July 30, 2009 — Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law legislation (HB 2437) requiring all state-owned buildings to establish a green cleaning policy, effective July 24, 2009.
Specifically, all Illinois state-owned buildings must now procure and use “environmentally sensitive cleaning products” as defined by the guidelines and specifications established by the Illinois Green Government Coordinating Council, pursuant to the state’s Green Cleaning for Schools Act. Under the newly enacted law, state-owned buildings are allowed to deplete their existing stocks of cleaning products before implementing a green cleaning policy.
The law does, however, exempt state-owned buildings from the green cleaning requirements if implementing such a program would not be “economically feasible.” Adopting a green cleaning policy is considered not economically feasible if it would result in an increase in the cleaning costs of the building.
The enactment of HB 2437 comes approximately one year after the Illinois Green Cleaning for Schools Act became effective. That law requires all public and private K-12 schools to implement green cleaning programs.
Meanwhile, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle vetoed a proposed bill (HB 1538) which would have required Hawaii’s Department of Education to give first preference, where feasible, to the purchase of environmentally sensitive cleaning products for use at public schools.
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