What Is CIMS-GB Certification and Why Does It Matter?

CIMS stands for the Cleaning Industry Management Standard. It is published by ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, and ISSA describes it as "the global benchmark for operational excellence in cleaning". The standard "defines the core principles and best practices that characterize a successful, high-quality, and customer-focused cleaning organization". In plain terms, it is a management-system standard for cleaning companies, in the same family of ideas as ISO 9001 for quality management, but written specifically for how cleaning organisations plan, staff, deliver and check their work.

A cleaning company does not get CIMS by filling in a form. It is assessed against the standard by an independent assessor and certified only if it demonstrates compliance.

To be certified, an organisation has to demonstrate compliance in five areas:

1. Quality systems. How the company defines the service, measures whether it is being delivered and corrects it when it is not. Written scopes, inspection programs and complaint handling live here.
2. Service delivery. How the work is planned, resourced, scheduled and performed, including the equipment, products and procedures used.
3. Human resources. How staff are recruited, screened, trained, supervised and kept safe, and how the company handles turnover and development.
4. Health, safety and environmental stewardship. Safe work practices, chemical handling, product selection, waste and the company's environmental commitments.
5. Management commitment. Whether leadership sets the policies, resources them and reviews performance, rather than leaving it to site supervisors.

Each area contains mandatory elements and recommended elements. Certification requires meeting all of the mandatory elements plus a minimum share of the recommended ones. Organisations that score high enough are certified with honours, which indicates a higher level of compliance with the recommended elements.

GB stands for Green Building. ISSA describes CIMS-GB as an add-on to CIMS certification that is "aligned with the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED EB: O&M) rating system", and says it "certifies cleaning organizations and helps customers earn points under the LEED EB: O&M Green Building Rating System". ISSA calls it "the first step toward demonstrating your commitment to sustainable, high-performance cleaning operations".

For a building owner or property manager, that is the practical point. If the building is pursuing or maintaining LEED for existing buildings, the green cleaning credits require evidence about products, equipment, procedures and staff training. A CIMS-GB certified contractor has already been assessed on those elements, which makes the documentation simpler. ISSA also offers a further level, CIMS Sustainability, which builds on CIMS-GB.

Certification is carried out by an independent assessor accredited by ISSA, who reviews documentation and evidence against the standard. It is not a self-declaration. Certification is time-limited and has to be renewed through a further external audit, so a company that holds it has been assessed more than once if it has held it for any length of time.

Impact Cleaning Services holds ISSA CIMS-GB certification with honours. The certification is renewed through an external audit every two years and covers management systems, quality, service delivery, health and safety and environmental stewardship. The accreditations page on impact.ca lists it alongside Impact's other memberships and audits.

What it tells you

• The company has documented systems for quality, staffing, safety and environmental practice, and an outside assessor has checked them.
• Leadership is involved in setting and reviewing those systems.
• The company is positioned to support LEED EB: O&M green cleaning documentation.
• It has been through the process more than once if it has held the certification for several years.

What it does not tell you

• How a specific site is performing this month. That is what inspections and your own walkthroughs are for.
• That every product used is green, or that any specific outcome is guaranteed. The standard certifies management systems, not results on your floor.
• Anything about price.

Used properly, CIMS-GB is a filter. It narrows the field to companies with a demonstrated management system, and then the written scope, references and inspection process decide between them.

• Ask for the certificate and its expiry date. Certified organisations are also listed by ISSA.
• Ask whether the certification is CIMS or CIMS-GB, and whether it was awarded with honours.
• Ask how the systems the certificate covers show up on your site: what the inspection program is, how staff are trained for your building, what products are used and how issues are logged and corrected.

For Impact, those answers are: supervisor inspections scored in OrangeQC, site-specific health and safety training before the first visit, EcoLogo or Green Seal certified products approved by Health Canada, and issues tracked visit to visit. That is how the certification connects to a commercial cleaning program in a Toronto building, whether the scope is janitorial services for a whole property or office cleaning for a single floor.