Now Available! Free EPA Advisory Services to Quantify Embodied Carbon of Construction Materials

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the initial phase of advisory services available to support manufacturers and other organizations that are developing and using environmental product declarations (EPD) to quantify embodied carbon of construction materials. EPA’s free advisory services include assistance with improvements in EPD data quality, calculation and incorporation of data into EPDs related to upstream extraction and processing of raw materials, implementation of government “buy clean” policies, and other related activities.

This offering is to further meet the needs not covered by the Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products grants (announced July 2024) to provide technical assistance and tools to help manufacturers disclose and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of construction materials and products.

EPA's advisory services team will provide assistance in:

• EPD development and use: step-by-step advice on the EPD development process, guidance on how to collect primary data and use EPD generator tools, information on how EPDs relate to global warming potential and explanations of technical considerations for integrating EPDs into procurement.
• Life cycle data development and use (for Product Category Rules (PCRs) and EPDs): guidance on data collection, how to integrate EPA’s data quality assessment method into the life cycle data development process, and how to increase supply chain specificity in life cycle inventory data.
• PCR assistance: reviews of new or updated PCRs for alignment with EPA’s PCR Criteria and guidance on EPA’s approach to secondary data sources to improve supply chain specificity, the role of life cycle assessments in supporting PCR development, and how to form or participate in a PCR committee for construction materials.

EPA intends to offer advisory services to:

• Businesses that manufacture construction materials and products for the U.S. market and wish to develop EPDs to disclose embodied carbon of their products.
• Federal agencies, states, Tribes, nonprofit organizations and others that support manufacturers of construction materials in disclosing embodied carbon.
• Public agencies that procure low embodied carbon construction materials.
• Program operators (and PCR) committees) who are developing or revising PCRs for construction materials.

The agency has also published EPD Basics: A Manufacturer’s Guide to How and Why to Develop an Environmental Product Declaration, an introductory guide explaining what EPDs are, how to develop them and how to use them to determine the embodied carbon associated with construction materials.

In the next phase of this technical assistance over the coming year and beyond, EPA and grantees will continue to offer a variety of new tools and resources to support stakeholders in developing and using environmental product declarations to quantify embodied carbon emissions linked to construction materials.

To learn more about these free advisory services and additional tools and resources, please visit EPA’s website. Advisory services will be provided at the discretion of EPA and based on resource availability.

Background

To further strengthen federal, state and local government efforts to reduce the embodied carbon of construction materials and products through Buy Clean programs, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided EPA with $350 million dollars to support enhanced standardization, measurement, reporting and verification of embodied carbon of construction materials/products, and to develop and carry out a program to identify and label construction materials/products that have substantially lower levels of embodied greenhouse gas emissions. 

Learn more about EPA’s efforts to reduce embodied carbon in construction products and materials.