EPA Grant Supports Further Development of Steel Industry EPDs

July 17, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO - The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), has been selected to receive a $6.4 million grant to help automate the development of steel product environmental product declarations (EPDs). The grant is part of a nearly $160 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program to reduce climate pollution from the manufacturing of construction materials and products.

"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," said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe.

"What can we do in these five years of EPA funding to propel us 50 years in the future? We are trying to transform an industry, not make temporary or incremental change," said Kara Peterman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst and lead researcher on the project.

Specifically, the AISC/AISI/University of Massachusetts Amherst project will:

• reduce the environmental impacts of domestic construction activity, steel production, and product manufacturing by increasing the quality, transparency, and geographic coverage of life cycle inventories and resultant EPDs representing steel products
• develop life cycle inventory and EPD generator tools that can automate production of steel product EPDs, create an EPD repository, and update the steel PCR
• identify deconstruction processes for existing structures, required tests for recovered materials, and required modifications and fabrication data to increase the use of salvaged steel products

"American structural steel is already the most transparent, sustainable material on the market today--and thanks to a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, specifiers and the public will have even more accurate data available to help them choose structural materials that protect the planet both today and tomorrow," said Brian Raff, AISC's vice president of sustainability and government affairs.

AISC already offers third-party vetted industry average EPDs for fabricated hot-rolled structural sections, fabricated steel plate, and fabricated hollow structural sections (HSS). Most domestic structural steel mills also offer mill-specific EPDs.

"It is impossible to make an informed decision without accurate environmental product declarations (EPDs) that show a material's full environmental implications, from production/harvest to what happens to the building material after demolition," Raff continued. "American structural steel already leads the field with transparent EPDs that document its impact all the way from the scrapyard to an electric arc furnace to a jobsite and eventually recycled into a new building or bridge.

This project will help a broader range of manufacturers and fabricators (particularly small businesses) generate EPDs that accurately showcase steel's sustainability," Raff said. "Environmentally conscious stakeholders will be able to quickly produce high-quality EPDs to assist them in choosing a green structural material--and everyone wins when informed decisions lead to better environmental outcomes."

That's where AISC and AISI's industry relationships come into play. "The broad base of support we have cultivated from the wider steel and sustainable construction industry will be the key to our success," said Peterman. "Collecting and curating representative data on the entire steelmaking and steel fabrication process will be a monumental task, but one we have unparalleled access to accomplish. The UMass Amherst team is excited to be working so closely with AISC and AISI to create this picture of the steel industry."

The University of Massachusetts Amherst will also provide educational resources to build a skilled workforce and promote sustainable practices for the next generation. "We are also training the industry, from students to steelmakers to structural engineers, to leverage these EPDs and the information within to create steel structures with a lower carbon footprint," Peterman said.

Further information about EPA's Grant Program for Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gases in Construction Materials and Products is available here.

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