Clean construction programs, explained.
What these programs are, the forms they take, how a project proves it meets one, and the terms you will hear along the way.
Clean construction programs take many forms.
Often called Buy Clean or green public procurement, these programs are policies that mandate or incentivize the use of lower-carbon construction materials. The goal is to accelerate adoption of cleaner materials and reduce embodied carbon across the built environment.
Public procurement
Government agencyAn agency requires lower-carbon materials on the buildings, roads, bridges and transit it funds. Buy Clean and DOT materials programs work this way.
Public incentive
JurisdictionA jurisdiction rewards projects that meet a carbon target instead of requiring it. The reward can be a tax exemption, a density bonus, expedited permitting or a rebate.
Company program
Company or owner-developerA company sets limits on its own projects to meet a climate pledge, prepare for Scope 3 accounting or get ahead of policy.
Every program in our catalog is built from the same parts.
A program answers three questions: which projects and materials it covers, what carbon performance it requires, and how a project proves it. The proof is usually an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), the manufacturer's published carbon data for a product, though some programs accept other evidence. How a project proves it is the compliance pathway. Four cover nearly every program in use.
Product Specification
EPD-verified, material-level GWP limits for covered products.
Carbon Budgets
Project-level carbon caps with flexibility in how teams comply.
Whole Building LCA
Percent reduction against a modeled baseline across all materials and systems.
Building and Material Reuse
Embodied carbon reduction through retained structure and recycled or salvaged materials.
The terms you will meet.
Short definitions, in the order they tend to come up. Programs use these words with specific meanings, and the specifics matter at review.
- Embodied carbonThe thing being measured
- The greenhouse gas emissions from making, moving and installing a building material, before the building is ever used.
- Global warming potentialGWP
- The number that expresses embodied carbon, in kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per unit of material. A concrete mix might carry 287 kgCO₂e per cubic meter.
- Environmental Product DeclarationEPD
- A manufacturer's published, third-party verified report of a product's environmental impacts, including its GWP. The usual proof in a program.
- Health Product DeclarationHPD
- A standardized report of what a product is made of and the health hazards associated with its contents. Some programs ask for it alongside the EPD.
- Buy CleanPolicy family
- The common name for public procurement policies that set carbon limits on construction materials bought with public money.
- Covered materialScope
- A material category a program applies to. Structural concrete, steel, flat glass and mineral wool insulation are common first categories.
- BaselineReference value
- The GWP a program treats as typical for a material in its market. Limits and reductions are set against it.
- ThresholdThe limit
- The maximum GWP a covered product may carry to comply. Programs often set a standard threshold and a tighter stretch threshold.
- Compliance pathwayHow a project proves it
- The method a program accepts as proof: product specification, carbon budget, whole-building LCA or reuse.
- Whole-building life cycle assessmentwbLCA
- A model of a whole building's embodied carbon across all materials and systems, compared against a baseline design.
- Carbon budgetProject cap
- A total embodied carbon allowance for a project. Teams decide where to make reductions as long as the total stays under the cap.
- SubmittalThe review step
- The package a project team sends in at a milestone: quantities, EPDs and supporting documents for covered materials.
- WaiverDocumented exception
- Permission to use a non-compliant product when a compliant one is unavailable or infeasible, granted and recorded by the program.
See one running.
The programs running on BuiltCold are listed on the homepage.