2 – Embodied Carbon Procurement Policies

Table 1. Five steps to designing a low-carbon procurement policy. Each step provides three-levels of action suited to organizations just getting started (‘Good’), organizations with more experience implementing sustainable procurement requirements (‘Better’), and sustainability leaders setting the standard for best practice (‘Best’). The ‘+’ indicates where requirements build on the previous column (e.g., ‘Good’ + ‘Better’ + ‘Best’).

	Good (getting started)	Better (next steps)	Best (sustainability leaders)
	Set which materials and projects are included in the scope of the policy
New Construction	Start with structural materials (concrete, steel, and wood at a minimum)	Perform a whole building life cycle assessment of the entire building scope and include the top 10+ materials by impact (embodied carbon hotspots) in the policy	+ Include building envelope materials (insulation, aluminum, glass, and cladding at a minimum), and finishes (ceiling tile, gypsum board, and flooring at a minimum)
Tenant Fit-out	Start with insulation, gypsum wallboard, ceiling tiles, and flooring (at a minimum)	+ Include additional interior elements where EPDs are already available (wall framing, data cabling) or use the CLF’s TI calculator to identify your top 10 hotspots	+ Include additional finishes (furniture and millwork) and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) elements (ducts, cabling, conduit, pipes, equipment, and insulation)
	Establish embodied carbon data requirements for tracking compliance
	Request EPDs for products identified in Step 1 in the project specifications. Note: An EPD is not needed for reused (salvaged) materials. This does not include new materials with recycled content, which should be required to have an EPD.	Require a product-specific Type III EPD for products identified in Step 1 and integrate requirements into project specifications and procurement policies. Identify key suppliers and send request letters to suppliers that do not have EPDs.	+ Provide funding and/or technical support for creating EPDs to suppliers, such as those that are small businesses, developing innovative low carbon materials, or meet supplier diversity requirements.
	Set emissions targets for each product and how they will change over time
	Adopt a 30% reduction target for cradle-to-gate global warming potential (GWP) from industry average for materials identified in Step 1.	Require the GWP of the installed product to be in the highest performing 20% of products, as defined by the ‘achievable’ baseline published in the CLF Materials Baselines or a high-performance target set by the company.	Set a company baseline and commit to reaching net-zero GWP by 2040 through adopting % reduction goals that increase over time, such as the targets published by Architecture 2030
	Establish incentives for manufacturers/contractors to achieve high performance
Performance	Include supplier emissions tracking and reduction efforts in quarterly or annual business reviews with suppliers.	Award a performance bonus at project completion to contractors that deliver project or materials below a predefined % emissions reduction target	Provide financial and/or technical support to suppliers to scale the development of low-carbon solutions.
Bids/RFPs	Score carbon impacts alongside price and other qualifications during bid selection.	Use embodied carbon data to adjust the price of each bid through shadow pricing or a performance discount rate put on the price of the lowest carbon bids (see Section 4.2 of Steps to Develop a Buy Clean Policy).	Require that bidders cannot be selected unless they meet a set of low carbon sourcing criteria
	Create a system for tracking and measuring success
	Create a system for tracking material quantities, embodied carbon data, and reductions on a project-by-project basis.	+ Publish progress towards targets externally through case studies and including embodied carbon targets in annual sustainability reporting.	+ Publish material quantity and embodied carbon data to an anonymous public database. For example, click “Anonymize and Publish” in the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool.

Setting baselines and reduction targets

While company-specific baselines are best for setting emissions baselines and reduction targets, material quantity and embodied carbon data from previous projects may not be readily available for use in calculating baselines.

The Carbon Leadership Forum’s Material Baselines can be used to help teams set baselines and targets for North American products. The CLF baselines are published annually and provide three baselines establishing achievable (low), typical (median), and baseline (high) values for each material based on North American product data. The 2021 baselines cover over 30 product types within concrete, steel, wood and composites, insulation, finishes, communications, and bulk materials.

The EC3 tool integrates the CLF baselines and provides similar values for products within a single search (learn more here). The “Plan and Compare Buildings” function can also be used to help project teams track progress towards targets.

A 30% or higher reduction can be achieved on most projects today with little or no increase in cost by focusing on just a few high-impact materials and using only readily available materials.

The LEED BD+C New Construction pilot credit “Procurement of Low Carbon Construction Materials” published in 2019 awards teams 1 point for low-range reductions (between 0-30%) and 2 points for mid-range reductions (above 30%) from baselines.

To reference examples of what public emissions reductions commitments companies are making related to embodied carbon, visit the Carbon Leadership Forum’s Owner Toolkit.