The Bay Area Working Group on the Precautionary Principle is a diverse collaborative of organizations and individuals that promotes and implements precautionary action to protect health and the environment. Their efforts led to the adoption by the City of San Francisco of the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Commodities Ordinance in 2003. The law requires city departments to buy products that do as little harm as possible to people and the Earth. Under the law, the Department of the Environment, working with community groups, technical experts and other city staff, set priorities for which products should be assessed for application of the ordinance. It may serve as a model for States developing mechanisms to ensure sufficient product information is made available to the public in a manner which enables consumers to make informed environmental choices (UNECE Aarhus Convention, article 5, paragraph 8).
