Tag Archives: CSPA

07 Feb

WIN: Governor Cuomo Signs Child Safe Products Act Into Law

Child Safe Products Act signed into law

Albany, NY — February 7, 2020: Governor Cuomo signed the Child Safe Products Act (S.501-B Kaminsky / A. 6296-A Englebright) into law.  The move marks the fulfillment of a decade-long campaign by a broad, diverse coalition of environmental health advocates, health-impacted groups, sustainable businesses, environmental justice leaders, health care providers, child care providers, parent groups and many others. The law will require manufacturers to disclose chemicals of concern in children’s products and restrict the most toxic, while authorizing the State to add chemicals to disclose and restrict by regulation. The bill passed 53-9 in the Senate and 100-23 in the Assembly on April 30, 2019 as part of a first-ever bicameral Earth Day package.

“The New York Sustainable Business Council represents thousands of businesses committed to the triple bottom line of social responsibility, environmental stewardship, and economic prosperity,” said Bob Rossi, Director, New York Sustainable Business Council.  “The Child Safe Products Act cuts across all three tenets. It not only protects our most vulnerable and reduces environmental contamination, it will strengthen our economy. Smarter chemical regulations will drive green tech innovation. Chemical disclosure will allow our retailers to meet the growing demand for non-toxic products. Plus, the children we aim to protect are our future workforce. We thank Governor Cuomo and the leaders in our legislature for seeing this bill through.”

“Passing the Child Safe Products Act is a major step forward for protecting children’s health and it makes good business sense.  It protects shareholders, workers, and companies’ brand names, while restoring consumer confidence in product safety. This legislation will drive innovation and lead to greater profits and job growth for responsible New York State businesses. Our businesses are proud to stand in appreciation of the Governor and the New York State legislature for passing this historic legislation,” said David Levine, President, American Sustainable Business Council.

ASBC and NYSBC want to thank all the businesses that joined us in helping to support this important bill.  We also want to thank our coalition partners in the Just Green Partnership for their leadership.  See the coalition’s full press release here.

 

29 Jan

Urgent Action Needed on NY’s Child Safe Products Act

The Child Safe Products Act (CSPA) is sitting on Governor Cuomo’s desk and we need your help to get it signed into law. The Governor has between now and February 7th to decide whether to sign or veto this bill, which has been a decade in the making.

This monumental bill, which passed the NYS Senate and Assembly with bipartisan support, lays out an intelligent framework for identifying and requiring disclosure of harmful chemicals in children’s products, and also bans the most harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, arsenic, and asbestos. Innovations in the chemical industry have far outpaced effective regulation of new chemicals and continue to negatively impact our most vulnerable, our future workforce, our economy, and the ability of responsible businesses to compete in a poorly regulated space.

This bill can break that cycle… IF it gets signed in the next week. You can help make that happen. As a responsible business owner, you offer a critical voice on this issue. Governor Cuomo has just a few days left to make a decision on this bill, and he is certainly under large corporate pressure to veto or dilute the bill. It is critical that his office also hears from business leaders like you.

Here’s what you can do:

  1. To better understand the business and economic benefits of the Child Safe Products Act, we invite you to review NYSBC’s one-page memo of support.
  2. If helpful for you: There are 6 bulleted points in that memo, some apply to specific sectors (eg, retail, manufacturing, green chemistry) and some apply to all of us. Identify the points that you can speak to from your own business experience and values.
  3. Call the Governor’s office at 518-474-8390, introduce yourself and your business, urge him to sign the Child Safe Products Act into law, and offer the reasons you’ve outlined above. If helpful, see sample script below.
  4. Then, please let us know that you took action. Contact us by email or comment on our facebook post and tag friends or share the post. Your action will inspire others!
  5. Are you on Twitter?  Here’s a sample tweet.  Add to it or modify as you see fit. 
    Our company works to ensure products are safe, and customers deserve to know when harmful chemicals are in products for kids. That's why we stand with @NewYorkSBC & @ASBCouncil and urge @NYGovCuomo to sign the #ChildSafeProductsAct. #nontoxicny

Note: When calling the Governor’s office, know that there are thousands of parents and environmentalists calling for this bill and large corporations fighting it. That makes it appear to our lawmakers that this issue is parents/environmentalists vs business/economy. It’s not. By focusing on your business perspective, you have the power to dismantle that false narrative.

