Green Cleaning in California: What LEED, Prop 65 and State Procurement Rules Mean for Your Facility

Every cleaning company in California will tell you it uses green products. Almost none of them can tell you which standard, which certification number, or what the law actually requires. That gap matters more here than anywhere else, because California has built a genuinely specific framework around cleaning chemicals — and if you occupy a state building, a LEED-certified building, or a building with more than ten employees, some of it applies to you already.

Here is what is real, in plain terms.

One: you can look up every ingredient, and most people don’t know it

California’s Cleaning Product Right to Know Act requires manufacturers of designated cleaning products — general cleaners, air care, automotive, and polish or floor maintenance products for janitorial, domestic or institutional use — to publish their ingredients.

Since 1 January 2020, every intentionally added ingredient must appear on the manufacturer’s website with its CAS number and its functional purpose, along with fragrance allergens listed in the EU cosmetics regulation where present above 0.01%. Since 1 January 2021, the intentionally added ingredients must also appear on the product label.

One detail catches people out: products regulated as pesticides under FIFRA — which includes disinfectants and sanitizers — are exempt from the label requirement, but still have to meet the website requirement if they are designated products.

The practical consequence is that you no longer have to take anyone’s word for what is being sprayed in your building. Ask your cleaning company for a list of every product used on your site, then look each one up. That is a twenty-minute exercise that tells you more than any sales conversation.

ASK

“Can you give me a written list of every product used in my building?” A provider running a controlled programme has that list already. One that does not will need to go and find out, which is itself the answer.

Two: Prop 65 has an occupational limb almost nobody thinks about

Most people know Proposition 65 as the warning sign on parking structures and restaurant doors. There is a second limb that applies inside the workplace.

The occupational provisions apply to businesses with ten or more employees. Where employees are knowingly and intentionally exposed to a listed chemical above the relevant threshold, a warning is required — which can be satisfied through product labels already present in the workplace or through conspicuous signage. It sits alongside, rather than instead of, the Cal/OSHA hazard communication programme, which requires a written programme, accessible safety data sheets and employee training.

This is where the choice of cleaning chemistry stops being an environmental preference and becomes an administrative question. Products chosen to avoid listed chemicals in the first place are simpler to manage than products that require warnings and paperwork — and your cleaning contractor’s product list is part of your exposure picture whether anyone has thought about it or not.

This is not legal advice. If you are unsure whether the occupational provisions apply to your facility, ask your EHS adviser or counsel.

Three: if you’re a state agency, the rules are already written

This is the section that matters most in Sacramento, and it is remarkably concrete.

California’s Department of General Services publishes purchasing standards for environmentally preferable purchasing, including one specifically for janitorial services. An agency satisfies it by meeting at least one of several criteria — the standard is deliberately flexible — and the criteria include:

Using a service provider certified to Green Seal Standard GS-42, Commercial and Institutional Cleaning Services.

Buying SABRC-compliant products — paper towels, plastic or metal waste containers and similar.

Using cleaning chemicals, surface disinfectants, sanitizers or janitorial paper products that carry one or more of the third-party environmental certifications referenced in the related DGS standard.

And a hard requirement underneath all of it: all disinfectants and sanitizers must be registered for their intended use and appear in EPA’s list of selected registered disinfectants.

Note what the first criterion means. A single service-level certification can satisfy the requirement on its own — not a product list, not a policy document, but the provider being certified. For anyone selling into or occupying state facilities, that is the shortest route through the procurement question.

Four: LEED, where cleaning is worth an actual point

If your building is pursuing or maintaining LEED certification under the operations and maintenance rating system, cleaning is not incidental — it is scored.

Under LEED v5, the green cleaning credit awards one point for either using Green Seal-certified products across at least 75% of the building’s cleaning products, or using a Green Seal-certified cleaning service.

