(H07) How the US Federal Government is Leading on Addressing Embodied Emissions in Buildings

The US federal government is the largest single purchaser of building construction materials in the United States. The past two years have been a fruitful period for the Federal government to address embodied carbon emissions by leveraging its vast purchasing power and advancing green procurement. The Biden administration has made significant announcements for a Federal Buy Clean program, such as focused industrial decarbonization efforts for steel, concrete, glass, and asphalt materials. The Inflation Reduction Act includes more than $5 billion to incentivize the use of low-carbon construction materials in public projects which will further accelerate momentum behind the government’s goals. In this session, representatives from RMI, EPA and GSA will unpack recent developments in Federal procurement policy related to embodied carbon and contextualize them relative to the government’s long-term climate goals. RMI will present original research charting a path to achieving zero embodied carbon from federal buildings projects by 2050, a model trajectory that can be achieved by both the public and private sectors. We will then move into a facilitated discussion with current and recent staff from GSA’s high performance and sustainable building programs as well as EPA’s sustainable marketplace/environmentally preferable purchasing program. In discussion, we will explore barriers and solutions to implementing embodied carbon programs at the eye-popping scale of the GSA portfolio. We will also consider how near-term actions will lay the foundations to achieve zero embodied carbon by 2050. EPA staff will outline their determination of “substantially lower embodied greenhouse gas emission construction materials and products” for key materials, such as concrete and asphalt to support Federal Buy Clean efforts under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  Finally, we will explore how these strategies will impact the broader market and support designers in their ability to economically specify low-carbon building materials.