The Environmental Protection Agency announced the first opportunities for public input on new programs focused on lowering carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from construction materials. These new programs were made possible by a $350 million investment through the Inflation Reduction Act. Pursuant to the IRA, the EPA’s new programs will provide grants, technical assistance and tools to help builders, states and Tribal nations, manufacturers, institutional buyers, real estate developers and others 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, including steel, concrete, asphalt and glass.

Specifically, the EPA has announced three public webinars to solicit feedback from stakeholders as follows: a webinar on March 2 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET (registration available here) on “Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Construction Materials Prioritization and Environmental Data Improvement,” which will address how to prioritize construction materials and products and how to improve data on embodied greenhouse gas emissions through measurement, standardization, transparency and reporting criteria; a webinar on March 22 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET on “Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Grants and Technical Assistance for Environmental Product Declarations,” which will address new grant and technical assistance programs to help businesses calculate and report the greenhouse gas emissions data for construction materials and products through “Environmental Product Declarations” (i.e., transparent, verified reports of the environmental impacts of product manufacturing); and a webinar on April 19 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET on “Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Carbon Labeling,” which will address how the EPA could develop a carbon labeling program for construction materials and products with substantially lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions.