion for one’s profession that such an effort can require. His advice for others interested in pursuing similar recognition is remarkably simple: “Make the first phone call.”
A growing number of U.S. cities and states now require commercial buildings to report how much energy they use and, increasingly, what facility managers and owners plan to do with this information. For the commercial cleaning and maintenance industry, that shift from reporting to action is no longer background noise. Cleaning and maintenance contractors work inside these buildings every day, managing chemical use, water consumption, equipment energy draw, and waste streams that directly affect a building’s environmental footprint. Since Washington, D.C. and Austin, Texas became the first U.S. cities to mandate energy disclosure in 2008, at least 54 additional cities, counties, and states have adopted similar ordinances, and more than 40 jurisdictions now operate active benchmarking or building performance programs. The penalties are no longer symbolic. Boston’s emissions ordinance, for example, can fine noncompliant nonresidential buildings up to US$1,000 per day for missing performance standards. From disclosure to performance Many of the earliest building ordinances only required owners to publish basic energy data—a simple disclosure exercise with limited downstream consequence for service providers. That is changing. A growing share of jurisdictions now tie specific reduction targets and financial penalties to a building’s actual performance over time. Colorado’s statewide building performance program requires covered commercial buildings of 50,000 square feet or larger to cut greenhouse gas emissions 7% by 2026 and 20% by 2030 against a 2021 baseline. For cleaning and maintenance firms, these requirements create new exposure. When a building misses its emissions target, owner inquiries quickly turn to the parties who control day-to-day operational inputs: water use, chemical selection, equipment runtimes, and waste handling. Service providers who cannot produce detailed records of what products and equipment they used, when they used it, and how these uses compare to prior periods, are increasingly finding themselves unable to support their clients’ compliance documentation—or to defend their own role in the outcome. Lack of persistent records The deeper problem is not a shortage of data—it is a shortage of continuous, verifiable data. Most cleaning and maintenance contractors generate significant operational information: product usage logs, equipment inspection reports, water meter readings tied to cleaning schedules, waste manifests, and periodic service summaries. What most lack, however, is a reliable mechanism for maintaining that information in a form that survives account transitions, subcontractor changes, or the ordinary passage of time. This gap matters because cleaning and maintenance activity touches nearly every system that regulators and auditors now scrutinize. HVAC maintenance and filter programs affect the roughly 61% of energy use attributable to heating and cooling in a typical commercial building. Water efficiency programs, green cleaning chemical compliance, equipment electrification, and waste diversion each require their own baseline to demonstrate improvement over time. Without a documented starting point tied to a specific building and service period, contractors cannot show that conditions improved, auditors cannot confirm that targets are being met, and owners pursuing rebates or tax incentives often discover that the documentation needed to support a claim no longer exists. Financial-grade data Additional pressure is building from another direction. Chief financial officers and institutional lenders are increasingly expecting facilities and sustainability teams to produce energy and operational data with the rigor historically applied to financial statements. Investors are now pushing companies to provide audited environmental, social and governance (ESG) data that matches the rigor of financial reporting. Frameworks such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive already require limited assurance on sustainability data today, with that standard rising to the level applied to financial audits by 2028. A cleaning or maintenance log assembled after the fact from vendor invoices and field notes rarely survives that level of scrutiny. For cleaning and maintenance companies pursuing green building certifications, sustainability-linked contracts, or preferred vendor status with institutional property owners, that gap is becoming a competitive liability. Capital access and contract risk Pressure is also emerging from capital markets. Lenders, insurers, and institutional investors increasingly rely on verified building performance and operational data when evaluating risk, underwriting decisions, and determining incentive eligibility. Buildings with fragmented or unverifiable records—including records of cleaning and maintenance activity that affects indoor air quality, water use, and waste streams—may face higher financing costs, increased diligence requirements, or difficulty demonstrating compliance with sustainability commitments. For service contractors whose business depends on long-term relationships with institutional building owners, the quality of operational records is becoming a contract consideration, not simply an administrative one. The multi-structure identification problem A related problem compounds matters at the building level itself. Many commercial parcels contain multiple distinct structures—sometimes dozens—under a single street address. Permits, inspections, compliance filings, and service logs are typically associated with that address rather than the individual structure they actually describe. Cleaning and maintenance contractors operating across a campus, a mixed-use development, or a portfolio of properties under shared management face unique challenges. Service documentation becomes difficult to trace, scope disputes arise at renewal, and compliance reporting tied to a specific structure can become ambiguous or unusable over time. Lifecycle records as a service differentiator As buildings become increasingly regulated, digitized, and performance-driven, the cleaning and maintenance