ESFM Shows Excellence in Cleaning and Sustainability, Achieves CIMS, CIMS-GB with Honors Certifications

It’s safe to say – we will never be able to underestimate the value of living, working and playing in a clean space, especially after living through a global pandemic that has heightened everyone’s awareness and expectation of sanitization and safety.

ESFM is proud to share that the worldwide cleaning industry association, ISSA recently verified and certified our cleaning program and practices. ESFM achieved the CIMS (Clean Industry Management Standard) and CIMS-GB (Green Building) certifications with Honors.

“First, I am so proud of all of the hard work our teams put into what they do every day,” said President David Hogland. “These certifications exhibit their expertise and professionalism, proving that they consistently meet and exceed the industry’s most rigorous standards in cleaning protocol. Our clients can trust that they are working with a verified IFM provider, experienced and outfitted with the right tools and operating procedures to maintain clean, healthy spaces.”

Fifteen of our locations in nine states helped earn the certifications with honors, proving proficiencies in six key areas:

• Quality systems
• Service delivery
• Human resources
• Health, safety and environmental stewardship
• Management commitment
• Green cleaning

“With Honors” means that ESFM didn’t just demonstrate the minimum requirement in each category. Our innovative and proprietary solutions met the additional criteria to earn the special “honors” designation, putting ESFM in an elite category of CIMS-certified cleaning service providers.

Our final assessment report included this client feedback:

“Every customer contact expressed how well ESFM conducted their cleaning operations at each site, most comparing them with prior service organizations which failed to meet up to their site standards. All said they would recommend ESFM to other companies.”

In the category of quality systems, ESFM showcased eClean , our proprietary six-step janitorial program, designed to combine industry best practices under our organization’s commitments to sustainability, technology, training, methodology, transparency and smart spend.

ESFM drives education and awareness of these commitments through our employee engagement app that gamifies continuous training while providing an outlet for best practice sharing, responding to listening sessions and engaging with subject matter experts. In 2020, the operational impact of our communication strategies and activities executed on our employee engagement app earned ESFM the George Graves Award for Facility Management Achievement from the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA).

“We are proud to be able to build on our accomplishments with these two certifications. It shows our dedication to quality control and process improvement to deliver a best-in-class service. We are especially proud of the Green Building designation which shows ESFM’s dedication to sustainability and our keen focus on executing green cleaning procedures,” said Lawyna Holland-Parish, National Director of Quality Assurance.

The CIMS-GB certification means the organization meets the U.S. Green Building Council’s green cleaning criteria for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings. Earning this certification has ripple effects for ESFM clients, allowing them to achieve points under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED EB: O&M).

These certifications come as ESFM continues to support clients in their pursuit of the WELL Health-Safety Rating as a Keystone Member of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). The WELL Health-Safety Rating is an evidence-based, third-party verified rating that focuses on operational policies, maintenance protocols, stakeholder engagement and emergency plans. Many of the policies and procedures required for the rating application are inherent in the solutions ESFM performs and delivers.

Janitorial and Industrial Cleaning is one of six IFM service categories that ESFM self-performs. The other categories include Environment, Health & Safety, Facilities Maintenance & Engineering, Sustainability, Laboratory Support and Workplace solutions.

Click here to learn more about the CIMS and CIMS-GB with Honors certifications.