Do you have a business testimonial to share with us? Please email us. Your testimonials are gold!

Here’s a testimonial from a New York State skateboard manufacturer with a global market.

“It is entirely possible to build products—even durable products that require strong adhesives—without using formaldehyde. Since 1997, Comet Skateboards has been building skateboards to withstand constant thrashing from people of all ages and sizes. We do so using industry standard formaldehyde-free adhesives like Franklin Multibond 4000 FF. Avoiding the use of formaldehyde is not a barrier. It’s a decision. The more companies make this simple decision, the more options will arise from green tech innovators.”
— Jason Salfi, President of Comet Skateboards

Sample Business Script   (Add to it or modify with your reasoning from step #2 above.)

Hi, I am XXXX from XXXXX company, and we support the Child Safe Products Act. I’m calling to urge the Governor to sign the bill — because it will help create a level playing field for responsible businesses including the many companies that manufacture or carry sustainable products. We believe customers deserve to know when harmful chemicals are in products for kids.

It’s important to us that this bill achieve the following:

  • Require product makers to tell us if harmful chemicals are in what they sell.
  • Require manufacturers to phase out the most toxic chemicals—like formaldehyde, arsenic, and asbestos—in children’s products.
  • Create a way to report and restrict additional dangerous chemicals in children’s products in an ongoing process that solves this problem once and for all.
17 May

3 Days Of Advocacy

If you have joined NYSBC for our annual Sustainable Business Summit before, you will remember a full day of education and advocacy on a gambit of important subjects that impact your business, your community, and your environment.  We’ve learned that many of you wish to focus more deeply on one subject area.  To that end, we now invite you to select from 3 separate days of advocacy:
  • Tuesday 5/28: Healthcare — Show your support by attending the first ever joint Senate-Assembly hearing on the NY Health Act, which would create a statewide universal healthcare system.  You will also have the option to share testimony of your personal struggle to access healthcare, provide healthcare for your employees, etc.
  • Wednesday 5/29: Energy Democracy — Join the first ever Energy Democracy Lobby Day and advocate for energy efficiency and renewable energy policies that would create a more resilient, localized, and democratically controlled clean energy economy in New York State.
  • Thursday 5/30: Environmental Health & Justice — Advocate for policies that would ensure transparency of chemicals in common products, eliminate harmful chemicals in children’s products, require government action on known toxics, and provide green procurement incentives to make safer products more available and affordable.

Each event above is separate.  Each is a full day—roughly 10am to 4pm—and attending a portion of a day may be possible.  Expect more details including formal RSVPs to roll out next week.  You may use this form to share your interest in the above events or for general feedback to NYSBC.

In the spirit of our Earth Day email, we are inviting you to engage around the issue(s) that you are most passionate about.  The better connected your heart is with your advocacy, the more fulfilling and long-lasting your impact will be.  NYSBC will continue to build allies and curate policies that reflect triple bottom line principles and the feedback of sustainable business leaders like you.

Your business voice is critical to this advocacy work.  Together, we bring a much needed counter narrative to debates dominated by the largest profit-driven corporations that claim to represent businesses—including yours.  NYSBC can help you explore how you and your business relate to the above issues and hone your story to have the deepest impact. 

01 May

WIN: Child Safe Products Act Passes NYS Legislature

CONGRATS & THANKS to the many business leaders who have joined us over the years fighting for this bill that requires children’s product makers to disclose harmful chemicals and phase out the worst.

A decade since its first introduction, the Child Safe Products Act passed yesterday 53-9 in the NYS Senate and 100-23 in the NYS Assembly within minutes of each other—while many of us ran back and forth to witness history.

Warm gratitude to bill sponsors Assemblyman Steve Englebright and Senator Todd Kaminsky for shepherding the bills through, and thanks as well to every legislator that had the wisdom to vote in favor.

More work to do before this bill becomes law, that law is effectively implemented, and New Yorkers are safer.
To NYS businesses… YOUR VOICE is still needed as we see this through!

Congrats to JustGreen Partnership, Clean and Healthy New York, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Nourish Wealth Management, JSA Financial Group, and many others.

Image may contain: 1 person, possible text that says 'WE NEED THE Child Safe Products Act TO PROTECT ME FROM HARMFUL CHEMICALS THAT CAN MAKE ME SICK! Just Green Partnership'