More Green Practices
To conserve energy and reduce costs, CMS has lowered the thermostat at thousands of State buildings in wintertime. The new policy reduced natural gas consumption by 2.2 million therms in 2005-6 alone, according to the Energy Resources Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago – cutting carbon monoxide emissions by 9 tons and nitrous oxide emissions by 11 tons, among other positive environmental impacts.
CMS is also building “green” requirements into contracts for office furniture, copiers and cleaning supplies: fully half of the State’s cleaning vendors now use Green Seal-approved products in State buildings, and the other half will start doing so in 2007.
State's Current Green Contracts
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