As reported by ISSA.

Boston, MA, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has enacted an executive order that increases the purchase of environmentally preferred products, such as green cleaning supplies; expands the recycling programs in city facilities; and advances additional green policies across the city.

Known as the Green Building Maintenance Order, the policy looks to reduce costs and harmful chemicals from city buildings as well as improve operations. The policy will cover all municipal buildings maintained by the city. The city of Boston owns and operates some 400 buildings and facilities throughout Boston with approximately 18,000 employees.

Meanwhile, the city of Oakland, CA, has also implemented an environmentally preferable purchasing policy that, among other things, requires the city to implement a green cleaning program.

The Oakland Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy requires the city to purchase— or require janitorial contractors to supply cleaning products—that meet Green Seal certification or “other equivalent standards for environmental preferability and performance."

The Boston and Oakland policies are part of a definite trend: As earlier reported, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed into law an act that will require K–12 schools to establish a green cleaning policy and exclusively purchase and use “environmentally sensitive” cleaning products beginning with the 2009-10 school year, making it the third U.S. state to adopt a green cleaning policy.