Advancing US Federal Buy Clean Policy

Public procurement accounts for an average of 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and up to 30 percent of GDP in many developing countries. When public entities leverage their large-scale purchasing power by buying goods and services with a lower carbon footprint, they help drive markets in the direction of sustainability, reduce the negative impacts of their use of goods, and produce positive environmental and social benefits.

In the US, there is little federal or state green procurement policy, but several voluntary national programs (e.g., LEED Building) have evolved to strengthen focus on embodied carbon of products and more sustainable procurement. Some cities and states view procurement-based policy as a key opportunity to reduce carbon emissions such as the Buy Clean California Act.

Global efficiency Intelligence, LLC is conducting a study supported by Third Way to Assess a Federal Buy Clean Policy for Carbon-Intensive Construction Materials in the United States. This study has five major components:

1) Analyze the scale of government procurement of carbon-intensive materials, both at the federal and state-levels, for the development of infrastructure in the U.S.

2) Identify top 3-5 carbon-intensive materials that are most suited for federal Buy Clean in the US. and conduct a benchmarking analysis to assess the CO2 intensity of selected products produced in the US.

3) Conduct a high-level quantitative analysis to quantify the GHG emissions reduction potential if Buy Clean is in place for the selected products in a few chosen states or at the federal level.

4) Map the key component of Buy Clean policies best of international best practices and make a recommendation for the ones that need further work in the US context.

5) Identify policy design elements that could increase support for Buy Clean from businesses, industrial trade associations, or other key stakeholders.