Making the Invisible Visible

The astronomer, Dr. Robert Williams, pointed the Hubble Telescope at a blank spot in the sky and found over 3,300 galaxies. He made the invisible visible. And that’s what we do every day. We make the invisible visible. We protect people. We improve lives. We are professionals. What we do is essential. And it’s time the world understood exactly how important—and powerful—that really is.

The past few years have placed a great deal of pressure on stadiums, arenas, and events to ensure protection for not only the public, but also the athletes and performers. The focus on cleaning and health became an even bigger focal point with the need to ensure that events continued to operate and deliver.

Cleaning above and beyond for public safety

The global cleaning industry stands at a defining moment. With every stadium concert, championship game, and sold-out venue, an opportunity arises—not just to clean, but to safeguard public health, enhance performance, and influence billions in spending. This is today’s reality. And the professionals who step up now will be the ones shaping what comes next.

As a former epidemic intelligence service (EIS) officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I know the stakes. Our purpose as cleaning professionals is to protect human health. When it goes wrong, it goes really wrong. When we do our jobs right, nobody notices. And that’s how it should be.

But in 2025, doing it right means going far beyond appearances. We can no longer sell labor. We can no longer emphasize illusion. We must be data-driven. We have the standards. We have the science. Now we need to close the gap between what we do and what our customers think we do.

This is especially urgent when it comes to large venues. There are more than 500 stadiums in the U.S. that seat at least 10,000 people. That’s not just a cleaning job—that’s a massive public health responsibility and a multi-million-dollar business opportunity.

Performance on the line: Air, water, and surfaces matter

I don’t just care about the spectators. Because of my work with professional sports teams, I care about the players. What’s the air quality in the locker room? What’s the water quality in the hot tubs? How clean are the surfaces in the team buses and in the corporate suites?

Why this focus? Because performance is on the line. Air quality affects precision. It affects reaction time. Studies show poor indoor air can increase errors among professional athletes. That’s measurable, and that’s powerful.

Everything from locker room air to bus cleanliness matters for professional sports teams. How many buses does it take to move a team? Ten? What’s the air quality like inside those buses? No one was measuring it. So, I did. Every time I showed them the data, it was a wake-up call,

There is proven data showing that NFL quarterbacks and MLB pitchers make more mistakes when indoor air quality is poor. That’s a business case, not just a health one. When poor air means lower performance, that’s millions of dollars in lost value.

We’re not here to sell fear. We’re here to sell performance. Clean air helps athletes win. Clean floors reduce injuries. Measurable outcomes equal repeat contracts.

And it’s not just air quality. For example, there is the case of the kitchens at Manchester United’s Old Trafford Stadium. There are 28 kitchens. One got flagged for grease on a wall. The next thing we know, they’re being downgraded, not just for grease, but for rotting metal shelves that had been missed entirely. It’s a classic failure of holistic inspection. They fixed the grease but missed the biofilm.

The entertainment industry can be a surprising catalyst for change. For instance, Taylor Swift now includes cleaning protocols in her performance contracts. She demands sustainability and safety in the spaces she uses.

Formula 1’s team village at Hard Rock Stadium is another example. They once asked me, “What if we spray lavender or citrus oils to make the drivers relax?” And I replied, “You’re going to kill Max Verstappen.” People don’t realize that airborne chemicals affect performance—and even health.

Most people have no idea what we do. They don’t know how clean or safe the indoor air is. They don’t understand what biofilms are. They don’t know that vacuuming the wrong way can release more particles than it removes.

This kind of narrow focus is what the cleaning industry must move away from. We must be systems thinkers. We must look at air, water, and surfaces together. That’s how we prevent—not just react.

Innovation in cleaning

We need to make the invisible visible. We’ve got to start using ultraviolet (UV) light, ATP (adenosine triphosphate) meters, particle counters, and measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—not just for science, but for storytelling. Show the client. Show them what they can’t see.

Biofilms, in particular, represent an area of massive opportunity and risk. They’re beautiful under a microscope. But they’re deadly in buildings. Biofilms—communities of microorganisms—are 100 times harder to remove than single organisms and are often resistant to disinfectants. Yet they’re rarely mentioned in cleaning training or invoices. That must change.

We must stop thinking of ourselves as just contractors. We’re managers of the built environment. We manage health and safety. And we have the skills, knowledge, and tools to do it.

The move from reactive cleaning to proactive health management begins with three steps:

1. Measure everything.If you’re not measuring air, water, and surfaces, you’re just guessing.
2. Train differently.Use real-world tools—UV light, particle counters, biofilm swabs—and make it part of everyday operations.
3. Tell your story.Document what you do. Show evidence. Clients don’t know unless you show them.

We also need greater transparency in chemical ingredients, adoption of the metric system, and risk-based tools that holistically consider air, water, and surface exposure. We’ve made it too hard to do this job. We need to simplify. We need to support the frontline.

Creating a global community of practice

To support this shift, we are investing heavily in community building. We’ve received US$1.2 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build a global community of practice. We’re working with 29 university professors. We’re creating videos, tools, dashboards. We’re building storytelling frameworks based on persuasive narratives.

These resources are for everyone. Whether you’re cleaning airports, universities, or sports arenas, we want your story. We want to elevate the profession.

The time to evolve is now. Making safer choices in cleaning is vital. This isn’t about fear. It’s about opportunity.

Airports have $20 million cleaning budgets. Universities? Up to $40 million. Stadiums? The same. But those budgets are being spent without informed decisions. That’s where we come in.

I urge industry professionals to stop waiting for the perfect time to evolve. The right time is now. Not next year. Not when it’s convenient. Now.

Click here to join the ISSA Making Safer Choices Community of Practice.

Today, let’s make one actionable step. Let’s commit to at least one change—whether it’s evaluating the safety of your chemicals, reducing water usage, or setting key performance indicators (KPIs) around sustainability. Because the biggest mistake we’re making right now is believing it’s not the right time to change. It is. Right now is the time.