Global Warming Potential For Public Project Materials

The office of the state architect and the department of transportation are each required to establish policies regarding the global warming potential for specific categories of eligible materials used to construct certain public projects.

The office of the state architect is required to establish a maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible material used in certain public projects under its purview. The act specifies which building materials are eligible materials. The office of the state architect is required to base the maximum acceptable global warming potential on the industry average of global warming potential emissions for that material and to express it as a number that states the maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible material.

The department of transportation is required to develop policies to determine, track, and record greenhouse gas emissions for each category of eligible materials used in certain public projects under its purview in a manner consistent with criteria in an environmental product declaration.

The office of the state architect and the department of transportation are both required to strive to achieve continuous reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in construction materials over time for the projects under their purview.

For solicitations for certain public projects under the purview of the office of the state architect or the department of transportation issued after certain dates, the contractor that is awarded the contract is required to submit a current environmental product declaration for each eligible material proposed to be used in the public project.

A contractor that is awarded a contract for certain public projects is prohibited from installing any eligible material on the project until the contractor submits an environmental product declaration for that material. If an environmental product declaration is not available for an eligible material, the contractor shall notify the relevant agency of government and install an alternative eligible material with an environmental product declaration. However, if a product meeting the policy requirements for a category of eligible materials is not reasonably priced or is not available to the contractor on a reasonable basis, the relevant agency of government may waive the requirement that the contractor submit an environmental product declaration for that eligible material before installing it.

The office of the state architect and the department of transportation are required to annually report to the general assembly regarding the implementation of the act.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)