green headlines
Maid Green was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, The Miami Herald, Home Magazine, Biscayne Times and Daily Candy.
Miami Magazine
Best Of The City
January 2010
Entrepreneur Magazine
Spick-and-Span
May 2008
Biscayne Times
Be Green As You Clean
April 2008
Daily Candy
Shiny, Happy Houses
April 2007
Daily Candy
December 2007
Winner of best of Daily Candy 2007 smell category
The Miami Herald
Maid Green tidies up without using toxic stuff
By Jenny Staletovich
When Petter Nahed's mother came down with cancer after many years as a housekeeper and personal assistant, Nahed started to wonder if working with chemical cleaners over such a long time made her sick.
While he could never link the two, he could do something else: help her clean without harmful chemicals.
In April last year, Nahed launched Maid Green, one of a growing number of environmentally friendly cleaning services. Using a citrus-based peroxide cleaner that, he says, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved to kill germs and bacteria without harsh chemicals, the business has picked up customers in both South Broward and Dade.
''We don't use green as a buzzword,'' said Nahed, who marketed the company by passing out fliers at Whole Foods and notices posted on yoga center bulletin boards. ``We believe the future is green, and we believe there is no compromise.''
Nahed, 28, gets his background in cleaning from hotel management. After graduating from Miami Beach Senior High, he earned an associate's degree in marketing and business administration at Miami Dade College, then worked as a front desk manager at two beach hotels.
As his 49-year-old mother underwent chemotherapy and recovered, he became more convinced that using nonchemical cleaners was the way to go -- and that others would agree.
In fact, across the country, green cleaning services are on the rise. UNICCO, a national company with offices in Miami Lakes, offers green cleaning. Online searches reveal green cleaning in New York, California, Chicago and Atlanta. Even the government's Department of Interior has switched to green cleaning.
Using nontoxic cleaners, microfiber cloths and other environmentally friendly methods costs about 10 percent more, Nahed said. His company, which has four full-time employees and two contracted, charges $20 an hour for basic services.
His mother, meanwhile, is ''doing great. She doesn't complain about breathing problems and neither do my employees,'' he said.
"My employees do not clean a bathtub and come out with headaches, nausea and fatigue."