by Jordan Palmeri, Senior Manager Low Carbon Products
I started writing two versions of this essay—one for either outcome of the Presidential election. I quickly realized it was the wrong approach because regardless of the election results, CLF is as committed as ever to achieving our mission to eliminate embodied carbon in buildings, materials, and infrastructure to create a just and thriving future. Our strategy may change, but our resolve will not.
We’ve seen tremendous Federal work over the last four years that will help guide us moving forward. The Inflation Reduction Act made investments in every state in the nation, along with most major building materials industries. Projects are already underway based on Federal work that will provide foundational support to the equally important work of States, Local Governments, and the private sector in the coming years.
In the spirit of looking forward, I want to highlight two recently published reports featured in this newsletter. The first report, titled Buy Clean Indicators: Approaches for Measuring Policy Success features a Buy Clean theory of change along with indicators and metrics to measure the success of lower-carbon material purchasing programs moving forward.
The second report, titled Scaling Buy Clean Policy: Strategies to Achieve Larger Embodied Carbon Reductions presents 3 strategies and 25 actions to help advance and scale the impact of Buy Clean policies. This report also highlights complementary policies that can build upon Buy Clean to create a multiplier effect to more rapidly decarbonize the industrial sector.
This November marks my 2nd anniversary at CLF and I can say for certain that the progress and capacity building around embodied carbon has me hopeful for a strong future. Onward!
Jordan Palmeri is a Senior Researcher on the policy team at the Carbon Leadership Forum and a Senior Researcher at the Life Cycle Lab. He’s an interdisciplinary scientist and policy advisor focused on reducing the lifecycle impacts of building materials.