The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will provide 38 grant recipients with nearly $160 million to support efforts to report and reduce climate pollution from the manufacturing of construction materials and products.
The grants will be awarded to businesses, universities, and nonprofit organizations to help disclose the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing concrete, asphalt, glass, steel, wood, and other materials. The grants will support the Federal Buy Clean Initiative, which leverages the U.S. government’s position as the largest purchaser on Earth to catalyze demand for clean construction materials used in federal buildings, highways, and infrastructure projects.
Ranging from $250,000 to $10 million, the grants will help businesses develop environmental product declarations (EPDs) that show environmental impacts across the life of a product and can catalyze more sustainable purchasing decisions by allowing buyers to compare products. Investments in data and tools will make high-quality EPDs available for 14 material categories, which include both new and salvaged or reused materials.
Grant recipients include:
• A company in Georgia that will report the emissions savings gained by switching from higher-carbon components in cement and concrete to recycled and innovative materials.
• A company in Maine that manufactures insulation made from wood fiber will track the quantity of energy and raw materials used in each of their processes.
• A nonprofit organization in Illinois that sells reused architectural materials will measure how much the salvaged materials reduce carbon emissions.
• A large insulation manufacturer based in Indiana will use grant funding to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions for their full product portfolio.
• A major university will use grant funds to research and document carbon emissions savings from reusing structural steel.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
International Living Building Institute established to advance 'living buildings'
The idea of a Living Building, a high-performance building that produces its own power and cleans and reuses all of its water, is gaining momentum around the world. In an effort to oversee the global development of Living Buildings, the International Living Building Institute (ILBI) has been established.
| Aug 11, 2010
10% of world's skyscraper construction on hold
Emporis, the largest provider of global building data worldwide, reported that 8.7% of all skyscrapers listed as "under construction" in its database had been put on hold. Most of these projects have been halted in the second half of 2008. According to Emporis statistics, the United States had been hit the worst: at the beginning of 2008, "Met 3" in Miami was the only U.S. skyscraper listed as being "on hold". In the second half of the year, 19 projects followed suit.
| Aug 11, 2010
Structure Tone, Turner among the nation's busiest reconstruction contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 75 Reconstruction Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
IFMA workplace study: Average space per employee up 40 sf since 2007, likely due to corporate layoffs
The International Facility Management Association has released “Operations and Maintenance Benchmarks, Research Report #32,” a study outlining the facility trends affecting workplaces throughout North America. Among the new report’s findings are that the average space per person has risen nearly 40 square feet since 2007, likely due to recent corporate layoffs.
| Aug 11, 2010
ASHRAE research targets tying together BIM and energy efficiency
Ensuring that a common language of “energy efficiency” is spoken by both building information modeling software used by architects and energy analysis and simulation software used by engineers is the goal of new research funded by ASHRAE.
| Aug 11, 2010
M&A deal volume down 67% in engineering/construction sector: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Global Economic Uncertainty Results in Sluggish Deal Activity in U.S.; China Shows Significant Opportunity for Growth
| Aug 11, 2010
New Watt Stopper emergency relay panel
Watt Stopper/Legrand has developed a new relay panel to provide fail-safe emergency lighting in a variety of commercial settings. The Emergency Relay Panel option is UL924 listed for use on emergency circuits. It is available as an option with Watt Stopper’s 24 or 48 relay size Lighting Integrator (LI) low voltage lighting control panels.