The U.S. EPA has announced that it is seeking applications for $100 million in grants through the new Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials program to report environmental impacts across the life of a product.
The grant funding will support efforts to report and reduce climate pollution linked to the manufacturing of construction materials and products, which account for 11% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. The program will help manufacturers disclose environmental impacts across the life of a product and inform institutional purchasers who are prioritizing lower embodied carbon construction materials.
The deadline to apply to this grant competition is January 8, 2024. EPA requests the submittal of an optional Notice of Intent to apply by October 27, 2023, by sending an email to [email protected].
Eligible entities include:
- Businesses that manufacture, remanufacture, and refurbish construction materials and products, and
- States, Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses.
Under this program, EPA plans to award in Fiscal Year 2024 up to 40 grants and/or cooperative agreements, some which would enable funding and technical assistance to flow to hundreds of small businesses via subaward programs established by selected eligible applicants.
Funding amounts for individual grant and cooperative agreements are anticipated to be in the range of $250,000 to $10 million. In addition, EPA will consider subranges of grants in the amounts of $250,000 to $749,999; $750,000 to $4.99 million dollars; and $5 million to $10 million dollars.
EPA has published the Notice of Funding Opportunity for this grant competition on grants.gov. Earlier this month, EPA published an assistance listing detailing key parameter of the program, which can be viewed at Sam.gov.
Informational Webinar
The grant program will host two webinars to provide information on this grant competition and the application process on November 2, 2023, from 2 – 3 pm ET and November 14, 2023, from 2 – 3 pm ET. The link to register for webinars can be found here.
Tools and resources for prospective grantees, including webinar recordings, links and helpful templates, can be found on EPA’s webpage.
“In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in construction materials and products, we must be able track and understand where they are,” said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff. “These new grants through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will help ensure manufacturers have access to the assistance they need to disclose and reduce emissions, thereby supporting thriving and healthy communities across America.”
This new grant program will help businesses develop robust Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) which disclose environmental impacts across the life of a product. Embodied greenhouse gas emissions—also called embodied carbon—refers to the amount of GHG emissions associated with the extraction, production, transport, and manufacturing stages of a product's life. EPDs facilitate the reliable tracking of emissions associated with construction materials and products to inform procurement decisions.
EPA will provide grants to businesses that manufacture, remanufacture, and refurbish construction materials and products for developing and verifying EPDs, and to states, Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses. The EPDs generated through this grant program will make it easier for state and local governments—and other institutional buyers—to ensure the construction projects they fund are using low carbon construction materials.
The Inflation Reduction Act also appropriated more than $2 billion to the General Services Administration to use low embodied carbon materials in the construction and renovation of federal buildings and $2 billion to the Federal Highway Administration to incentivize or reimburse the use of low embodied carbon construction materials in certain transportation projects.
