Most of us don't think much about the impact of our purchases on the marketplace but when we make conscious choices to purchase furniture without toxic chemical flame retardants, cookware without harmful perflourinated chemicals or children's products without bisphenol A, we're sending a message to retailers that we want safe products and they pay attention. Our Mind the Store campaign has made a huge impact with the world's largest retailers and succeeded in getting Walmart, Target, CVS, Home Depot and Lowe's to work with their suppliers and shift away from some of the most harmful chemicals in products sold in there stores!
In Connecticut, Clean Water Action is taking this a step further. Our Green Procurement campaign is urging the Governor and the Department of Administrative Services to leverage their purchasing power and require that contracts for goods purchased for the state are free from toxic flame retardants, antimicrobials like triclosan (an endocrine disruptor), phthalates in flooring, harmful volatile organic compounds in carpeting and furniture and perflourinated chemicals in food packaging and cookware. And we're making progress!
State governments are huge purchasers of goods for state buildings, state schools and universities and state hospitals to name a few. Requiring products to be free of toxic chemicals protects kids and state workers, members of the public as we use those buildings and reduces chemicals from polluting the environment when the products are disposed of at end of life.
We're excited that as a result of our collaborative work with the State, recent contracts for office furniture and school furniture restricted toxic flame retardants and volatile organic compounds!! Stay tuned here for updates and an announcement of the press event that we're organizing to celebrate making state purchasing green!!
