Certifications

What Cleaning Certifications Actually Prove — and Which Ones We Hold

Q: Is A-Z Manhattan Cleaning Green Seal certified?

No. Green Seal GS-42 certifies a cleaning service organisation against a published standard covering procedures, training, chemicals and equipment, and it is verified on site. We do not hold it. Note the distinction that trips most buyers up: a company using Green Seal certified products is not a Green Seal certified company. Both claims get made with the same logo.

Every commercial cleaning website in New York implies certification. Very few name one. This page names all of them, explains what each does and does not prove, and states plainly which ones we hold.

We currently hold none of the third-party cleaning certifications listed below. No certification is legally required to clean a commercial office in New York, and none of the companies you are comparing us against is likely to hold one either — but several will imply that they do. Rather than join them, here is what each certification actually means, so you can test the claim on anyone who makes it, including us.

The Certifications That Exist

What each credential certifies, who audits it, and the thing it does not tell you.
Credential	What it certifies	What it does not prove	We hold it
ISSA CIMS Cleaning Industry Management Standard	That the organisation has documented management systems: quality, service delivery, human resources, health and safety, and management commitment. Audited on site by an ISSA-approved assessor.	That your particular building gets cleaned well. It certifies the system, not the outcome on your floor.	No
ISSA CIMS-GB Green Building add-on	An addition to CIMS covering practices that support a building's LEED certification.	Anything on its own — it is only available on top of CIMS.	No
Green Seal GS-42	That the cleaning service organisation meets a published environmental standard for procedures, training, chemicals and equipment. Verified on site.	That the company is certified at all, if what they actually mean is that they use certified products. Read which noun the logo is attached to.	No
GBAC STAR	A facility or service accreditation for infectious-disease prevention and response protocols, administered by the Global Biorisk Advisory Council.	Routine cleaning quality. It is a biorisk-preparedness credential.	No
LEED	Nothing about a cleaning company. LEED certifies buildings; a cleaning programme can contribute points toward a building's rating.	That your vendor is “LEED certified” — a company cannot be.	N/A
EPA Safer Choice	That an individual product meets EPA criteria for chemical ingredients.	Anything at all about the company applying it.	Product-level
OSHA training	That individual workers completed a safety course. Worth asking about.	It is not a company certification and OSHA does not certify companies.	Worker-level

How to Check a Certification Claim in About Four Minutes

Ask for the certificate number and the issue date. A certified company has both to hand. Hesitation here is the answer.
Look the company up in the issuer's own directory. ISSA publishes its list of CIMS-certified organisations at issa.com; Green Seal publishes its certified products and services at greenseal.org. Search the legal entity name, not the trading name.
Check the noun. Certified company and certified products are different claims wearing the same badge.
Check it has not lapsed. These credentials expire and require re-assessment. A certificate from 2019 is a historical document.

What We Offer Instead of a Badge

None of the following is a certification. All of it is verifiable before you sign, which is the property that actually matters:

A Certificate of Insurance naming your building as additional insured, issued to your managing agent by our broker directly. What we carry and how to request it.
W-2 employees, not subcontracted crews. Ask us for payroll confirmation and ask every competitor the same question.
A written screening policy — identity and work authorisation, criminal background check, references actually called — that we will send you.
A monthly scored inspection report, sent whether the news is good or not. Ask for a sample before you sign. How to audit cleaning quality.
References in buildings of your class that you call yourself.

Why publish this at all

Because the alternative is a page that implies certification and hopes nobody checks, and because the same buyer who checks us will check everyone else. If you take this page into a meeting with three other vendors and ask each of them the four questions above, you will learn more in a morning than a year of marketing copy would tell you. We are comfortable being measured that way.

Certifications: Frequently Asked Questions

Is A-Z Manhattan Cleaning ISSA CIMS certified?

No. We do not hold ISSA CIMS certification, and we will not imply otherwise. CIMS is an organisation-wide management standard audited by an ISSA-approved assessor, and a company either holds it or does not. If a vendor tells you they are “CIMS compliant” or “working toward CIMS”, that is not the same thing as being certified, and you are entitled to ask for the certificate.

Is A-Z Manhattan Cleaning Green Seal certified?

No. Green Seal GS-42 certifies a cleaning service organisation against a published standard covering procedures, training, chemicals and equipment, and it is verified on site. We do not hold it. Note the distinction that trips most buyers up: a company using Green Seal certified products is not a Green Seal certified company. Both claims get made with the same logo.

Are any certifications legally required to clean an office in New York?

No. There is no state or city licence required to provide commercial cleaning services in New York. What is genuinely required is insurance at the limits your building demands, lawful employment of the people doing the work, and compliance with DSNY commercial waste rules. Those are the things worth verifying, and all three can be evidenced on request.

So what should I actually check?

A Certificate of Insurance naming your building as additional insured, issued directly by the broker rather than forwarded by the vendor. Whether the cleaners are W-2 employees or subcontracted. The written screening policy. A sample of the monthly inspection report. And two references in buildings of your class that you call yourself. Those five answers tell you more than any logo on a website.

Would you get certified?

CIMS is a reasonable fit for how we already work and it is on the list. We would rather publish that honestly than display a badge we have not earned. When we hold a certification, this page will carry the certificate number and the directory link so you can verify it without asking us.

Ready for a Cleaning Contract You Can Actually Read?

Send us your square footage and how many nights you need. You get a written scope, a fixed monthly price, and the SLA in the same document — usually within two business days.

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