Amendment #67 to H4876

Embodied Carbon Study Commission

Ms. Ciccolo of Lexington moves to amend the amendment by adding the following section:

SECTION XX. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:

“Division”, the division of capital asset management and maintenance.

“Environmental product declaration” or “EPD”, an independently verified and registered declaration that provides a life cycle assessment of a product’s global warming potential and facilitates a comparison of environmental impacts between products fulfilling the same function; provided, further, that such declaration shall be a Type Ill or higher as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 1405:2006, or substantially similar life cycle assessment and comparative methodologies that have uniform standards in data collection and scientific integrity, and any pertinent product category rule developed in conformance with ISO 14025.

“Global warming potential”, a numeric value that measures the total contribution to global warming from the emission of greenhouse gasses or the elimination of greenhouse gas sinks.

“Life cycle assessment” or “LCA”, an assessment used to calculate the environmental primary and secondary impacts of a product, service or process over the lifetime of such product, service or process.

“Low-embodied carbon material”, material used in building and transportation construction that has been verified to embody carbon emissions that are sufficiently low, based on a threshold set by the division, as compared to the embodied carbon emissions of a conventional material fulfilling the same function.

(b) There shall be within the division of capital asset management and maintenance, but not subject to the control of the division, an embodied carbon intergovernmental coordinating council. The council shall consist of the following 17 members: the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance and the climate chief or their designees, who shall co-chair the council; the secretary of energy and environmental affairs or designee; the secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation or designee; the secretary of housing and livable communities or designee; the secretary of administration and finance or designee; the secretary of economic development or designee; the chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Port Authority or designee; the general manager and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or designee; the chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center or designee; the chair of the board of building regulations and standards or designee; 1 representative of the building trades, who shall be a general contractor and be appointed by the governor; 1 licensed architect with expertise in using low-embodied carbon materials of construction, who shall be appointed by the governor; 1 structural engineer, who shall be a licensed professional engineer with expertise in using low-embodied carbon materials of construction and be appointed by the governor; and the executive director of a regional planning agency or designee, who shall be appointed by the governor; and the chairs of the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities and energy or their designees, who shall serve as non-voting members with respect to any spending matter. The council shall not be a public body as defined in section 18 of chapter 30A of the General Laws; provided, however, that the council shall hold a public meeting not less frequently than quarterly while the council is developing the plan to be submitted to the clerks of the house of representatives and the senate in accordance with the first sentence of subsection (f).

(c) The council shall prepare an embodied carbon reduction plan, which shall include, but not be limited to, strategies to measure, monitor and reduce embodied carbon in the commonwealth. The plan, with respect to major building and transportation projects of executive offices, departments, divisions, centers, agencies and authorities of state and municipal governments throughout the commonwealth, shall include, but not be limited to, steps to encourage and, where appropriate, require: (1) environmental product declarations for construction materials commonly used in such projects; and (2) the use of low-embodied carbon materials, with particular attention to cement and concrete mixtures, steel, glass, asphalt and asphalt mixtures and wood, in such projects.

The plan shall: (1) review progress in research, development and commercialization of low-embodied carbon technologies and materials in the government, private and nonprofit sectors within and without the commonwealth; (2) establish a process to set, on or before January 1, 2026, maximum global warming potential values for products likely to be used in such building and transportation projects, including but not limited to, cement and concrete mixtures, steel, glass, asphalt and asphalt mixtures and wood; (3) develop procedures for requiring the use of: (i) EPDs in state government contracting and procurement and (ii) low-embodied carbon materials, where available and at reasonable cost, including conditions under which waivers may be obtained; and (4) examine current laws, regulations, policies and guidelines that affect the use of EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials in the private and nonprofit sectors of the commonwealth, and recommend future laws, regulations, policies and guidelines to increase the use of EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials. The council shall consider the best approaches to integrate the reduction of embodied carbon into the state building code, including the stretch and specialized stretch energy code pursuant to section 96 of chapter 143 of the General Laws and state amendments to the International Building Code sections. This council shall consider best practices to incentivize and enhance the re-use of building materials and decrease building demolition.

(d) The council shall meet regularly and seek data, input, and advice related to EPDs and low embodied carbon materials from stakeholders, which stakeholders shall include, but not be limited to, companies, contractors, and subcontractors involved in construction, architecture, engineering, design, and procurement, and organizations and associations of such companies, contractors, and subcontractors; academic and nonprofit institutions with relevant missions and activities; labor organizations involved in construction and transportation; organizations focused on environmental, energy and climate policy and perspectives; and groups representing consumers, including but not limited to low-income consumers. In preparing the plan pursuant to this section, the council shall hold at least 3 public hearings in geographically diverse areas of the commonwealth.

(e) The division of capital asset management and maintenance and the executive office of energy

and environmental affairs shall provide administrative support to the council.

(f) No later than 1 year after the effective date of this section, the council shall submit a plan to the clerks of the house of representatives and the senate detailing the best policy mechanisms to

measure, monitor, and reduce embodied carbon across all building types in the commonwealth. This plan shall consider interactions between embodied carbon and operational carbon to ensure policy recommendations to reduce embodied carbon also contribute to the reduction of operational carbon. The division of capital asset management and maintenance and the department of energy resources shall provide an updated plan and a progress report at least once every 2 years to the senate and house committees on ways and means, the joint committee on state administration and regulatory oversight and the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities and energy, which documents shall be publicly available on the website of each cabinet official, executive office, department, division, center, agency, and authority represented on the council.

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #67 to H4876

Embodied Carbon Study Commission