Healthy Green Cleaning at IUPUI with ProTeam Vacuums

In the heart of Indianapolis, the state’s premier urban research university educates about 31,000 students. The campus of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) consists of 70 buildings with 4.5 million square feet of space. Building Operations Manager Jim Walsh and his team spent the last six years advancing IUPUI toward green, high-performance cleaning equipment and practices, including ProTeam backpack and cordless vacuums.

Sustainability Goals

Walsh set out with specific goals to become more sustainable. He wanted to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), create healthier buildings, and, as a result, reduce employee and faculty turnover. To address IAQ, Walsh and his supervisors finally convinced their reluctant staff to use ProTeam backpack vacuums with advanced filtration to capture many allergens and asthma triggers.

IUPUI had backpack vacuums in the custodial closet in 2008 when Walsh started, but less than 20 percent of the staff used them. Then Walsh observed that backpack vacuums clean about 6,000 to 7,000 square feet per hour compared to 1,500 to 2,000 square feet with upright vacuums. ProTeam backpack vacuums are also certified by Carpet and Rug Institute and in line with LEED requirements, which many IUPUI buildings follow. After a lot of education and training, management converted the entire campus to ProTeam backpacks.

Investing in Cordless

Walsh also invested in about 20 units of the ProTeam cordless backpack vacuum, the GoFree Flex Pro, for cleaning stairwells and entry matting during the day. In general, cordless vacuums improve speed and maneuverability by removing the restriction of a cord and eliminating cord management tasks. Walsh also needed them in areas without outlets, like the enclosed walkways that connect several campus buildings.

Cordless vacuums make staircase cleaning safer.

“Vacuum cords created a trip hazard for the cleaner in stairwells,” said Walsh. “We’ve been moving to the battery-operated ProTeam backpack vacuums for stairwells. It promotes better safety.”

Watch this video to learn more about Cleaning for Health, Indoor Air Quality, and ProTeam Vacuums.