ARAMARK implements new ‘green’ cleaning program

Photo by De'Noia Woods, Photography Intern

The university’s dining services provider, ARAMARK, has made numerous strides toward sustainability by reducing waste in the major campus dining facilities. In keeping with this commitment, campus dining began using a new cleaning method in the Reynolda Fresh Food Company that eliminates 99.9 percent of germs while cutting chemical usage by up to 65 percent.

Students, faculty and staff may have seen the space-age looking cleaning tools currently used by ARAMARK employees to clean tables in the Pit between uses. These glowing clean-machines, called “Ionators,” zap germs with a slight electric charge and lift dirt and bacteria from surfaces using ionized tap water. This means that no chemicals are needed to clean and disinfect tables in the Fresh Food Company.

Another new green-cleaning program employed by campus dining is the use of high efficiency floor cleaning machines from Tennant. The T3 Walk Behind Floor Scrubber is equipped with Foam-Activated Scrubbing Technology designed to reduce detergent usage by 90 percent and water usage by 70 percent, compared with traditional scrubbing methods.

By dramatically cutting chemical usage in dining facilities, employees are exposed to lower quantities of fewer chemicals, resulting in a healthier workplace. By using ionators instead of traditional cleaning chemicals on eating surfaces in the Fresh Food Company, diners also enjoy a safer eating environment.

Matt Lugo, director of marketing for ARAMARK at Wake Forest, heads up the company’s Green Thread Program at the university. This local offering of the national corporate sustainability program, “allows us to strategically align ourselves with the goals of our client and the university,” according to Lugo.

By Caitlin Brooks, Communications and Outreach Intern