This resource provides an overview of the five basic components of Buy Clean and highlights key choices at each step.
Buy Clean is a policy approach that aims to reduce embodied carbon in the built environment by setting government procurement or purchasing requirements in favor of lower-carbon construction materials. Buy Clean legislation can shift government procurement towards lower-carbon materials, which could incentivize a similar shift in the broader construction materials market.
Key Components of Buy Clean
An embodied carbon procurement policy, also commonly referred to as a ‘Buy Clean’ policy after California’s bill passed in 2017, is composed of three to five essential components that answer the following questions:
- Scope: Which materials and projects are impacted by the policy? Under which government agency?
- Data: What type of environmental and project data must be submitted to comply with the policy?
- Standards [optional]: Do materials or projects need to be below a global warming potential (GWP)?
- Incentives [optional]: Is there financial and educational support available for manufacturers and/or companies that comply with the policy?
- Compliance: What is the timeline for submittal and for implementation of each component of the policy?
To learn more about each of the steps, see Figure 1 and follow the five-step guide provided in this primer.
Buy Clean legislation varies widely depending on its geographic and political context. Geographically, the carbon footprint of materials and availability of embodied carbon disclosure data varies widely due primarily to the carbon intensity of the energy available in the region (for local products); and the quantity of environmental product declarations (EPDs) available in the region to set global warming potential (GWP) standards. GWP targets are measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO2eq) per functional unit of product. See Embodied Carbon 101 for additional guidance.
City, state, and federal agencies can all implement Buy Clean type procurement policies, but they all have different project types, purchasing power, incentive levers, and environmental data availability that will influence the scope of policy. A federal Buy Clean program may have more funding available to incentivize research, whereas a state Buy Clean program may be able to set regionally appropriate GWP targets earlier.
For additional reference, see the primer What is Buy Clean Policy? and/or the full policy evaluation in the 2019 Buy Clean Washington Study.
Figure 1. Overview of five key components of Buy Clean.