Reducing Embodied Carbon of Construction Materials through the Inflation Reduction Act

• What is Embodied Carbon?
• Inflation Reduction Act
• Grant Program
• Technical Assistance, Tools, Resources and Funding Opportunities
• Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials

To further strengthen federal, state and local government Buy Clean programs, the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Biden in 2022, includes six sections that address embodied carbon of construction materials:

• Sec. 60112 – $250 million to EPA to develop a program to support enhanced standardization, measurement, reporting and verification of embodied carbon of construction materials/products (grants, technical assistance, etc.).
• Sec. 60116 – $100 million to EPA to develop a program to identify and label construction materials/products that have substantially lower embodied carbon, in coordination with the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (DOT-FHWA).
• Sec. 60503 – $2.15 billion to GSA’s Federal Buildings Fund.
• Sec. 60506 – $2 billion to the DOT-FHWA to reimburse/incentivize eligible recipients for the use of construction materials/products that have substantially lower embodied carbon (as determined by EPA).
• Sec. 30002 – $837.5 million to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for direct loans and grants to improve climate resilience of affordable housing, including low-emission building materials/processes.
• Sec. 70006 – Authority for FEMA to provide financial assistance for costs associated with low-carbon materials.

EPA Initiatives to Address Embodied Carbon of Construction Materials

To carry out its responsibilities under Inflation Reduction Act sections related to embodied carbon, EPA is developing a new set of programs that will provide grants, technical assistance, and tools to help states and Tribal nations, manufacturers, institutional buyers, real estate developers, builders and others to measure, report and substantially lower the levels of embodied carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, use and disposal of construction materials and products. These programs build upon EPA’s work in the ENERGY STAR Industrial Program, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Significant New Alternatives Policy, Sustainable Materials Management Program, and the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program, among others. This work includes:

• Environmental Product Declaration assistance, arising from Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112; and
• EPA's Labeling Program for Substantially Lower Embodied Carbon Construction Materials, arising from Inflation Reduction Act Section 60116

EPA’s Interim Determination on “Substantially Lower Embodied Carbon” Construction Materials

In December 2022, to meet its obligations under the Inflation Reduction Act to assist other agencies, EPA issued an Interim Determination (pdf) (117.73 KB) (and cover memo (pdf) (190.25 KB) ) to the General Services Administration (GSA) and Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (DOT-FHWA). The Interim Determination provided actionable guidance on selecting substantially lower embodied carbon materials and products as required by the Inflation Reduction Act. This Interim Determination allowed these agencies to beging purchasing qualifying materials and products with $4.15 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding.

EPA’s Interim Determination focused on interpreting “substantially lower” embodied carbon for four newly manufactured materials which the Federal Buy Clean Task Force has chosen to prioritize based on the high embodied carbon emissions of these materials and their significance to government procurement: cement/concrete, glass, asphalt, and steel. The Interim Determination also identified the use of minimally processed salvaged and reused materials/products and associated services as viable options for meeting Inflation Reduction Act low embodied carbon infrastructure goals. EPA expects that its Interim Determination will evolve as the Agency gains a better understanding of the relevant industry averages of embodied greenhouse gas emissions in construction products and develops better methodologies for assessing what materials and products qualify as “substantially lower” embodied carbon. Eventually, the Interim Determination will be replaced by thresholds set in EPA’s new label program for low embodied carbon construction materials.

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