This is another installment of our blog series on the landmark 2024 Massachusetts Clean Energy Bill, signed into law on November 21, 2024. Previous posts addressed how the Clean Energy Bill aims to transform the deployment of electric vehicles (“EVs”) and EV charging infrastructure in Massachusetts (here, here and here) and introduced changes to permitting and siting. This post provides an overview of the Commonwealth’s plans to address embodied carbon.
Embodied carbon, also known as “embedded emissions” or “embodied emissions,” refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, extraction, transport, and manufacturing of a product, particularly building and infrastructure materials.
The Clean Energy Bill principally addresses embodied carbon issues by mandating the creation of an “embodied carbon intergovernmental coordinating council” (the “Council”). Council members will include, among others:
- Members of the Governor’s Cabinet, including the Climate Chief, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities, Secretary of Administration and Finance, and Secretary of Economic Development;
- The Commissioner of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance;
- The CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Technology Center (“MassCEC”);
- The CEO of the Massachusetts Port Authority (“Massport”);
- The General Manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (“MBTA”);
- Various House and Senate committee chairs (acting as nonvoting members with respect to any spending matters); and
- Five governor appointees, which shall include contractors, architects, and engineers with expertise in using low-embodied carbon materials for construction.
The Council is tasked with preparing an “embodied carbon reduction plan,” including strategies to measure, monitor and reduce embodied carbon, which must be submitted to the clerks of the Senate and the House not later than July 31, 2025. The plan must include the following information:
- Steps to encourage and recommend the use of low-embodied carbon materials commonly used in major building and transportation projects, with particular attention to cement and concrete mixtures, steel, glass, asphalt, and wood;
- Recommendations for establishing a process to set maximum global warming potential (“GWP”) values for products likely to be used in major building and transportation projects by January 1, 2026;
- Recommended procedures for the use of:
- Environmental Product Declarations (“EPDs”) in state government contracting and procurement; and
- low-embodied carbon materials in Massachusetts, where available and at reasonable cost, including conditions under which waivers may be obtained;
- Examination of current laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines affecting use of EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials in the private and nonprofit sectors, and recommended new laws, regulations, policies or guidelines to increase the use of EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials;
- Consideration of the best approaches to integrate the reduction of embodied carbon into the state building code, including the stretch and specialized stretch energy code, and best practices to incentivize and enhance the reuse of building materials and decrease building demolition; and
- Consideration of the interactions between embodied carbon and operational carbon (greenhouse gas emissions produced by day-to-day operation of a building or infrastructure) to ensure that its policy recommendations contribute to the reduction of both embodied and operational carbon.
The Council is required to hold at least three public hearings in geographically diverse areas of Massachusetts prior to finalizing the plan.
Laws addressing embodied carbon in other states—such as the Buy Clean California Act, the Buy Clean Colorado Act, and the Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (“LECCLA”) legislation passed in New York and New Jersey—largely address embodied carbon by setting specific GWP limits for concrete and other building materials used in state-funded construction projects and introducing complementary tax incentives. The Commonwealth’s forthcoming embodied carbon reduction plan could take inspiration from these existing state-level embodied carbon policies, but the broader mandate of the Council could result in more comprehensive regulation.
The Council is also likely to examine local and municipal-level efforts to reduce emissions from embodied carbon. Boston’s 2024 Net Zero Carbon Zoning initiative, which included requirements for building projects of a certain size to report on embodied carbon and conduct an embodied CO2e emissions life cycle assessment analysis, was unexpectedly blocked by the Boston Zoning Commission in August 2024 following a vote of approval by the Boston Planning and Development Agency (“BPDA”).
We will be monitoring the work of the Council and the development of potentially significant policy in this space.
