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September 27, 2022 by Victor Olgyay, Anish Tilak and Connor Usry

New guidance from the U.S. federal government, combined with historic Inflation Reduction Act investments, could turbocharge markets for low-carbon cement, steel, and other building materials. Victor Olgyay, Anish Tilak and Connor Usry at Rocky Mountain Institute explain how the new “Buy Clean” recommendations will mean the procurement of green building materials for federal building and transportation projects. That will lead to a boost in nationwide demand for low-carbon concrete, steel, asphalt, and flat glass. It matters because structural materials in buildings are major drivers of climate pollution. Around 7% of carbon emissions worldwide come from the GHG-intensive process of creating cement, and 7% from steel. Total funding for these new initiatives is in the billions, explain the authors who turn to RMI’s Embodied Carbon Initiative research to make projections on the decarbonisation of buildings. What the U.S. federal government does with its money will have big consequences: it is the largest consumer in the world, spending more than $650bn on products and services each year.

Today, the White House took a major step to reduce a pervasive yet often overlooked source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) locked into buildings before anyone sets foot inside — also known as embodied carbon. The announcement of an ambitious set of “Buy Clean” recommendations will advance green building materials procurement for federal building and transportation projects. As a knock-on, it will turbocharge nationwide demand for low-carbon versions of concrete, steel, asphalt, and flat glass.

The US federal government is the largest consumer in the world, spending more than $650 billion on products and services each year. Given its massive portfolio of buildings nationwide, totalling 2.8 billion square feet, the push to procure low-carbon building materials will help dramatically reduce GHG emissions locked up in the walls, foundations, and ceilings of both new and existing properties. The move will also help meet US goals of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.

The new recommendations — shared today by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at a low-carbon iron ore processing facility in Toledo, Ohio — leverage the government’s vast purchasing power to drive demand for low-carbon material products. The new standards also catalyses increased measurement and disclosure of GHG emissions by manufacturers, supports the growth of a clean energy economy, and boosts growth in jobs and investment in related innovations.

Structural materials such as concrete and steel are major drivers of climate pollution from buildings. Combined, they represent more than 60% of embodied carbon emissions for US federal buildings. In particular:

Concrete and steel are the top contributors to the embodied emissions from typical federal government building practices, according to RMI analysis. A federal Buy Clean pathway will set the US government on the right trajectory to reduce the emissions impact of these materials over time, helping to meet its long-term goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050.

RMI’s focus on demand-side policies such as Buy Clean will stimulate the production of low-carbon products by increasing demand for them. Emissions targets in Buy Clean are tightened over the short, medium, and long-term. RMI’s forthcoming roadmap recommends a set of emissions targets for major federal building materials, including concrete and steel. As emissions targets are tightened, reductions accumulate over time (chart, below). Via this approach, emissions from federal buildings can hit a zero-carbon goal by mid century. By 2050, these reductions will directly reduce emissions by up to 15 million metric tons cumulatively.

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of the passage of the historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and is the culmination of a year of coordinated efforts by federal agency staff with support from RMI and other leaders to develop a framework for the US Buy Clean program. Combined, they will raise the level of ambition to construct buildings and transportation infrastructure with climate-friendly materials, while supporting the competitiveness of US manufacturers.

Major actions by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the General Services Administration (GSA) — the nation’s largest public real estate organisation — relating to Buy Clean were also announced this month, as both agencies are receiving funding for low-carbon materials through the IRA:

The IRA will advance the market for low-embodied carbon materials in buildings through a $250 million investment to set up an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Assistance Program. This program will grant funding to building manufacturers to develop EPDs for their products.

EPDs are an emerging industry standard or ‘nutrition label’ to report life-cycle impact assessments (LCAs) by manufacturers. This program will dramatically accelerate embodied carbon emissions data sharing by industry and add momentum to state and local ‘Buy Clean’ initiatives. It will also give further momentum to state, regional, and local low embodied carbon building code policies, and provide much needed funding for small manufacturers to report their emissions.

Another key embodied carbon funding provision in the IRA includes $100 million to support the creation of the national eco-label for low-carbon products mentioned earlier. This standard will be similar to the EPA’s popular Energy Star rating, but applied to sustainable building materials.

There is also more than $2 billion in funding to enable the GSA to acquire and install low-embodied carbon materials and products for use in the construction or alteration of buildings under its control; and billions more to support capital investments at industrial facilities to decarbonise production of steel, cement, and other hard-to-abate building materials.

Beyond buildings, there is more than $2 billion in funding for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to reimburse or provide incentives to eligible recipients for the use of low-embodied carbon construction materials and products in projects. This is a critical demand-side investment in transportation infrastructure decarbonisation — specifically for concrete, asphalt, and steel materials. When leveraged as part of the transportation projects developed through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), this investment could achieve significant climate impact reductions and further catalyse regional supplies of low-carbon cement and other materials.

RMI’s Embodied Carbon Initiative is deeply engaged in technical research and policy development to support a viable path for the federal government to achieve its goal of zero embodied carbon from procurement by 2050.

In the coming weeks, we will release our independent report, A Roadmap to Zero Embodied Carbon from Federal Buildings. This will offer deeper analysis and further recommendations for the federal government to slash emissions from public building projects over the next 30 years.

Beyond these strategies, the federal government has a broader role to play in advancing the movement to decarbonise building materials, by establishing nationwide standards and databases that will increase consistency in embodied emissions benchmarking. The federal government can also catalyse markets for disruptive, deeply decarbonised materials, such as zero-carbon cement, zero-carbon steel, mass timber, or bio-based insulation and finish materials, through industrial, trade, and workforce development policies. Stay tuned as we’ll have much more to say on these strategies and how the US government can deploy them.

To learn more about today’s Buy Clean announcement, check out the White House’s fact sheet. To learn more, visit Embodied Carbon Initiative – RMI.

Victor Olgyay is Principal, Carbon-Free Buildings at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Anish Tilak is Manager, Carbon-Free Buildings at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Connor Usry is an Associate, Carbon-Free Buildings at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

This article is published with permission. Copyright 2022, Rocky Mountain Institute

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: asphalt, buildings, cement, decarbonisation, emissions, funding, ghg, glass, pollution, steel, US

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