Buy Clean Pilot Projects

You can view Buy Clean projects by EPA Region or Product Category or Services.

Thirteen schools and school districts around the country are piloting Buy Clean projects. Many pilots are identifying preferable products for use in schools such as cleaners, art supplies, chemicals used in chemistry laboratories, and custodial and maintenance supplies.

Evaluating products: The pilot schools and their partners will use readily available information to evaluate products.  These data will come from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), product labels, product literature, public databases, the General Services Administration (GSA) Commercial Cleaning Products Catalog, and State and EPA publications.


Providing incentives: The pilots are using incentives to provide business opportunities for vendors, discounts for first-time purchasers of preferred products, release time and stipends for training participating custodial staff, credit for professional development of materials which can be used as part of curriculum for participating teachers, and recognition of participating groups and schools.


Measuring results: Evaluation measures being used in the pilot projects include; the extent of substitution of safer products, approaches and practices; incorporation into contract and bid specifications; new procurement policy, training manuals and handbooks; incorporation into inventory control and curriculum design; and the extent of dissemination of project results.

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Benefits to Schools

Schools will have more knowledge of, and control over, sources of indoor pollution from products and services.
Buy Clean will provide information and data, tools, resources, and incentives that could help schools select safer products using science-based decision-making.

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