Our webinars will spotlight Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs) software that is prevalent in North America in order to give webinar participants an opportunity to see the software in action and to ask questions directly to the EPD software providers. In addition, clients who use the software will join to provide their perspectives on how using this software helps them meet their embodied carbon goals and requirements.

We look forward to seeing you there!

• RESCHEDULED October 29, 2024 from 12-1pm (For existing registrants the Webex link to join the webinar remains the same, but you will need to adjust your calendar invites.). This webinar in the series will discuss glass and glass environmental product declarations including the glass EPD creation process and developments in sustainable glass manufacturing. It will feature presentations from Michael Hammond of Vitro Architectural Glass and Tom Culp from the National Glass Association. If you would like to register for this webinar, please sign up for this email listserv and you will be emailed a link to register.

All embodied carbon webinar recordings from October 2023 to June 2024 can be found here.

Embodied carbon represents the emissions that result from the mining, harvesting, processing, manufacturing, transportation, installation, and use of products and materials, as well as end-of-life emissions associated with the disposal of those materials. 

In line with the ethos of Leading by Example, New York State is one of the early adopters across the country of regulations requiring State agencies to account for embodied carbon in their procurement activities. New York is also part of an initial group of states that have joined the Federal-State Buy Clean Partnership to collaborate on that effort nationwide.  

New York State’s effort will make a significant contribution to the reduction of the State’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and their environmental effects by making transparent how much embodied carbon is associated with capital projects. This data will help inform future decisions for reducing embodied carbon.

OGS and NYSERDA lead this work at the State, having developed two sets of guidance on reducing embodied carbon in construction in 2023. 

In June 2023, Governor Hochul issued Executive Order 22: Embodied Carbon Guidance to drive the demand for EPDs in the market, bolster the market for reduced embodied carbon materials, and benchmark New York State’s performance on the environmental impact of our construction materials with a view to setting limits in the future. 

Following Governor Hochul’s signing of State Finance Law §136-d, OGS, with the support of NYSERDA, convened a stakeholder and expert group to gain valuable insight and assistance in the production of guidelines for the use and innovation of low embodied carbon concrete in New York State construction projects. The group included State agency and authority officials, including the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It also included licensed professional engineers, licensed registered architects, representatives of the construction industry, representatives of an accredited school of civil engineering, and knowledgeable sources from think tanks, nonprofit environmental organizations, and academia. In September 2023, this group released New York State’s Buy Clean Concrete Guidelines, the first low carbon concrete requirement for multiple state entities in the nation. 

The Buy Clean Concrete Guidelines enacts several recommendations from New York’s Climate Action Council Scoping Plan, including those in the buildings chapter for making embodied carbon transparent and adopting lower carbon specifications for high-intensity materials for State projects. It also implements Industry recommendations for identifying carbon-intense materials and develops standards for reducing the environmental impact of building materials.