EPA-R-OCSPP-OPPT-FY2023-001 Updated.pdf

AGENCY: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.

TITLE: Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products

ACTION: Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY NUMBER: EPA-R-OCSPP-OPPT-FY2023-001

ASSISTANCE LISTING NO: 66.721

KEY DATES:

FALL 2023 Visit here for webinar information sessions

OCTOBER 27, 2023 Optional Notice of Intent to Apply

JANUARY 8, 2024 NOFO CLOSES – APPLICATIONS DUE BY JANUARY 8, 2024 11:59PM (ET)

SPRING 2024 ANTICIPATED NOTIFICATION OF FUNDING SELECTION

SUMMER 2024 ANTICIPATED AWARD

APPLICATION SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE: Application packages must be submitted electronically to the EPA through grants.gov (www.grants.gov) no later than January 8, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. (ET) in order to be considered for funding.

To allow for efficient management of the grant competition process, EPA requests submittal of an optional Notice of Intent (NOI) to Apply by October 27,2023 to embodiedcarbon@epa.gov. Please include your approximate funding request amount and one to two sentences about the scope of your project. The submission of a Notice of Intent to Apply is optional, confidential, and not binding (applicants may choose to take a different approach/scope in the final proposal). The NOI is a process management tool that will allow EPA to better anticipate the total staff time required for efficient review, evaluation, and selection of submitted applications.

NOTE: Applicants must be registered and have an active SAM account (https://sam.gov) prior to applying for federal assistance.

https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and http://www.grants.gov/ mailto:embodiedcarbon@epa.gov https://sam.gov/ i

Contents Section I — Program Goals & Objectives

A. Background and Summary B. Program Goals and Objectives C. Scope of Work and Eligible Projects D. Key Terminology E. Strategic Plan Linkage F. Statutory Authority & Assistance Listing G. Performance Reporting H. Additional Provisions for Applicants Incorporated into the Solicitation I. Minority Serving Institutions

Section II – Federal Award Information A. Amount of Funding Available B. Number and Amount of Awards C. Award Type D. Period of Performance

Section III – Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants B. Cost Sharing or Matching C. Threshold Eligibility Criteria D. Additional Threshold Criteria

Section IV – Application and Submission Information A. Grants.gov Submission Instructions B. Application Submission Deadline C. Prior to Applying through Grants.gov – Applicants must:

D. Content and Forms for Application Submission E. Instructions for Preparing Mandatory Forms and Documentation F. Pre-Application Webinars and Frequently Asked Questions

Section V – Application Review Information A. Merit Evaluation Criteria B. Review and Selection Process

Section VI – Award Administration Information A. Award Notification B. Submission Requirements C. Administrative Requirements

Section VII – Contact Information

Appendix A: Grants.gov Instructions and Limited Exception Procedures A. Requirement to Submit Through Grants.gov and Limited Exception Procedures B. Submission Instructions C. Technical Issues with Submission

Appendix B: Examples of Projects that May Be Funded Under this Grant Program A. Robust Data for EPDs B. EPD Development and Verification C. Robust EPD Data Platforms and Integration

Appendix C: Project Narrative Example

Section I — Program Goals & Objectives

A. Background and Summary

In the United States, billions of tons of concrete, asphalt, steel, glass and other construction materials and products are required to construct, maintain, and operate the built environment. Construction materials and products, while yielding many social and economic benefits, also result in substantial social, economic, and environmental costs. The U.S. industrial sector is linked to nearly a third of annual U.S.

greenhouse (GHG) emissions,1 and the manufacturing of construction materials and products accounts for 11% of annual global GHG emissions.2

While much has been done over past decades to decarbonize the built environment through addressing the operational and use phases of buildings, roads, and other infrastructure, more support and effort are needed to reduce embodied GHG emissions (also known as embodied carbon) of construction materials and products. Embodied carbon refers to the amount of GHG emissions associated with upstream – extraction, production, manufacturing, and transport – stages of a material or product’s lifecycle.

Full life cycle analyses of products and materials include addressing downstream GHG emissions associated with the use and disposal stages of a construction material or product’s life. As such, and per the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also considering how to address GHG emissions associated with the use and disposal stages of a construction material or product’s life, where relevant.

In the coming decades, billions of additional tons of construction materials and products will be needed to maintain, update, and expand the nation’s infrastructure, including new construction to build the clean energy economy and strengthen communities’ resilience to the impacts of climate change. New strategies and solutions are needed to make more efficient use of resources and reduce the embodied carbon of these materials.

