The BlueGreen Alliance’s (BGA) state work launched first in California, where the organization has been able to pass several historic bills, and then quickly spread to other states. In those early days, the organization quickly realized the potential impact of working on state and local level initiatives.

BGA’s state-level work has resulted in more than 100 wins in the form of strong climate and labor legislation, policy, regulatory, and implementation successes just since 2015. Several of these efforts have led to historic pieces of legislation, some of which have been used as models in other parts of the country. For example, led by the BlueGreen Alliance, USW, Sierra Club, and other business, labor, and environmental organizations, a coalition was formed in 2016 to push for a new law in California that required state agencies to consider the embedded emissions of industrial products like steel and glass when contracting for state-funded infrastructure projects. After taking a hard look at the industry in the state, Buy Clean California was passed in the California legislature with bipartisan support and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on October 15, 2017. BGA has since worked to get Buy Clean policies adopted in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Minnesota, as well as federally. California’s Project Safety Management rules, an effort also lead by BGA, have been used as a model, which just was passed this year in Washington State.

BGA now works in 10 states.