industry may need to rethink how it manages historical records altogether. Service activity, chemical and water usage, equipment maintenance, inspection histories, and compliance documentation are all becoming long-term operational assets—not just internal paperwork. Yet most service providers still lack a persistent mechanism for maintaining continuity of records throughout the life of a client relationship, let alone across account transitions or building ownership changes. Cleaning businesses that can demonstrate a verifiable service history tied to a specific structure over time will have an advantage when competing for institutional accounts, supporting green building programs, and avoiding compliance disputes. That capability is not a product feature; it is a recordkeeping discipline built deliberately, starting well before any audit or compliance deadline arrives. None of the challenges associated with data-keeping argue against green cleaning programs, equipment electrification, or water efficiency initiatives. They do, however, argue for treating the documented history of cleaning and maintenance activity as essential operational infrastructure—not paperwork assembled after the
Employee turnover in the commercial cleaning industry makes consistency a challenge for building service contractors (BSCs) and in-house providers alike. In this Q&A, I provide the answers to some common questions on how standardized processes and technology can help cleaning organizations maintain quality, improve onboarding, and support frontline teams despite ongoing workforce challenges. Why is standardization so important in high-turnover cleaning environments? When employees leave, they often take years of knowledge about a facility, client preferences, and daily routines with them. Without standardized processes, every new employee must start from scratch. That disadvantage creates inconsistency and increases the amount of time managers spend training new hires. When organizations document their processes, ideally within a digital system, new employees can step into a role with clear instructions instead of relying on guesswork or institutional knowledge. Standardization helps ensure that service quality remains consistent regardless of who is performing the work. What challenges do cleaning organizations face when onboarding new employees? One of the biggest challenges is communicating the scope of work. Many cleaners work independently during evening or overnight shifts, so after an initial walkthrough with a supervisor, they're often responsible for completing tasks on their own. If questions arise while they're in the field, they may not have immediate access to someone who can help. That uncertainty can lead to missed steps, inconsistent service, or frustration for both employees and clients. Having clear documentation, accessible work instructions, and reliable communication channels helps new employees feel supported while shortening the learning curve. How can technology help create consistency across multiple facilities and shifts? Technology brings the standard of work directly to the employee instead of leaving it in a binder or in someone's memory. Whether it's a checklist, QR code, timekeeping tool, or mobile work instructions, employees have immediate access to exactly what needs to be done, including the products, equipment, and procedures required for each location. That consistency is especially valuable when employees are assigned to facilities they've never serviced before. Technology also improves communication. Commercial cleaning is a highly bilingual industry, and tools that offer multilingual support or real-time translation help employees ask questions and receive guidance in their preferred language. That removes uncertainty and helps ensure work is completed according to company standards. What role do inspections and quality checks play in maintaining standards? Inspections establish the benchmark for what success looks like. They allow supervisors to measure performance against client expectations and identify areas that need attention before they cause larger problems. More importantly, inspections create consistency across an organization. Managers can compare performance between locations, identify recurring issues, and ensure every facility meets the same service standards. Rather than relying solely on customer feedback, inspections provide objective data that helps organizations proactively manage quality. How can managers use performance data to improve training and accountability? Performance data is valuable because it supports both coaching and recognition. Too often, employees only hear from management when something goes wrong. Inspection results and task data allow managers to recognize employees for work done well while also providing targeted coaching where improvements are needed. Over time, that data reveals trends. Managers can identify their highest-performing locations, their lowest-performing sites, and the tasks that fail most frequently. Instead of delivering broad training sessions, they can focus on the specific areas where employees need additional support. This specification creates a more efficient training process and helps organizations continuously improve service quality. What advice would you give cleaning organizations struggling with consistency due to turnover? Don't try to hire your way out of the problem. Many organizations respond to turnover by focusing only on recruiting more employees. While hiring is important, it doesn't solve the underlying issue if every new employee must learn processes differently. Instead, focus on building repeatable systems. Clearly define the scope of work, document your processes, and provide employees with the tools they need to succeed from day one. Even if you need to start with written procedures before moving to a digital platform, creating consistent processes will have a much greater long-term impact than simply adding more staff. Don’t try to change everything at once. Start by documenting your core processes, then implement improvements in manageable stages. Organizations that take a thoughtful, step-by-step approach are more likely to achieve lasting consistency than those that try to overhaul every process overnight.
