In response to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific and a provider of advanced dispensing solutions for commercial facilities, is releasing KOLO™ Hygiene, an innovative feature of its KOLO™ Smart Monitoring System designed to help facilities managers successfully manage, monitor and measure heightened cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting practices.
“Advancing hygiene has always been a core value of our company and a key driver of our innovation,” says Michael Slawson, vice president and general manager, Smart Restrooms and Connected Devices for GP PRO. “We know that a facility’s ability to achieve and demonstrate elevated levels of clean will be key to advancing consumer and employee confidence and, as a result, the country’s economic recovery, which is why we moved quickly to deploy this data-driven solution.”
The KOLO system is GP PRO’S wireless Internet of Things (IoT) platform that sends alerts to custodians on a mobile device to let them know if something in the restroom needs their immediate attention. The system helps ensure restrooms are clean, in working order, and fully stocked with toilet paper, paper towels, soap, and hand sanitizer.
KOLO Hygiene further delivers on how the KOLO system improves facility cleaning and maintenance by allowing facility managers to create customized lists of required cleaning and disinfecting tasks driven by guidance published by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It then automatically alerts custodians to tasks to be performed and informs facility managers of progress toward their completion. Perhaps most compelling, KOLO Hygiene also creates a composite hygiene readiness score that lets facility managers know if they have achieved their desired level of clean.
“Our clients are trying to figure out how to reopen high-traffic venues like airports, universities and stadiums, so we are installing the KOLO systems there since May and into July,” Slawson shared with The McMorrow Reports. “The airports indicate they want one or two dispensers at every gate and at the terminal shuttle platforms.”
“Office buildings are showing interest and trying to determine how many sanitizer dispensers they need based on employee volume,” says Slawson, who runs the IoT sector in GP PRO. “Customers still cannot get enough sanitizer as it is in great demand to fill the dispensers made by GP PRO, along with many others and the demand for portable bottles of sanitizer.”
Slawson added, “KOLO Hygiene is more than a hygiene management solution. It’s peace of mind. It’s an assurance for facility managers, custodians, employees, and customers that a facility is prioritizing hygiene and ensuring no stone was left unturned.”
Passenger safety at Hartsfield-Jackson
An early adopter of the KOLO Smart Monitoring System and one of its strongest supporters, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) anticipates deploying 250 units of GP PRO’s smart hygiene solution throughout the airport in the coming months.
“GP PRO has been a tremendous partner to us over the past few years, working tirelessly to help Hartsfield-Jackson achieve a number of critical goals related to improving the passenger experience,” said Dr. Kofi Smith, president and CEO of Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company, which provides facility management solutions for ATL. “Now with the COVID-19 pandemic reducing air travel to near negligible levels, we need to quickly and dramatically do even more, particularly as it relates to protecting the health and safety of our airport staff and the traveling public. We hope to use GP PRO’s smart technology to do that and, as a result, help drive our industry’s and our nation’s recovery.”
KOLO Hygiene is the first advanced hygiene management solution from GP PRO as the company hones its focus on products, technologies and resources that enhance the health and safety of building occupants and which restore employee and consumer confidence shaken by the virus. In late May, GP PRO launched Hygiene Ready, an online resource to help restaurants, retailers, arenas, commercial and industrial facilities, and other businesses safely re-open amidst COVID-19. Hygiene Ready provides easy access to timely and relevant hygiene-related industry guidance, industry-specific guidelines, customizable tools, and product solutions.