Boston's Green Initiative for Municipal Buildings

In continuing to set a precedent for fostering the growth of a state-wide environmental consciousness, Boston's Mayor Thomas M. Menino has recently enacted the Green Building Maintenance Order. The policy will act to require sustainable practices within the city of Boston's 400 municipal, government-maintained buildings and facilities.

The decision will serve to both "reduce costs and harmful chemicals from City buildings," and "improve operations" in general. Menino's Executive Order mandates a variety of green regulations, including setting guidelines for environmentally friendly cleaning and maintenance products / services, the expansion of each municipal building's internal recycling program, and establishing a "Green Operations coordinating committee" to generate further recommendations for sustainability within municipal operations.

A summarization of Menino's Executive Order, as revealed in a press release from the Mayor's office, is listed as follows:



1.All City of Boston departments adhere to the City’s new Green Cleaning Policy both for all City-managed building maintenance programs and for any new contracted maintenance services;

2.Within 60 days, the City of Boston Purchasing Agent and the Chief of Public Property, in consultation with City departments, shall publish Environmentally Preferable Procurement (EPP) guidelines covering all goods and services purchased for building maintenance and operations;

3.All City departments shall seek to expand recycling programs in all municipal buildings and new cleaning services contracts;

4.Within 60 days, the City of Boston Chief Information Officer, in consultation with City departments, shall issue a Green Information Technology Roadmap to further reduce municipal consumption of resources;

5.The City will establish a Green Operations coordinating committee to further pursue and develop additional measures to reduce municipal consumption and increase efficiency.


The underlying goals of the Green Building Maintenance Order certainly appear to focus on increasing operations efficiency and reducing financial costs incurred by excess consumption. However, the policy will serve to empower a green sense of thinking, regardless of the policy's primary motivators.

::Official Press Release
::Boston.com's The Green Blog

Image from Flickr user Shortcipher shared with a Creative Commons Attribution License.