GOVERNMENTS AGREE ON NATIONAL CRITERIA FOR "GREEN" CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working Together Made it Possible, Say Government Purchasers

READING, PA - Who says we can't all get along? That's the question a group of state and local government purchasers from across the country are asking, after working together to endorse a single national standard for environmentally friendly cleaning products. Controlling more than $15 million in annual cleaning product purchases, these state and local governments are using their purchasing power to protect the environment and their employees while saving taxpayers money.

**"Green" Cleaning Products Better for Environment, Health**

By purchasing and using "green" cleaners, state and local governments are cleaning up the environment one dirty surface at a time. Traditional cleaning products present a variety of human health and environmental concerns, and can contain chemicals associated with cancer, reproductive disorders, respiratory ailments, eye or skin irritation, and other human health issues. Switching from traditional cleaning products to biodegradable, low toxicity, or otherwise less harmful products can drastically improve the environmental profile of routine cleaning activities without sacrificing cleaning effectiveness. As many users have discovered, using green cleaners can also reduce costs and improve employee productivity.

**A True Team Effort**

The group of government purchasers, organized by the Center for a New American Dream and funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, includes all of the government purchasing pioneers who first attempted to define and purchase effective, safer, and more environmentally preferable cleaning products - Massachusetts; Santa Monica, California; King County, Washington; Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - among several others.

Massachusetts is the first of the work group members to issue a request for proposal (RFP) using the agreed upon criteria. The environmental criteria are based on Green Seal's Industrial and Institutional Cleaners Standard (GS-37). While products do not have to be certified by Green Seal, they must meet its GS-37 standard and a few additional criteria agreed upon by the work group.

"This was the perfect team to work with," said Betsy Taylor, Center for a New American Dream president. "These pioneering governments have long recognized the importance of buying safer products, and they're now working together to increase their impact. The results of this collaborative effort will pave the way for additional governments and institutional purchasers to embrace the strict national environmental criteria and begin buying safer cleaning products."

**Massachusetts Now Accepting Bids for Cleaning Products**

Massachusetts officials expect to spend at least $500,000 over the next four years purchasing safer, more environmentally preferable cleaning products. Some industry experts anticipate the commonwealth will actually purchase several million dollars worth as word spreads throughout the state's user community.

Massachusetts purchasing officials are currently accepting bids from cleaning product companies. All products must meet the criteria established by Green Seal, a nonprofit environmental standards organization, and additional criteria established by the multi-state, multi-municipality purchasing group. "While governments spend millions of dollars on environmental products every year," explained Marcia Deegler, Environmental Purchasing Manager for the Commonwealth's Operational Services Division, "this is the first time we have worked so closely with so many other government purchasers to change the markets on such a broad scale." Deegler later added, "In addition to the enormous environmental and human health benefits, this collaborative effort will help cleaning product purchasers across the country. It makes it easier to share environmental, health, and product performance information, which makes the process more efficient, more cost-effective, and more beneficial for us all."

**The Need for Consensus**

Before this effort, according to Steve Ashkin, an industry expert, there were numerous competing definitions of what constitutes a green product. "Industry couldn't respond," Ashkin remarked, "because of what it saw as a constantly moving target. Very few companies invested in reformulating products because no standard had gained national credibility or created enough marketplace demand to make it a profitable investment. The incredible momentum behind the new criteria will make it much more likely for the entire industry to respond."

A report on the industry, Cleaning for Health, released today by INFORM, a national nonprofit research organization, reached a similar conclusion. "The wide variety of conflicting environmental standards," observed Alicia Culver, Director of INFORM's Chemical Hazards Prevention Program and co-author of the study, "has really hurt the ability of purchasers to find safer products. That's why we strongly recommend that purchasers buy products meeting the new consensus criteria."

The initial focus of the Center's purchasing work group was to compare the numerous competing definitions and specifications for safer cleaning products. After extensive analysis and discussion, the group realized the standards were describing remarkably similar products using very different approaches. Some standards, for example, relied on extensive lists of prohibited chemicals while others prohibited the same chemicals by referencing a specific toxicity test. This recognition allowed the group to begin searching for a single standard they could all endorse.

**Green Seal Standards Adopted**

After months of analysis, the group concluded the Green Seal standard met or exceeded its needs. The standard was developed in an open, consensus-based process that included environmentalists, government officials, end-user, and industry participation. It was already the basis of several successful purchases. In addition, several months after the first work group meeting, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency encouraged purchasers to use the Green Seal standard when buying cleaning products.

While Massachusetts is the first of the work group members to use the standard, others are not far behind. The City of Santa Monica, for example, is preparing to reissue its cleaning contract, and plans to use the same environmental criteria Massachusetts used. Other work group members are discussing similar and more ambitious plans. Now that purchasers are working together to promote a common standard, safer products will be more widely available, more affordable, and easier to locate.

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For additional information, visit: www.newdream.org/procure/products/cleaners.html