King County, Washington established a new contract in January, 2008 that makes Green Seal certified cleaning chemicals available to all county agencies. If the results of these trials are positive, thereby demonstrating that compliant products are available, functional and economical; it will be proposed that future specifications limit purchases to Green Seal certified products.

The King County Transit Division published a new operations and maintenance manual to provide direction for the use of green cleaning chemicals. They have reduced the number of different chemicals purchased from 30 to 2. In addition to reducing the purchase of toxic chemicals, they were able to phase-out the use of the typical heavy mops and buckets in favor of light-weight microfiber mops and cloths that they wash and re-use.

Facilities Management Division, the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, the Department of Public Health and Safety and Claims Management have been testing various green cleaners from the county contract. Since many of these are concentrated products with dispenser systems, they have seen a significant reduction in chemical use. We will publish results when these trials are concluded.

The Green Building Program of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks is coordinating a multiagency group to develop green building operational guidelines, including green cleaning standards, per the newly revised and adopted green building ordinance.

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