On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of legislation to strengthen California’s long-term wildfire recovery system, building on the state’s work with survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires, and producing tools for wildfire survivors across the state. The new laws create first-in-the-nation standards for testing and remediating hazardous wildfire smoke contamination for future fires and require insurers to cover qualifying smoke-damage testing, remediation and restoration. The bills also permanently extend mortgage forbearance protections for disaster-affected homeowners. In the wake of the 2025 firestorms, families and communities continue to rebuild after the Eaton and Palisades fires. These new protections will make insurer obligations clearer and give homeowners more financial flexibility when they need it most. As fire seasons across the West become a year-round reality, California’s commitment to recovery must be just as enduring, the government said. The California Department of Insurance estimates that more than 13,000 of the roughly 40,000 insurance claims filed after the January 2025 fires involve smoke damage to homes that never burned. Until now, no state in the country had enforceable standards for how those homes should be tested, cleaned or restored. Assembly Bills 1642 and 1795 direct the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the California Air Resources Board to develop the state’s first protections for testing, remediation and restoration of lead and asbestos contamination from wildfire smoke, for homes within a fire’s zip codes. The bills require DTSC to issue guidance to help schools recover after a wildfire. The legislation also requires insurers to pay for lead and asbestos testing and remediation in smoke-damaged homes within a wildfire zone, cover full cleanup and restoration to pre-loss condition and bars insurers from cutting off Additional Living Expense coverage until a home is actually remediated and safe to occupy. “AB 1642 will set a new national precedent on scientific standards for clearing a home for occupancy after a wildfire,” said California Assemblymember John Harabedian. “Science, not an insurance company’s opinions, will determine whether a home is safe. AB 1842 creates a national model for granting mortgage forbearance to future wildfire survivors, so no family has to immediately pay a mortgage for a home that no longer exists. AB 1847 extends the Mortgage Relief Act (AB 238, Harabedian) for an additional year for survivors of the Los Angeles Fires who are still desperately trying to rebuild.”
ISSA, The Association for Cleaning and Facility Solutions, launched ISSA Academy, a reimagined online learning experience designed to provide cleaning and facility solutions professionals with a clearer path to career advancement while helping organizations build stronger, more skilled workforces. Built around the idea that professional development should be a journey, not simply a catalog of courses, ISSA Academy brings together industry education, training and certification in an intuitive learning environment. The Academy centers around Career Pathways, structured learning journeys designed to guide professionals from foundational knowledge and front-line skills through advanced expertise and enterprise leadership. “With ISSA Academy, we are creating a clearer roadmap for professional growth while giving organizations flexible tools to develop their people,” said ISSA Executive Director Kim Althoff. “Whether someone is beginning a career in the industry, building specialized expertise, or preparing for a leadership role, we want them to be able to see what comes next and have the education to help them get there.” ISSA Academy’s Career Pathways provide a five-level framework that helps professionals progress from frontline fundamentals to technical expertise, supervision, management and enterprise leadership. Along the way, the pathways incorporate many of ISSA’s recognized education and certification programs, giving learners a clear understanding of how individual courses and credentials can contribute to long-term career growth. For example, front-line professionals can build foundational skills through the Cleaning Management Institute’s (CMI) Certified Custodial Technician (CCT) Basic program and the Global Biorisk Advisory Council’s (GBAC) Trained Technician education program before progressing to advanced CMI training. As professionals move into supervisory roles, pathways incorporate programs such as the CMI Custodial Supervisor Certification, with increasingly advanced education supporting continued progression into management and leadership. By connecting these established programs within a structured framework, ISSA Academy helps professionals understand