California has been promoting clean energy and energy efficiency to support growth and prosperity since 2006. In 2013, California's 800 largest industrial facilities began tracking, reporting, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Despite their efforts, California still uses a substantial portion of its annual state revenues to purchase goods and services that produce high levels of climate pollution, leading to the passage of The Buy Clean California Act (Assembly Bill 262) in October 2017. This bill was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by considering the products that companies buy, including steel.

The legislation went through several iterations, and the law now requires facility-specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for suppliers of carbon-steel rebar, flat glass, mineral-wool board insulation, and structural steel. As 90% of the global warming potential (GWP) impacts for fabricated structural steel occur during mill production, acceptable EPDs are those that report mill facility-specific impacts, not fabricator-specific.

Other building materials such as concrete and mass timber are not included and thus benefit from uneven reporting requirements. However, legislative efforts are underway to add more materials, which would bring parity to the law and create a level playing field.

AISC worked diligently with California regulators at the Department of General Services (DGS) to help them implement the Buy Clean California Act, and we’re leveraging that experience to other Buy Clean efforts around the country.

Need Help?

Fabricators and service centers who do business on public California projects should assume they need to comply. See the resources below and/or contact Max Puchtel, Director of Government Relations and Sustainability, for help navigating this law.

Resources

1. A Quick Guide to Buy Clean California
2. Regulations of the Act as published by the California Department of General Services (DGS)
3. Buy Clean California and the Steel Supply Chain (revised), a May 3, 2022 recorded webinar by the Steel Tube Institute and AISC
4. Additional requirements set by individual California agencies: 
   1. Caltrans
   2. University of California
      
      

On July 6, 2021, Colorado's Governor signed into law HB21-1303: Global Warming Potential for Public Project Materials. The Office of the State Architect and the Department of Transportation are each required to set policies on public procurement by January 1, 2024 and January 1, 2025, respectively.

Resources

1. Regulations of the Act as published by the Colorado Office of the State Architect (OSA)
   1. Buy Clean CO Act Policy
   2. OSA Maximum GWP Thresholds

On Mar 23, 2022, Oregon’s Governor signed into law, HB 4139: AN ACT Relating to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in the state’s transportation system. The law covers activities of the state DOT, and the department is required to establish a program for greenhouse gas reduction no later than December 31, 2025.

On May 24, Minnesota's Governor signed a Buy Clean program, via an omnibus bill, into state law. Details begin on line 311.1 of HF 2310. The program requires GWP thresholds to be set for concrete used in buildings by Jan 15, 2026, and for rebar and structural steel by Jan 15, 2028. The scope of the policy is public projects under the authority of both the Department of Administration and the Department of Transportation. To aid implementation, the bill mandates the creation of an Environmental Standards Procurement Task Force by October 1, 2023, of which AISC is named as a required member.

On December 8, 2021, the Biden Administration released Executive Order 14057 and an accompanying Federal Sustainability Plan outlining the nation's strategy for carbon emissions reduction. Among those goals is the creation of a Federal Buy Clean Task Force, charged with recommending policies and procedures to expand consideration of embodied emissions and pollutants of construction materials in Federal procurement and federally funded projects.

On September 15, 2022, the White House released a set of actions and recommendations in a Buy Clean FACT SHEET. See AISC’s statement of support.

On December 22, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency released their Interim Determination, providing IRA implementation guidance to federal agencies that are tasked with spending IRA resources on substantially lower embodied carbon construction materials. The determination defines, “substantially lower” as meaning a global-warming potential that is in the best performing 20 percent (Top 20 percent or lowest 20 percent in embodied greenhouse-gas emissions), when compared to similar materials/products.

On January 25, 2023, the General Services Administration released their draft Inflation Reduction Act Low Embodied Carbon Material Standards, establishing thresholds for concrete, steel, asphalt, and glass; in accordance with the guidance in EPA’s Interim Determination.

On May 16, 2023, the General Services Administration announced a pilot of new requirements for the procurement of substantially lower embodied carbon construction materials in GSA projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. Thresholds for steel are contained in the GSA’s Interim IRA Low Embodied Carbon Material Requirements.