If your team does not currently use a supplier to purchase cleaning products and materials, you will need to spend some time researching compliant alternatives. Begin by looking into the products offered by your current distributors. Many common manufacturers and retailers offer compliant green cleaning products.

Especially if you get all of your products from one vendor, your vendor may be able to handle the credit tracking and documentation more easily than the project team. It can be very helpful to rely on this—simply make sure that a project team member checks the vendor’s work, and that your cleaning staff can provide feedback on what works. 

Consult your cleaning product supplier or vendor before your team takes on hours of research to identify credit-compliant products. Many suppliers and vendors are familiar with green cleaning products and may be able to offer guidance as to which chemicals best suit the facility’s needs and meet the credit criteria. Take care to verify your vendor’s claims by asking for product literature that highlights LEED-compliant attributes. See the Documentation Toolkit for samples of compliant and non-compliant product literature.

Establish a system for tracking the cost of all cleaning products and materials, including both compliant and non-compliant purchases. See the Documentation Toolkit for a sample tracking spreadsheet.

The products currently in use may already comply with the credit criteria. In most cases, though, the project team will have to source new cleaning products in order to meet the sustainability criteria.

Check the product inventory against the LEED criteria for each product classification. 

Start by creating an inventory of the cleaning products and materials—including hand soaps and hand sanitizers and janitorial paper products—currently in use at the facility. Some project teams will already have access to a comprehensive list of products currently in use. Other teams will need to take some time to put together this inventory. 

Complete the following steps, whether using an outside commissioning agent or in-house staff.

Option 2: ASHRAE Level II Energy Audit

Assign at least one in-house operations staff person to work on the commissioning and auditing project to ensure that lessons learned through the commissioning and auditing processes are carried forward in the building operations.