where they are in their careers, what skills they need to develop and what learning opportunities can help them take the next step. ISSA Academy is designed to serve professionals throughout the cleaning and facility solutions industries, including frontline cleaning professionals, building service contractors, facility managers, manufacturers, distributors, residential cleaning professionals and emerging industry leaders. The platform organizes learning around industry sectors and career development needs, making it easier for users to identify education relevant to their role and professional goals. Current sector-specific areas include building service contractors, healthcare, residential cleaning, K-12 and higher education, manufacturers, distributors, emerging leaders, and advocacy and government affairs, with additional areas planned. Beyond individual professional development, ISSA Academy provides organizations with flexible options to support employee onboarding, ongoing training, career development and workforce advancement. Organizations can use ISSA Academy to create more consistent learning experiences across their teams, identify training aligned with employee roles and career goals, and provide employees with opportunities to continue building their skills throughout their careers. Solutions range from individual courses and career-focused learning bundles to team training subscriptions and enterprise learning options, allowing organizations to develop an approach that fits the size and needs of their workforce. The launch of ISSA Academy reflects ISSA’s continued commitment to advancing the cleaning and facility solutions industry by strengthening the knowledge, skills and professional development opportunities available to the people who power it. To explore ISSA Academy and available learning opportunities, visit academy.issa.com.
Held every year during the second full week of September, Environmental Services Week (EVSW)/International Housekeepers Week (IHW) is dedicated to recognizing the efforts of hard-working custodial staff members globally. The true heroes of any building operation, cleaning employees have one of the toughest and most important jobs. Buildings that aren’t properly cleaned can lead to illness and productivity loss for the people who visit, eat, live, work and play there. The Indoor Environmental Healthcare and Hospitality Association (IEHA) is the official sponsor of EVSW/IHW since its founding in 1981. IEHA is a 1,300-plus member professional association devoted to helping managers of facilities such as hospitals, hotels and schools maintain cleaner, safer and healthier buildings. According to IEHA, the week is celebrated in thousands of facilities worldwide. The week offers the perfect opportunity for facilitators to show their gratitude for the efforts of their environmental services (EVS) workers, housekeepers and custodians. IEHA suggests these ideas to help make the week a success at your facility: Host a team celebration. Share staff stories and achievements. Present awards or certificates. Provide meals, treats or appreciation gifts. Highlight team members on social media. Encourage leaders to share messages of thanks. Sign up your team to compete in the 2026 Housekeeping Olympics, taking place on Nov. 16 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. No matter how you choose to celebrate, taking time to acknowledge housekeeping and EVS professionals can make a meaningful impact.
As a building service contractor (BSC), you face daily challenges in serving the needs of your clients while meeting your bottom line. From dealing with labor shortages and high-traffic facility areas to navigating the latest cleaning equipment and technology, it can be helpful to see where you stand amid your BSC colleagues. Join CMM on Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. CT for a free webinar— The BSC Blueprint: Trends, Tech, and Top Challenges— to learn the results of our 2026 BSC Benchmarking Survey. Released every autumn, the survey report details the role of BSCs in managing budgets, equipment, clients and employees. CMM Managing Editor Kathleen Misovic and CMM Editor Elizabeth Christenson will guide participants through the survey results including BSC: Offerings beyond cleaning and disinfecting. Hiring trends including worker pay and benefits. Growth and plans to expand their client base. Preferences regarding training and sources of industry knowledge. Views on autonomous cleaning equipment and other smart technology. The 30-minute webinar will conclude with a Q&A session allowing participants to delve deeper into the survey results. Don’t miss this opportunity to examine the thoughts and actions of your BSC colleagues. Click here to register for CMM’s BSC Benchmarking Survey Report webinar today.