Brian Morgan of milliCare: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle Climate Change & Become More Sustainable
An Interview With Penny Bauder
Find ways to put your knowledge into action on a small scale. It’s great to start sustainable initiatives around the house, from recycling to cloth bags instead of single-use plastic bags.
As part of my series about companies who are helping to battle climate change, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Morgan.
Brian Morgan is the Interim Managing Director for milliCare Floor and Textile Care with expertise encompassing operations, project management, and now consultative services in both arenas. Day to day, his team supports over 50 milliCare locations with any business operation questions they encounter. Brian holds a Master of Science Degree with a concentration in counseling, is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My story began when I was finishing up undergrad and getting ready for graduate school, and I needed a job as I would be moving off-campus. I made my way to the Office of Student Services, and I saw an ad for carpet cleaning for $9 an hour, which started my career with milliCare. When I started, I hated being a technician and decided right away that it was not what I wanted to do long-term. But after a conversation with my significant other at the time, I decided to apply myself to milliCare’s various approaches to carpet and hard surfaces. I quickly found myself in a supervisory capacity and then worked my way into operations and project management for the next 10 years. There was a two-year hiatus during which I left milliCare and took a project management role for a company that manufactured patient lift systems. In 2017, I came back to milliCare as a franchise business manager on the Corporate Team. My tenure as a franchise business manager was about two years, and then I was promoted to director of operations. Then in 2021, I became the interim managing director of milliCare.
What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve?
MilliCare’s mission is to employ sustainable cleaning practices to extend the usable life of floors. We improve facility hygiene and keep a high level of appearance throughout a facility. We’re also able to significantly extend the life of flooring and textiles, keeping them out of landfills and therefore helping the environment. I know of various milliCare businesses that can say that they’ve been cleaning certain customers’ carpets for 20-plus years, and that’s an attestation to our sustainable cleaning practices. We also appeal to any image-conscious company wanting to make a good impression on its customers and employees. I’ve heard it said that if the floor is dirty, nothing else feels clean, so keeping that high level of clean appearance is huge. We’re able to do all that in a very environmentally responsible way. The methodologies we employ are dry-anchored, so we have a dry polymer or powder that we use on carpet. We also employ a waterless foaming technology method available for carpet. Then, we have performance coatings that we can use on multiple types of vinyl products. With these approaches, we make the indoor environment healthier for the building occupants. This idea of materiality, or what products in the work environment are made of, is a massive topic right now among architects and designers and among folks who sell commercial furniture, and it should be. However, for a company like milliCare that employs sustainable cleaning methodology, the cleaning and maintenance of those same products have an even greater impact on the indoor environment.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
In terms of sustainability, there’s a lot that milliCare is doing and has done. I can’t take any of the credit for that, as I’d have to chalk that up to my teacher about everything carpet, Stephen Lewis, milliCare’s technical director. He put together the entire suite of cleaning products that we use for carpet care. About halfway through our development, he enhanced the line by using a lot of concentrated water that might be contained and shipped in a five-gallon jug. We shifted to condensing it down to a little puck that effervesces and cuts down on water consumption and transportation, saving energy and lowering shipping costs.
Also, in our line of hard surface products, we carry performance coatings, a field-applied wear layer of polyurethane that, if applied to a vinyl product such as VCT, can eliminate finish removal and reapplication. Once again, that translates to significant cost savings and extends the usable life of that vinyl composition tile floor.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
From my experience and conversations with folks in the industry, I know sustainable products and practices used to be more expensive, but due to competition in the marketplace, that’s no longer necessarily the case. For example, a chair made with products that are not harmful is not necessarily more expensive than a chair made with unpreferred products.
Also, when business leaders are thinking about being more sustainable and environmentally conscious, a lot hinges on the building occupant. In 2020, I did a presentation on the history of indoor air quality and cleaning. In that presentation, I discussed that sometimes just opening the windows can help with employee productivity. Making sure that you have fresh air circulates through your building can make the people in your building that much more productive. There’s so much cost surrounding an occupant than in actual building maintenance. Being sustainable and environmentally conscious comes down to that building occupant and how productive they can be and how happy they are in that environment.
