As we move into 2021 and deeper into winter, it’s a good time to reflect on what we have learned in the cleaning and maintenance industry during 2020, the year of the pandemic.

There’s not a corner of society that hasn’t been affected by COVID-19 over the last nine months or so and, in many ways, it’s changed the game of cleaning and maintenance. With every industry impacted, facilities of all kinds have had to reevaluate their procedures, their processes, and their tools and press on forward into a world of enhanced cleaning and communication.

With that comes REMI Network’s expanded digital winter 2020 issue of Facility Cleaning & Maintenance magazine.

There are lessons to be learned and stories to be told, and, as always, within this issue we have tried to help teach them and tell them. As always, we provide an update on what ISSA Canada has been up to since the summer, complete with an in-depth look at the thriving GBAC STAR facility accreditation program, which has seen huge uptake in North America and around the world.

We look at a number of BSC companies and how they have navigated the pandemic and are looking to move forward. As we brace for winter, we chatted with a number of experts on timely topics such as how COVID-19 is Bringing Common Sense Back to Cleaning, looking forwards in Protecting Workplaces From a “Twindemic”, and how to make sure cleaning processes and products are suitable for a new world where infection control is top of mind.

Our cover story is again one of positivity as we chat to Yamire McDowell and the housekeeping team of The Granite Club in Toronto about how to manage a leisure facility in these trying times, an issue further explored in Cleaning Within the NHL Bubble.

All in all, the cleaning and maintenance industry has arguably never been more important or more of a focus for everyone from specialists to facility owners and operators to the general public. Here, amid the backdrop of difficulty and tragedy, we look to celebrate that.

Positivity is a focus we must not lose as 2020 becomes 2021. COVID-19 will not just go away, but with progress being made on vaccines and so much already having been learned about how to appropriately control and battle the virus, we will find a way through this together.

The full FC&M winter 2020 issue can be found here.