Office of General Services

Compliance with Executive Order 134 - Environmental Impact of Cleaning of Facilities

Executive Order 134 required all State agencies and certain public authorities to procure and use cleaning products that minimize the potential impacts to human health and the environment. It also required the agencies and authorities to conduct an assessment of their programs to promote environmentally safe cleaning and transition to certain conforming products within specified time periods. The Office of General Services (OGS) was to provide guidance to the affected agencies and authorities to facilitate their compliance. In addition, OGS was also responsible for ensuring that its own buildings complied with the Order.

We found that, while OGS provided guidance to affected agencies and authorities on implementation of the Order, the guidance was not always timely or clear. Additionally, OGS overlooked some agencies and authorities when providing its guidance, and did not encourage landlords and building managers of leased facilities to implement the Order. As a result, several leased facilities were not being cleaned in accordance with the Order. For its own buildings, we found that OGS was generally in compliance with the Order. However, two of its three utility plants were using non-environmentally preferred products when alternative environmentally preferred products were available. We recommended OGS take certain actions to improve both its own compliance with the Order and its guidance to the affected agencies and authorities.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-S-12 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.