Thresholds and point values differ between LEED versions, so confirm against the rating system version your project is actually certified under rather than the current one. But the shape holds across versions: your cleaning contract is part of your score, and a contractor who cannot produce documentation is costing you points whatever they are spraying.

ASK

“Can you provide the documentation my LEED consultant will need?” The answer should be a yes with a description of what they provide, not a question about what LEED is.

The word to distrust

“Eco-friendly” is not a standard. Neither is “green,” “non-toxic,” “plant-based,” “natural” or a green leaf on a label. None of these terms are defined, certified or verifiable, and all of them are used freely by companies whose products would not pass any of the certifications above.

The substitutes are specific and checkable:

Other credible third-party programmes exist alongside Green Seal, including UL’s ECOLOGO certification and EPA’s Safer Choice programme. The principle is the same: a named standard you can look up beats an adjective every time.

The honest tension nobody mentions

There is a real trade-off here, and a vendor who pretends otherwise is not being straight with you.

Disinfectants work by being antimicrobial. That is the point of them, and it is also why they are regulated as pesticides. A programme optimised purely for the mildest possible chemistry is not the right answer in a medical office, a childcare centre or a food environment, where specific pathogen claims and correct contact times matter more.

The workable position is a layered one: clean thoroughly with the gentlest product that does the job, and reserve registered disinfectants for the surfaces and situations that genuinely warrant them, applied properly. That approach is both better environmental practice and better infection control than blanket disinfection — and in California schools and childcare settings it also sits more comfortably with the Healthy Schools Act, which treats disinfectants as the pesticides they are.

What to put in the contract

1. A written list of every product used in your building, updated when it changes.
2. The certification held by each product, by standard number — or an honest “none” where that is the answer.
3. EPA registration numbers for every disinfectant and sanitizer.
4. Safety data sheets accessible on site, not “available on request.”
5. For LEED buildings: a commitment to provide the documentation your consultant requires, named in the contract.
6. For state facilities: evidence of whichever DGS criterion is being relied on.

Frequently asked questions

What certifications should a green cleaning company have in California?

For the service itself, Green Seal GS-42 (Commercial and Institutional Cleaning Services) is the credential California’s DGS accepts for state agency environmentally preferable purchasing and that LEED’s green cleaning credit recognises. For products, Green Seal GS-37 covers cleaning products, GS-40 floor-care and GS-53 specialty products; UL ECOLOGO and EPA Safer Choice are credible alternatives. Every disinfectant should additionally carry an EPA registration number.

Do cleaning products have to list their ingredients in California?

Yes. Under the Cleaning Product Right to Know Act, designated cleaning products must publish every intentionally added ingredient with its CAS number and functional purpose on the manufacturer’s website (since January 2020) and on the product label (since January 2021). Products regulated as pesticides under FIFRA, including disinfectants, are exempt from the label requirement but not the website requirement.

Does Prop 65 apply to cleaning products in the workplace?

Proposition 65’s occupational provisions apply to businesses with ten or more employees, and warnings can be provided through product labels already present in the workplace or through conspicuous signage. They operate alongside Cal/OSHA’s hazard communication requirements. Whether a particular product and exposure triggers a warning is a question for your EHS adviser.

How does cleaning affect LEED certification?

Under LEED v5’s operations and maintenance rating system, the green cleaning credit awards one point for either Green Seal-certified products across at least 75% of the building’s cleaning products or a Green Seal-certified cleaning service. Point values and thresholds vary by LEED version, so confirm against the version your project is certified under.

Ask us for the list

JAN-PRO Commercial Cleaning in Sacramento works with offices, medical practices, schools and institutional facilities across the Capital Region. Our free facility visit takes about twenty minutes, and it is a reasonable moment to ask for the product list, the registrations and the certifications in writing — before you sign anything, and whether or not you engage us.

If you are in a state facility or a LEED building, tell us at the start. The documentation requirements shape the proposal, and they are much easier to build in than to retrofit.

Call (916) 376-8977 or request a facility visit online.