EPA in search of grant functions to help the event, standardization, transparency, and reporting standards for Environmental Product Declarations that can develop market entry to decrease carbon building supplies
WASHINGTON – At this time, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA) introduced the supply of $100 million in grants to help efforts to report and cut back local weather air pollution linked to the manufacturing of building supplies and merchandise, which account for 11% of annual international greenhouse gasoline emissions. The funding by EPA’s new Decreasing Embodied Greenhouse Fuel Emissions for Development Supplies program will assist producers disclose environmental impacts throughout the lifetime of a product and inform institutional purchasers who’re prioritizing decrease embodied carbon building supplies. Due to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key pillar of Bidenomics, the brand new program—created by the Inflation Discount Act—helps the resurgence of sustainable American manufacturing.
“As a way to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions in building supplies and merchandise, we have to be ready observe and perceive the place they’re,” stated Assistant Administrator for the Workplace of Chemical Security and Air pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff. “These new grants by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will assist guarantee producers have entry to the help they should disclose and cut back emissions, thereby supporting thriving and wholesome communities throughout America.”
“At this time’s funding announcement from EPA is just like the falling of small stones that begins an avalanche of business sector emissions reductions within the US,” stated U.S. Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (NY). “By shining a lightweight on main low and no carbon merchandise, offering direct incentives to deeply decarbonize industrial services, and making a marketplace for these merchandise, the IRA is driving down emissions in one of many hardest to abate sectors whereas supporting US jobs and business. It’s simply the most recent instance of how the Inflation Discount Act is decreasing carbon emissions and serving to us meet our local weather objectives whereas creating good paying jobs right here in America.”
“As we work to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, we must be utilizing supplies and merchandise produced in probably the most sustainable approach doable, which as a rule are American-made,” stated U.S. Senator Tom Carper (DE), Chairman of the Senate Atmosphere and Public Works Committee. “Due to our investments within the Inflation Discount Act, EPA helps our nation’s firms to higher perceive and talk the environmental impacts of their merchandise. This can create new markets for American producers making cleaner merchandise and assist cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions throughout our financial system.”
This new grant program—Decreasing Embodied Greenhouse Fuel Emissions for Development Supplies and Merchandise—will assist companies develop sturdy Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) which disclose environmental impacts throughout the lifetime of a product. Embodied greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions—additionally referred to as embodied carbon—refers back to the quantity of GHG emissions related to the extraction, manufacturing, transport, and manufacturing levels of a product’s life. EPDs facilitate the dependable monitoring of emissions related to building supplies and merchandise to tell procurement selections.
EPA will present grants to companies that manufacture, remanufacture, and refurbish building supplies and merchandise for growing and verifying EPDs, and to states, Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that can help such companies. The EPDs generated by this grant program will make it simpler for state and native governments—and different institutional consumers—to make sure the development initiatives they fund are utilizing low carbon building supplies.
EPA is working with different federal companies as a part of a broader initiative funded by the Inflation Discount Act to deal with the embodied carbon of building supplies with the aim of considerably decreasing the degrees of embodied carbon and different greenhouse gasoline emissions. The Inflation Discount Act additionally appropriated greater than $2 billion to the Common Providers Administration to make use of low embodied carbon supplies within the building and renovation of federal buildings and $2 billion to the Federal Freeway Administration to incentivize or reimburse using low embodied carbon building supplies in sure transportation initiatives.
Billions of tons of concrete, asphalt, metal, glass, and different building supplies and merchandise are required to construct, keep, and function our nation’s buildings and infrastructure. These new grants will help the historic investments made by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation and Inflation Discount Act to strengthen America’s infrastructure whereas advancing America’s industrial capability to produce the products and supplies of the longer term and rising good jobs for American staff.
Eligibility and Utility Data
The deadline to use to this grant competitors is January 8, 2024. EPA requests the submittal of an non-obligatory Discover of Intent to use by October 27, 2023, by sending an e-mail to embodiedcarbon@epa.gov.
Eligible entities embrace:
- Companies that manufacture, remanufacture, and refurbish building supplies and merchandise, and
- States, Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that can help such companies.
Underneath this program, EPA plans to award in Fiscal 12 months 2024 as much as 40 grants and/or cooperative agreements, some which might allow funding and technical help to circulate to tons of of small companies through subaward applications established by chosen eligible candidates.
Funding quantities for particular person grant and cooperative agreements are anticipated to be within the vary of $250,000 to $10 million. As well as, EPA will contemplate subranges of grants within the quantities of $250,000 to $749,999; $750,000 to $4.99 million {dollars}; and $5 million to $10 million {dollars}.
EPA has revealed the Discover of Funding Alternative for this grant competitors on grants.gov. Earlier this month, EPA revealed an help itemizing detailing key parameter of this system, which could be seen at Sam.gov.
Informational Webinar
The grant program will host two webinars to offer info on this grant competitors and the applying course of on November 2, 2023, from 2 – 3 pm ET and November 14, 2023, from 2 – 3 pm ET. Hyperlink to register for webinars.
Instruments and sources for potential grantees, together with webinar recordings, hyperlinks and useful templates, could be discovered on EPA’s webpage.