Grant Program: Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products

In support of Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112, the goal of this grant program is to support businesses that manufacture construction materials and products to develop and verify Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), and to states, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses. This program seeks to improve transparency and disclosure of embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data associated with construction materials and products to facilitate the procurement of lower embodied carbon construction materials and products throughout the United States. Disclosure of embodied GHG emissions through the development of EPDs based on robust and comprehensive data will enable fair comparison of construction materials and products and facilitate procurement of these products with lower embodied carbon emissions.

Under this program, EPA plans to award up to 40 grants, cooperative agreements, and/or pass-through cooperative agreements in fiscal year 2024. A pass-through entity is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR 200) as a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a federal program. EPA envisions funded projects to fall under five broad categories:

• Robust Data for EPDs: Projects that contribute new and/or improve critical data, analysis, or feedback for producing robust EPDs.
• Robust Product Category Rule (PCR) Standard Development, PCRs, and Associated Conformity Assessment Systems: Projects that encourage the development of robust, standardized PCRs, including identifying what data needs to be collected for EPDs, how that data should be collected, how it should be reported in EPDs, and what transparency and verification needs to be in place to ensure credible EPDs.
• Robust Tools & Resources to Support & Incentivize Development and Verification of EPDs: Projects that contribute to the development of tools and resources to make it easier, faster, and more cost effective to produce and disclose robust EPDs.
• EPD Development and Verification: Projects that offer construction material and product manufacturers assistance in producing robust EPDs, or in which a construction material or product manufacturer is producing robust EPDs.
• Robust EPD Data Platforms and Integration: Projects that support EPD reporting, availability, and verification; support the standardization of disparate EPD systems; and support future EPD integration into construction design and procurement systems.

The following information provides some of the details from the Assistance Listing:

Funding Amount: EPA anticipates awarding up to $100 million in grants and cooperative agreements in fiscal year 2024 with additional funds made available over the course of the program, subject to the availability of funds, the quantity and quality of applications received, agency priorities, and other applicable considerations. Awards will be issued and managed by the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program within EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

Funding Cycle: Five years

Match Requirement: No Match Requirement

Eligibility: Businesses that manufacture, remanufacture, and/or refurbish construction materials and products, and U.S. states and territories, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses.

Ineligible Applicants: Ineligible applicants include entities who are not incorporated in the United States, for profit firms who do not manufacture construction materials and products (e.g., consulting firms and individual consultants, management firms, architectural and engineering firms, information technology vendors, proprietary colleges, universities and trade schools), and Local governments as defined in 2 CFR 200.1.