The U.S. federal government is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services with more than $694 billion spent on procurement in FY2022 . More than 30% of construction-related embodied GHG emissions in the U.S. are estimated to be for government-funded projects. Federal, state, and local governments purchase nearly 50% of the concrete poured in the U.S. each year. Furthermore, with historic investments funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, there is more demand than ever to purchase American-made materials.

To help achieve net zero emissions procurement for the federal government by 2050, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the Federal Buy Clean Initiative, which leverages federal procurement and funding to catalyze markets for lower embodied carbon construction materials used to upgrade and invest

1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2021.”

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions 2 International Energy Agency, “Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2019.” https://www.iea.org/reports/global-status-report-for-buildings-and-construction-2019 3 U.S. Government Accountability Office, “A Snapshot of Government-Side Contracting for FY 2022.”

https://www.gao.gov/blog/snapshot-government-wide-contracting-fy-2022 4 Sustainable Facilities Tool, U.S. General Services Administration, “Embodied Carbon.”

https://sftool.gov/learn/about/658/embodied-carbon https://www.sustainability.gov/buyclean/ https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions https://www.iea.org/reports/global-status-report-for-buildings-and-construction-2019 https://www.iea.org/reports/global-status-report-for-buildings-and-construction-2019 https://www.gao.gov/blog/snapshot-government-wide-contracting-fy-2022 https://sftool.gov/learn/about/658/embodied-carbon in U.S. transportation, buildings, and energy infrastructure. EPA will serve as the “Data & Technical Assistance Center of Excellence” for lower embodied carbon construction materials and products within the Federal Buy Clean Initiative, collaborating with twelve other agencies representing 90% of all federally financed and purchased construction materials. This grant program and the contributions of grant recipients are key elements of EPA’s role as the Data & Technical Assistance Center of Excellence.

Increasingly, states, local governments, and large public and private sector institutions have also adopted their own “Buy Clean”5 initiatives and policies to reduce GHG emissions—including embodied carbon— from their construction and infrastructure investments. Many of these Buy Clean policies require supply chain disclosures of the environmental impacts of construction materials and products. Disclosure of these impacts is typically done through Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). (Note: EPDs provide quantified environmental data related to the manufacturing of specific products or materials. They are developed using Product Category Rules (PCRs), which provide a set of specific rules, requirements, and guidelines for developing EPDs for one or more product categories. See Key Terminology section for additional information.)

Over the past two decades, there has been significant effort in the U.S. to improve the quality of PCRs to advance the use and usability of EPDs6. However, these efforts have not yet yielded standards that are specific in several areas, including but not limited to, rules regarding prescribed datasets, disclosure of additional environmental impacts, and knowledge requirements for EPD reviewers. Furthermore, there are concerns surrounding the alignment with foreign standards that may not be fit for use in the U.S.

market without additional harmonization.

As purchasers, investors, policy makers, and the public are increasingly demanding more information from manufacturers about environmental impacts throughout the entire lifecycle of their products, these gaps in the EPD standards landscape have led to a) inconsistencies in Buy Clean initiatives and policies across federal, state, and local governments, as well as in the private sector; and b) data disclosures with varying data quality and formatting, making it difficult to accurately make comparisons for design and procurement decisions.

To address these challenges and further strengthen efforts to reduce the embodied carbon of construction materials and products through procurement, the Inflation Reduction Act (Pub. L. 117-169) passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law in August 2022, includes six sections that address the procurement and funding of lower embodied carbon of construction materials, summarized here:

• Sec. 60112 – $250 million to EPA to develop a program to support reporting and measurement of embodied carbon of construction materials/products (grants, technical assistance (TA), etc.)

• Sec. 60116 – $100 million to EPA to develop a program to identify and label construction materials/products that have substantially lower embodied carbon (in coordination with General

5 The term “Buy Clean” is used to signal that it is not an overarching multi-attribute, multisector “green” purchasing program but focused on embodied carbon in construction materials/products.

6 Some of the key standards and guidance documents that have been instrumental in catalyzing EPD development are International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 14025:2006 “Environmental labels and declarations — Type III environmental declarations — Principles and procedures” and ISO 21930:2017 “Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works — Core rules for Environmental Product Declarations of construction products and services” and the EPA-co-authored 2013 Guidance for Product Category Rule Development, Version 1.0.

