Readout of White House Convenings to Boost Clean Manufacturing

This week, the White House convened leaders from the industrial sector-including the U.S. cement, steel, and aluminum industries-alongside union and climate representatives, to advance the President's goal to make U.S. manufacturing the cleanest and most competitive in the world. President Biden's Investing in America agenda, including the largest climate investment in history, has sparked a clean manufacturing boom as U.S. workers and businesses transform the way we make the bedrock materials of our economy. This industrial transformation is creating good-paying union jobs, revitalizing local economies, supporting clean air, and delivering on the President's ambitious climate goals.

Today, the White House met with leaders from the largest U.S. cement and concrete manufacturers, federal and local governments, start-up companies, developers, engineers, designers, contractors, and others from the industrial ecosystem for a first-of-its-kind Concrete Innovation Summit to highlight progress to reduce emissions, accelerate commercialization of new clean technologies, and build the momentum of increasing customer demand for higher performance and lower emission products.

As part of today's convening, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions to accelerate innovation for U.S. concrete manufacturing and reduce emissions in the sector, including a new interagency working group to dramatically accelerate the time it takes to bring new innovative materials to market. The working group, which is being led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Department of Transportation (DOT), and Department of Energy (DOE), is being established through two seed investments:

• The DOT Federal Highway Administration announced a $9 million cooperative agreement with the University of California, Davis to accelerate the timeframe for widespread adoption of new low-carbon material innovations, including cement and concrete.
• DOE announced up to $9 million for a new center to enable the safe and rapid development and adoption of low-carbon cement and concrete technology solutions.

The private sector also announced new initiatives that will accelerate industrial innovation. These investments include:

• RMI and the Center for Green Market Activation secured support from private sector pioneers, including Meta, Trammel Crow, Brimstone, and Sublime, for Coordinated Corporate Action on Low-Emissions Concrete, sending a strong signal that the U.S. market is ready for low-emissions building materials. The first-of-its-kind effort links companies across the supply chain to take direct action on embodied carbon from concrete and cement through innovative, collaborative mechanisms like demand aggregation and book and claim systems.
• TheNewClimate, Inc. announced TheNewConcrete Fund, a nonprofit concrete decarbonization fund primarily focused on leveraging institutional and philanthropic capital to support the rapid scale-up of late-stage low-carbon concrete technologies with an annual goal of 5 million tons of ultralow-carbon concrete produced at cost parity. The fund is currently financing its first low-carbon concrete facility.

On Monday, the White House convened executives from the steel, aluminum, and automotive industries, along with labor and climate leaders, to discuss ways to ensure that the growing supply of clean U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturing meets growing U.S. automotive demand for these low-emissions materials. In March, the Department of Energy unleashed the largest U.S. clean manufacturing investment in history, funded by President Biden's climate law, to dramatically reduce emissions and boost competitiveness in U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturing. As U.S. workers and businesses use these investments to expand production of clean steel and aluminum, automotive companies are committing to expanded procurement of these low-emissions materials to produce clean vehicles. Monday's convening focused on specific market and policy mechanisms that could help to bridge supply and demand to ensure America's steel, aluminum, and automotive industries are clean and competitive, in support of good jobs, revitalization of industrial communities, and a livable climate.

On Tuesday, the White House convened leaders from the U.S. aluminum industry, financial firms, federal agencies, unions, and climate organizations to discuss mechanisms for ensuring an affordable supply of clean electricity for the U.S. primary aluminum sector. DOE's recent investments are enabling the first primary aluminum smelter to be built in the United States in 45 years, while supporting the adoption of emissions-cutting technologies across the U.S. aluminum industry. To ensure U.S. primary aluminum manufacturing is both competitive and clean, smelters need access to affordable clean electricity. Tuesday's convening generated new market and policy solutions to help deliver on this critical goal and support a rebound in U.S. aluminum manufacturing that benefits manufacturing workers and communities, U.S. industrial competitiveness, and our climate goals alike.

###