The Environmental Safety Company (EPA) has introduced a plan to implement a brand new label program that it expects will assist federal purchasers and patrons discover and select extra climate-friendly development supplies.
Underneath the label program, which stems from “intensive public enter,” the EPA will initially deal with asphalt, concrete, glass, and metal merchandise with “decrease embodied” greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions from the manufacturing stage, which incorporates uncooked materials extraction, transportation, and manufacturing. These supplies signify “the overwhelming majority of development supplies and merchandise that authorities businesses buy with federal funds,” the company mentioned.
The EPA mentioned this system, unveiled on Aug. 7, helps the Inflation Discount Act (IRA) Part 60116. The legislation has offered the company with $100 million of funding till fiscal yr 2026 to develop and perform a program to establish and label development supplies related to all related levels of manufacturing, use, and disposal of supplies and merchandise.
Underneath this system, the EPA will supply labels for particular development supplies and merchandise based mostly on the International Warming Potential (GWP) worth offered on “strong” environmental product declarations (EPDs). Labeled supplies and merchandise will meet or fall beneath specified thresholds inside a tiered score system. In July, the EPA chosen 38 organizations to collectively obtain practically $160 million to assist companies develop EDPs. “EPDs present quantified environmental information associated to the life cycle levels of particular merchandise or supplies,” it defined. “EPDs are developed utilizing [product category rules (PCRs)], which give a set of particular guidelines, necessities and tips for growing EPDs for a number of merchandise.”
The EPA intends to implement the label program in a phased strategy to make sure its longevity and replicability. That can enable further supplies to be included over time, it famous. The primary part will search to standardize information high quality used to calculate embodied carbon related to development supplies. The second part will contain threshold setting, and the third part will label development supplies and merchandise that meet EPA thresholds. The company anticipates that preliminary merchandise could possibly be labeled by the tip of fiscal yr 2026 (by the tip of September 2026).
“Labeled supplies and merchandise will meet or fall beneath specified thresholds inside a tiered score system. Thresholds will likely be knowledgeable by a public enter course of earlier than being finalized and will likely be periodically reviewed and up to date to encourage steady enchancment and to assist customers meet sustainability targets,” the company mentioned. “The highest threshold tier will likely be designed to assist acknowledge and reward deep reductions within the embodied carbon related to development supplies and merchandise.” The label program is meant “to help with materials/product choice after a call on materials sort has already been made, and to enhance a complete development mission strategy,” it mentioned.
The label program is supposed to supply steering, however its most distinguished quick influence will likely be on federally spearheaded development initiatives. The December 2021-promulgated Government Order 14057 directs the federal authorities to attain net-zero emissions procurement by 2050. As well as, the EPA famous on Wednesday that this system will assist the “Biden-Harris Administration’s Federal Purchase Clear Initiative, which goals to develop the market and reward innovation for American-made, lower-carbon development supplies.”
The IRA additionally gives greater than $2 billion to the Common Providers Administration, incentivizing using “clear” supplies within the development and renovation of federal buildings, and $2 billion to the Federal Freeway Administration for using clear development supplies in transportation initiatives. “Federal buying performs a major position in industries like concrete, as federally funded authorities purchases account for greater than 50% of all concrete poured within the U.S. yearly. Supplies and merchandise that earn the brand new label will likely be listed in a central, publicly accessible registry, making it simpler to establish—and buy—these supplies,” the EPA mentioned.
Up to now, a minimum of 9 states have handed policies associated to embodied carbon, together with Purchase Clear and procurement-type insurance policies, constructing code amendments, and specs. Insurance policies addressing embodied carbon are additionally gaining floor on the native and regional ranges.
The EPA, nonetheless, additionally developed this system with the personal sector in thoughts, contemplating the latent development increase because the nation gears as much as enhance its infrastructure. “The U.S. industrial sector is linked to just about a 3rd of annual U.S. greenhouse fuel emissions (U.S. EPA, 2024), and the manufacturing of development supplies and merchandise accounts for about 15% of annual world GHG emissions,” it mentioned in a whitepaper related with the label program.
Whereas the labeling program has no particular implications but for the facility sector, as POWER has reported, this system may assist personal sector procurement based mostly on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. In accordance with the Sustainable Provide Chain Alliance (SSCA)—a corporation of utilities and suppliers that work collectively to advance sustainable provide chain practices—utilities are leveraging ESG information to higher inform engagement methods and danger evaluation capabilities. Up to now, the group has gained membership from 30 main utilities and greater than 80 suppliers.
The SSCA, notably, presents an annual provider evaluation, the TSP, a platform for utility provide chain ESG information assortment. The evaluation basically serves utilities by gathering beneficial info from their provide chains whereas permitting suppliers to higher perceive utility expectations, it says.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
