Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Healthy Schools Campaign Launches Inaugural Green Clean Schools Leadership Summit

  • 04/16/15

Industry Experts Focus on the Future of Green Cleaning in Schools

Healthy Schools Campaign will host the first annual Green Clean Schools Leadership Summit, July 30-31, in Seattle, Wash. The summit is open to school facility managers, green cleaning experts and vendors from across the country interested in making schools healthier places for students and staff to learn and work. The focus of the summit is to envision the future of green cleaning in schools, with presentations from industry leaders who will address the advantages of green cleaning, as well as the common challenges, emerging issues and best practices.

“Through our Green Clean Schools program and our annual Green Cleaning Award for Schools & Universities we’ve been consistently amazed by new and exciting innovations in the green cleaning field,” said Mark Bishop, Healthy Schools Campaign’s vice president of policy. “The first annual Green Clean Schools Leadership Summit is a much-needed opportunity to bring together leaders from across the country to share their knowledge and experiences, tackle common challenges and take green cleaning in schools to the next level—for children’s health and for the environment.”

Each school day, more than 60 million students and staff attend our nation’s schools, representing 20 percent of the American population. Unfortunately, more than half may be exposed to polluted indoor air within their schools. A comprehensive green cleaning program can help reduce these harmful exposures, while at the same time being a cost-effective and efficient practice for facility managers and workers.

The two-day summit, held at the three-time Green Cleaning Award-winning University of Washington – Seattle, will feature the leading voices in green cleaning, including Steve Ashkin, founder and CEO of Sustainability Dashboard Tools and The Ashkin Group; Rachel Gutter, senior vice president of knowledge at the U.S. Green Building Council and director of the Center for Green Schools; founding members of Healthy Schools Campaign’s Green Clean Schools Leadership Council; and several other past winners of the Green Cleaning Award for Schools & Universities.

Discussion topics will include emerging issues in green cleaning, workforce management and training, green floor care and infection control, all with an eye toward the future of green cleaning. Summit attendees will also receive a behind-the-scenes look at the University of Washington’s award-winning green cleaning program led by Gene Woodward, Green Clean Schools Leadership Council member and the university’s director of building services.

Registration for the Green Clean Schools Leadership Summit is currently open, but space is limited. To learn more and to register, visit greencleanschools.org/summit.

Featured

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • Dallas ISD Voters Approve $6.2B Bond Package

    Dallas ISD voters have approved a record-setting $6.2-billion bond package that district leaders say will modernize aging campuses, eliminate portable classrooms and reshape learning environments across one of the nation’s largest school systems.

  • Opportunity by Design Framework

    Opportunity by Design

    Educational improvement efforts often focus on curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and intervention systems while treating the physical school building as background. But school design is not a passive backdrop to learning — it is a structural lever for equity.