The United States Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, announced on July 16 that it would be awarding grants totalling less than $160 million to organizations so that they can measure the carbon emissions of businesses that manufacture or use construction materials. This money is part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which is intended to reduce climate change and invest in clean energy.
The funding will be used to create environmental product declarations, or EPDs. These will allow businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations all over the country to track how the emissions that businesses release when they use concrete, asphalt, glass, steel and wood. The EPA’s statement says that these trackers will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They won’t do so directly, though, they’ll just report on how much pollution is being created. Or they’ll report on how emissions have been lowered by switching to more sustainable methods.
The organizations will tentatively receive the money in late summer.