Dive Brief:
- The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded 38 projects nearly $160 million in grants to help construction material makers reduce production-related pollution, according to a July 16 press release.
- The federal grants, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, range between $250,000 and $10 million over the next five years. The grants will support projects developing construction materials that last longer and have a low environmental impact, according to the grant summary.
- The funds will also support projects that manufacture, reproduce and refurbish construction materials, as well as the states, tribes and nonprofits backing those projects.
38 clean construction material projects
Dive Insight:
The EPA initially offered $100 million when they opened applications in September 2023.
However, the agency received more “qualified applications than expected and has adequate funding under this grant program to support the additional projects,” EPA spokesman Remmington Belford said in an email to Manufacturing Dive.
The grants are part of the EPA’s wider initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the construction materials manufacturing sector. They’ll also help manufacturers better disclose emissions data and procure materials that have less carbon.
The money also supports the Biden administration’s Federal Buy Clean Initiative, an executive order to prioritize and boost the use of low-carbon, U.S.-made construction materials in federally funded projects and procurement, according to the release.
The IRA earmarked over $2 billion to both the General Services Administration and the Federal Highway Administration as incentives to use sustainable materials in their projects due to the executive order, the EPA stated.
Building and infrastructure materials, including cement, iron, steel and aluminum, are responsible for 15% of the world’s carbon emissions, according to climate think tank Architecture 2030. Construction materials also have a high level of embodied greenhouse gas emissions, meaning the carbon impact is greater, according to the EPA. This is due to processes used to extract raw materials such as limestone and silica, which are then converted into building 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,” EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said in a statement.
Some manufacturers have taken action to produce clean building materials. JSW Steel USA is spending $255 million to transform its Ohio and Texas mills’ manufacturing processes to produce “clean steel.”
