Green cleaning for early childhood educators

Watch the video to learn more about our green cleaning initiative in Vermont.

The video is also available in Spanish.

Common cleaning products can be a hazard in child care environments. Learn how to protect young learners, yourself and the environment. We offer practical tips and valuable information as well as additional resources tailored to early learning programs in every setting. 

Below, check out these easy-to-use ideas for green cleaning from experts Carol Westinghouse, Informed Green Solutions; Dr. Asa Bradman, Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health at the University of California, Berkeley; Vickie Leonard, University of California, San Francisco, Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit; and child care providers.

• The Environmental Working Group’s guide to healthy and safe cleaning provides resources to get you started.
• For specific green cleaning product recommendations, check out the Healthy Schools Campaign product page.
• For a wide range of ideas and information on how to get involved with the green cleaning movement, visit Informed Green Solutions where you also can download a ready-made kit called “Green Cleaning, Sanitizing and Disinfecting: A Toolkit for Early Care and Education.”
• California Childcare Health Program. “Sanitize Safely and Effectively: Bleach and Alternatives in Child Care Programs.” Health and Safety Notes (July 2009). This guide offers helpful ways to avoid using bleach.
• The City of San Francisco’s list of green cleaning supplies and products. The city’s green cleaning guidance program, known as SF Approved, works to prevent health problems—including occupational asthma and other respiratory illnesses, eye and skin irritations and burns, and toxic exposure through inhalation of chemical fumes—that are associated with the use of harmful cleaning products.
• Caring for Our Children, the third edition of national standards created by the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association. These standards provide a broad picture of health and safety in child care and early education programs as well as hundreds of helpful recommendations.
• Reducing Environmental Exposures in Child Care Facilities: A Review of State Policy, a recent report from the The Environmental Law Institute and The Children’s Environmental Health Network, examines state policies across the U.S. that address environmental health in licensed child care facilities. The report focuses on several key indoor environmental exposures.