Environmentally progressive California is leading the eco-charge once again with a new regulation, and its impact will likely reverberate far beyond the state's borders.

The California Green Chemistry Initiative Proposed Regulation for Safer Consumer Products, scheduled to be released in final form Jan. 1, 2011, holds companies responsible for using the least hazardous chemicals and processes possible in each phase of a product's life. It covers any product sold in California–from lunchboxes to laundry detergent–and provides strict guidance for a product's design, manufacture and end-of-life disposal.

“So many people are focused on how California's climate change laws will affect the U.S.,” says Peter Hsiao, head of Morrison & Foerster's Environmental Practice. “But this will have an equally large effect on the U.S. economy.”