Policy Resolution HSE-15-04

WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average American spends 90 percent of his or her time indoors;

WHEREAS, occupied public buildings, including museums, libraries, public schools and universities, health-care facilities, first-responder centers, office buildings and more, welcome millions of people each and every day;

WHEREAS, according to the Government Accountability Office, 15,000 U.S. schools circulate air of unsatisfactory quality;

WHEREAS, indoor air quality in public buildings is impacted by the products and materials governments purchase every day that are stored and used, including the permanent building elements from which the building is constructed and finished;

WHEREAS, more health and ingredient information for products and building materials is needed to support informed decision-making by government purchasers and designers of public structures, yet is often unavailable;

WHEREAS, an environmentally preferable purchasing policy requires governments and organizations to use products or services that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment in comparison to competing products or services that serve the same purpose;

WHEREAS, various organizations and industries have collaborated to develop tools—such as GreenScreen benchmark, Cradle to Cradle, Health Product Declarations, and others—that can be used to identify products that reduce potential adverse environmental or health impacts; and

WHEREAS, environmentally preferable purchasing policies direct agency departments and their subsidiaries to adhere to purchasing guidelines intended to mitigate any negative impacts of government purchasing on human and environment health.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) does hereby urge legislators, state agencies, and departments and their subsidiaries, to examine their environmentally preferable purchasing policies, especially for those products that will be installed, used, or stored in occupied buildings, to:

• Establish preferences for products and materials for which both ingredients and their health impacts are transparent and available; and
• Fully implement state policies with respect to selecting products with lesser environmental and health impacts, including the use of available tools to identify environmentally preferable products; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and other federal and state government officials as appropriate.

• SPONSOR: Representative Brenda Gilmore (TN)
• Committee of Jurisdiction: Housing Policy Committee
• Certified by Committee Chair: Representative Brenda Gilmore (TN)
• Ratified in Plenary Session: Ratification Date is December 12, 2014
• Ratification is certified by: Representative Joe Armstrong (TN), President