University Facilities Services continues the university’s push for more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices with new bathroom products across campus and greener cleaning products for custodial services employees.
Most noticeable are automated paper towel dispensers that replace center-pull dispensers. The new system gives a predetermined amount of paper to dry hands, cutting down on users inadvertently using excessive amounts of paper. Preliminary testing last semester showed a 30 percent reduction in waste going to the landfill.
Newly installed touch-free soap and hand sanitizer dispensers have eco-sustainable products and built-in batteries, making exchanges quicker for staff across campus. Soap in the dispensers is plant-based and requires less water.
What most won’t see is the SC Johnson TruShot system that has become the primary cleaning solution used by custodians. The system uses concentrated cleaners with fewer chemicals that hook up to a spray bottle. The bottle has a water reservoir that dilutes the cleaner to the appropriate strength based on the surface being cleaned, including glass, chrome and toilets.
“This new system makes it easier to pick what you're cleaning,” said Justin Shinta, director of special projects and initiatives for facilities services. “We have four general cleaning products that are all eco-friendly. And they're concentrated, so we use about 1/30th of the bottles that we used to. It's a sustainable product and is less corrosive than others and won't damage fixtures.”
These custodial changes are another step that facilities services has made in the past couple of years. The department also has converted many indoor and outdoor spaces to LED lighting, added solar charging stations and all-electric mowers that debuted last year on campus as well as the Garnet and Green initiative that USC has with Siemens.