Green and Clean Purchasing (continued)

CityHealth Initiative 


Through policy guidance and providing resources and direct support to city leadership, CEH supported the CityHealth initiative in awarding 18 large US cities with medals for their achievements in eco-friendly purchasing. Eight cities, including Louisville, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., earned the highest level of a gold medal. The medals are awarded for city laws that meet CityHealth’s criteria for a number of policy areas that help promote health equity, such as affordable housing, access to greenspace, and more. Together with our partners, CEH is creating a framework and guidelines for cities to improve their health and environments and to drive the transformation of national markets through eco-friendly purchasing policies. 

 

“We are thrilled to see more than half of the largest cities across the country increasingly adopting health-oriented policies aimed at addressing pressing challenges that are faced by communities.”  

– Katrina Forrest, JD, Co-Executive Director, CityHealth 

 

Safe & Healthy Furniture


In 2023, CEH’s advocacy, manufacturer engagement, and education efforts around safer furniture resulted in increased production and availability of safer furniture options, with nearly 4,300 individual options now available to large purchasers (compared to only around 2,500 in 2020). CEH also updated and compiled all our furniture procurement tools into our Toolkit for Healthier Office Furniture, which includes our technical specifications for furniture and fabric, our checklist for healthier furniture purchasing, and our purchaser’s pledge–our model commitment to selecting healthier furniture. All these resources make it easier for purchasers who are looking to transition to healthier furniture to access critical information all in one place, and it empowers those who have already committed to more safe and sustainable purchasing to stay the course. CEH has directly influenced more than $500 million in buying power annually towards safer furniture. 

DID YOU KNOW

Green and Clean Purchasing

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Toxic Exposures and Pollution Prevention

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DID YOU KNOW?

There are several toxic chemicals and materials that are added to office furniture to make it more resistant to fire, stain-proof, or to reduce its weight. CEH has identified the five most commonly used bad offenders and termed them the “Hazardous Handful.” These include: Toxic flame retardant chemicals, Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (PFAS) often used as stain treatments, Antimicrobials, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) including Formaldehyde, and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC/Vinyl). Many of these chemicals can easily escape from furniture and make their way into our air, dust, bodies, and the environment, and they have been linked to multiple forms of cancers, neurodevelopmental and reproductive disorders, as well as many other serious health problems. To make matters worse, the benefits that these chemicals supposedly bring to furniture are often minimal or even nonexistent.