EPA Announces $3.9M to Support Clean Manufacturing of Construction Materials Across Chicago Area

EPA Announces $3.9M to Support Clean Manufacturing of Construction Materials Across Chicago Area

Grants from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will also help businesses in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan produce low-carbon materials

July 16, 2024

CHICAGO (July 16, 2024) - Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the selection of Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse, a Chicago-area nonprofit organization, to receive $3,887,329 in funding to support efforts to report and reduce climate pollution from the manufacturing of construction materials. EPA estimates that the construction materials used inbuildings and other built infrastructure account for more than 15% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

"As America continues to build more and upgrade our nation's infrastructure under President Biden's leadership, cleaner construction materials like concrete and steel are increasingly essential for the nation's prosperity,"saidEPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. "These historic investments will expand market access for a new generation of more climate-friendly construction materials, and further grow American jobs that are paving the way to the clean energy economy."

"President Biden and Vice President Harris are leading the most ambitious climate and clean energy agenda in U.S. history and building a sustainable future using safer materials for the environment and for communities," said White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory. "By leveraging the U.S. Government's purchasing power, President Biden is ensuring that American manufacturing is positioned to compete and lead globally, while catalyzing markets and accelerating innovation across the country."

Billions of tons of concrete, asphalt, steel, glass and other construction materials and products are required to build, maintain and operate our country's buildings and infrastructure. The United States leads the world in the production of clean construction materials, and these transformative awards from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act-the largest climate investment in history--will reduce climate pollution by helping businesses measure the carbon emissions associated with extracting, transporting and manufacturing their products.

Nationally, 38 organizations were selected to receive a total of $160 million in Clean Construction Materials grants. Other organizations selected to fund projects in EPA Region 5:

· Knauf Insulation, Inc. - Indiana and Michigan· HOLCIM US, Inc. - Illinois and Michigan· Heidelberg Materials US, Inc. - Indiana· University of Massachusetts Amherst - Illinois· Oklahoma State University - Illinois

The grants will support the Biden-Harris Administration's Federal Buy Clean Initiative, which leverages the U.S. government's sway as the largest purchaser on Earth to catalyze demand for clean construction materials used in federal buildings, highways, and infrastructure projects. The grants will be awarded to businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations serving all 50 states and will help disclose the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing concrete, asphalt, glass, steel, wood and other materials.

The Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse (doing business as the Rebuilding Exchange) is a Chicago-area nonprofit organization with a mission to reuse building materials, reduce construction waste, and train, support, and connect people seeking careers in the building trades. Rebuilding Exchange diverts building materials from landfills through two reuse retail stores in Evanston and Chicago and offers deconstruction services to homeowners who want to save their building materials from landfills.

Rebuilding Exchange will use data collected at its two reuse stores and through its deconstruction services to demonstrate the reduced embodied greenhouse gas in salvaged construction materials. Through this project, they will develop 25 environmental product declarations (EPDs), train 150 participants through a workforce training program, and share data online.

The goal of the project is to enhance the quality of greenhouse gas data associated with salvaged materials, provide tools for other practitioners, create new/updated EPDs that demonstrate the significant embodied carbon reduction and other environmental impacts of salvaged materials, and spur market demand.

The Clean Construction Materials grants will help businesses develop robust, high-quality EPDs, which show environmental impacts across the life of a product and can catalyze more sustainable purchasing decisions by allowing buyers to compare. Investments in data and tools will make high-quality EPDs available for 14 material categories, which include both new and salvaged or reused materials. These efforts will help standardize and expand the market for construction products with lower greenhouse gas emissions. They will make it easier for federal, state and local governments and other institutional buyers to ensure the construction projects they fund use more climate-friendly products and materials.

EPA is also announcing expanded technical assistance opportunities to businesses, the federal government and other organizations across America. EPA will initially offer EPD development support and direct businesses to resources to help them measure and reduce the embodied carbon associated with their materials, such as those provided by the ENERGY STAR Industrial program. Federal agencies and their suppliers will be able to compare the climate impact of various materials to drive near-term greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Robust EPD data will be further strengthened by a new label program under development that will identify low carbon construction materials for the growing Buy Clean marketplace.

Together, the grants and technical assistance programs will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support American jobs. These programs are made possible by the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which creates significant investments aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissionsassociated with the extraction, transport and manufacturing of construction materials and products. The Inflation Reduction Act also provides more than $2 billion to theGeneral Services Administrationto use low embodied carbon materials in the construction and renovation of federal buildings and $2 billion to theFederal Highway Administrationto incentivize or reimburse the use of low embodied carbon construction materials in certain transportation projects.

Selections are contingent upon completion of legal and administrative requirements and grantees are tentatively expected to receive their funding in late summer.

Read summaries of proposed grantee projects.

Learn more about EPA's Grant Program for Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gases in Construction Materials and Products.

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