The youth-led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion what are five things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
It’s great you mentioned that, as I was on the campus of Iowa State University just the other day, and that movement hasn’t died. To address your question, my advice for parents to help inspire the next generation include:
- Get as much knowledge about the environmental movement as you can to teach your children.
- Read more books — I enjoyed reading “The Sixth Extinction,” about pollution and its effects on the natural environment. Additional recommendations include “Tom’s River” and “Amity and Prosperity,” which talk about the effects of pollution on people and communities. I love that both of those books put people at the center. All three I mentioned are Pulitzer Prize winners.
- Find ways to put your knowledge into action on a small scale. It’s great to start sustainable initiatives around the house, from recycling to cloth bags instead of single-use plastic bags.
- Check out the Living Building Movement. Some people are surprised to learn there are buildings that can enhance their environments rather than detract from them.
- Explore large-scale sustainable options for a long-term plan. For example, explore hybrid or electric vehicles for your next car, or consider working from home a few days a week instead of commuting into the office five days a week.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
First, whatever job you get, make sure you understand your craft and understand it well. You want to be able to perform your work and communicate how to perform your work in an expert fashion.
Second, don’t forget where you started. I started my career as a technician, which has given me context on what my team might need now as the interim managing director.
Third, I wish someone had told me to read more. I’ve found that I’ve become better at my work overall as I continue to read, specifically nonfiction and self-help management books. For me, it’s never been one main idea or one training that has changed me overnight or moved heaven and earth to make me successful, but it’s been multiple books and this infusion of knowledge and best practices that continue to shape me a little bit at a time.
Fourth is if there is a specific language wrapped up in your profession, do the best you can to learn that language. I’m currently trying to learn Spanish. I took some classes in middle school and high school, but I have recently circled back around to make it a goal to learn Spanish and be fluent by the time I’m 40. I’m currently 38, so I’ve got some time.
Lastly, all of these remind me that it’s never too late to start learning a new skill to help you in your professional career.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
A slew of people have helped over the years. I’ll start with my dad, as he created a phenomenal environment for me to grow up in and understand how to grow into certain disciplines, which was very different from his environment. He had to be original, and I owe the canvas upon which I could develop to him.
Next, various bosses shaped how I think about business, how I go about business, and the business environment I try to create. Brian Farmer (owner of milliCare by Select Facility Solutions) taught me the full package of making sure to present yourself well and then deliver well. Dan Abitol was one of the best operations folks I knew, and he was fiercely intense when it came to competition, going the extra mile and beating the competition. Joe Dewey gave me a phenomenal opportunity within the project management sphere that really kind of broadened my horizon and my experience. He helped me with a high-level project that allowed me to understand how to prepare to take one swing and knock a home run. Finally, Steve Willis (previous managing director of milliCare) allowed me to see the franchising side of the milliCare business that I’m in. He gave me some opportunities to grow from franchise business manager to director of operations and couching that growth within key learnings of a certified franchise executive.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A lot of good movements are out there that we should take part in, but I’d make sure that whatever I’d choose would focus on continually serving my community, as I always want to help others. I strive to have a growth mindset to understand who I am and how I affect somebody else so I can then make positive impacts on others.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt.
This quote is relevant in my own life because I’m in a very blue-collar industry, and to be the best at what you do, sometimes you have to go the extra mile, and if you’ve not assessed something correctly, the extra mile can seem extremely long. It pays off through blood, sweat, and tears, good days and bad, but you’ve got to be willing and vulnerable enough to put your best foot forward. There’s always a possibility of failure, but do your best to draw on your experience, your team, your plan, and its execution — and grow.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
The best place to follow me on social media is through LinkedIn. I also have a podcast called Indoor Voices, where we talk with indoor professionals or indoor experts about their specific field of expertise and how it affects the building occupants.
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Brian Morgan of milliCare: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle Climate Change & Become… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.