On March 30, 2022, the General Services Administration (“GSA”) issued two new standards intended to address greenhouse gas emissions in the design and construction of federal projects. These are the first of many anticipated regulations that will be issued to reduce greenhouse gasses in the design and construction industries.

The standards apply to all GSA projects, capital and small, and regardless of funding source.  For instance, they apply to paving upgrades, new construction, modernizations, and privately-financed projects.  Most significantly and immediately, they apply to the $3.4 billion the GSA is overseeing for port improvements under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Clean Concrete

The extraction and manufacture of concrete is estimated to produce 8% of global emissions of greenhouse gasses.  GSA’s standard for clean concrete, entitled, “Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Standards for all GSA Projects”, is intended to reduce those emissions by 20% from recommended Code limits.

The GSA is now requiring prime contractors to provide Type III product specific “environmental product declarations” or EPDs for each concrete mix specified in a contract and used on a GSA project that has 10 or more cubic yards of concrete.  EPDs are reports, verified by a third party, which list the primary environmental impacts associated with a product from “cradle-to-gate”, which includes extraction, transportation and manufacture of the product.

Under the clean concrete standard, the prime contractor must provide “low embodied carbon concrete” that cannot exceed specified global warming potential (“GWP”) limits. GWPs are the number of kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per cubic meter of concrete.  The GSA has provided a table showing maximum GWPs for standard, early high strength and lightweight concrete mix designs for various compressive strengths.

The clean concrete standard allows for a waiver from the GWP standards if compliance is infeasible. For instance, small business that have not yet invested in EPDs or mixes that cannot meet the GWP limits because of specific client-driven performance criteria may be eligible for a waiver.

Eco-Friendly Asphalt

Asphalt covers more than 90% of roads in the United States and has been shown to increase surrounding air temperature by as much as 7°F and lead to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions. GSA’s standard for eco-friendly asphalt, entitled, “Environmentally Preferable Asphalt Standards for all GSA Projects”, is intended to address some of those environmental issues.

Much like the standard for clean concrete, the GSA is requiring prime contractors to provide EPDs for each asphalt mix specified on GSA projects that use at least 10 cubic yards of asphalt.  However, unlike the concrete standard, no GWPs are specified for asphalt.  Instead, the GSA is requiring that prime contractors use any two of 6 listed techniques to provide “environmentally preferable asphalt”. The 6 menu items are:

• • Greater than 20% recycled asphalt pavement content;
  • Warm mix technology;
  • Non-pavement recycled content (e.g., roof shingles, plastic) ;
  • Bio-based or other alternative binders;
  • Improved energy/carbon efficiency in manufacturing plants or equipment; and
  • “Other environmentally friendly features of techniques”.

Akin to the clean concrete standard, waivers for the eco-friendly asphalt standard are available for limited purposes.

The GSA standards are the first, but will certainly not be the last, attempts by the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the procurement process.  On both the front end (product use) and back end (product disposal), the construction industry is certain to face increasing regulatory burdens and correlating increasing compliance costs.

The attorneys is our Austin and Dallas are available to answer any questions you may have about the GSA standards or the procurement process. Please contact us at info@gstexlaw.com.

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