Building Clean: Policies to Accelerate the Presence of Locally Made, Healthy Materials in Multifamily Housing

Building Clean’s “Buy Local, Buy Healthy” motto is a concept and approach to purchasing building products that focuses on supporting jobs in the local or regional economy, while lessening exposure to hazardous substances in the home through a better understanding of a product’s ingredient content and how it might impact the health of residents and installers. When applied in conjunction with building products that are energy and water-efficient, this concept can help transform lives and communities by creating buildings that save resources, grow jobs, and protect public health.

The benefits of healthier retrofit products that are locally made are numerous. By ensuring the products used in affordable housing retrofits are healthy and locally made, we can create more energy-efficient jobs; improve affordable housing conditions; increase tenant savings; improve tenant comfort and health; and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This toolkit contains effective and innovative policies and programs highlighting the commitment to healthy and locally made materials by cities, states, and utility companies. It provides links to specific policy language as well as case studies detailing the impact of buying local and buying healthy.

Building Clean is a program operated by the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation (BGAF) that aims to educate builders and other housing stakeholders about the importance of using energy- and water-efficient building products made in the U.S. and free from chemicals that could impact the health of residents and workers. Using healthy and locally made materials in retrofits of multifamily, affordable housing projects both increases the demand for U.S.–made energy-efficient products and decreases exposure to harmful chemicals found in many housing products.

Download The Document