Services Administration (GSA) and Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

• Sec. 60503 – $2.15 billion to GSA’s Federal Buildings Fund to acquire and install materials/products for use in the construction or alteration of buildings that have substantially lower embodied carbon (as determined by EPA)

• Sec. 60506 – $2 billion to FHWA to reimburse/incentivize eligible recipients for use of construction materials/ products that have substantially lower embodied carbon (as determined by

EPA)

• Sec. 30002 – $837.5 million to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for direct loans and grants to improve climate resilience of affordable housing, including low emission building materials/processes

• Sec. 70006 – Authority for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide financial assistance for costs associated with low carbon materials

In support of section 60503 and section 60506 above, in December 2022, EPA issued an Interim Determination to provide GSA and FHWA and other agencies with preliminary, actionable determinations that GSA and FHWA can use to qualify construction materials and products as having substantially lower embodied carbon. EPA’s Interim Determination focused on interpreting “substantially lower” for four newly manufactured materials that the Federal Buy Clean initiative had chosen to prioritize based on high embodied emissions and significant government procurement: cement/concrete, glass, asphalt, and steel. In addition, the Interim Determination identified Minimally Processed Salvaged and Reused Materials/Products and Associated Services as qualifying as “substantially lower.”

To further carry out its responsibilities under the Inflation Reduction Act sections related to embodied carbon—to make the requisite determinations that enable other federal agencies to carry out responsibilities and to support other broader market initiatives to measure, disclose, and reduce embodied carbon of construction materials— EPA is designing two programs:

• EPD Assistance Program, arising from Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112; and

• Label Program for Substantially Lower Embodied Carbon Construction Materials, arising from Inflation Reduction Act Section 60116. (Note that Section 60116 does not have grantmaking authority and is therefore not discussed further in this Notice of Funding Opportunity.)

The goal of the EPD Assistance Program, as outlined in Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112(a), is “to support the development, enhanced standardization and transparency, and reporting criteria for Environmental Product Declarations that include measurements of the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of the material or product associated with all relevant stages of production, use, and disposal, and conform with international standards, for construction materials and products by:

1. providing grants to businesses that manufacture construction materials and products for developing and verifying Environmental Product Declarations, and to States, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses;

2. providing technical assistance to businesses that manufacture construction materials and products in developing and verifying Environmental Product Declarations, and to States, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses; and https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-01/2022.12.22%20Interim%20Determination%20on%20Low%20Carbon%20Materials%20under%20IRA%2060503%20and%2060506_508.pdf https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-01/2022.12.22%20Interim%20Determination%20on%20Low%20Carbon%20Materials%20under%20IRA%2060503%20and%2060506_508.pdf

3. carrying out other activities that assist in measuring, reporting, and steadily reducing the quantity of embodied carbon of construction materials and products.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity is situated within the grantmaking workstream outlined in Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112(a) (1) above. Per Sections 60112(a) (2) and (3), EPA is also advancing EPDs through direct investments in data improvements, engagement in Product Category Rules (PCRs), and contractor-based technical assistance. See here for more information on the full array of EPA’s evolving EPD Assistance activities.

In January 2023, as part of the process for establishing its Inflation Reduction Act-funded efforts to address embodied carbon of construction materials, EPA issued a Request for Information (RFI docket #EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0924) to invite stakeholder feedback on the following questions related to EPD Assistance:

• What construction materials/products should EPA prioritize in implementation of Inflation Reduction Act Sections 60112?

• What data accessibility and improvement approaches should EPA consider?

• What PCR and EPD standardization, measurement, verification, and reporting approaches for use in procurement decision-making should EPA consider?

• What other factors should EPA consider for EPD Assistance?

Respondents included academia, advocacy groups, industry, local/state government, federal agencies, and others. Recurring themes and areas of agreement included, but are not limited to:

• Broad support for EPA prioritizing EPDs for cement/concrete, asphalt, steel, glass, and salvaged materials, but also for supporting additional material sectors’ EPD efforts to “level the playing field” and provide all US-based manufacturers a competitive advantage.

• Recognition that significant investment – in data, standardization, verification, education, etc. – is needed to improve the robustness and usability of EPDs.

• Manufacturers’ need for assistance to create EPDs and for EPDs to be used by purchasers in a fair and equitable way.

• Desire to support life cycle stages beyond the production phase and environmental impacts beyond Global Warming Potential (GWP), which will need measurement and reporting assistance if EPDs are to fulfill their potential as a procurement tool.

• Interests in addressing other methods for reducing GWP of construction beyond prioritizing EPDs for procurement of newly manufactured materials/products (e.g., salvage & reuse and Whole Building/Project Life Cycle Assessment, adaptive reuse, dematerialization, alternative material selection).

In response to this input, and aligned with EPA’s Strategic Plan and Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112 authorities, EPA plans to award up to 40 grants and/or cooperative agreements in FY2024, including:

https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0924-0002 https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan

• Grants and/or cooperative agreements to businesses that manufacture construction materials and products for developing and verifying Environmental Product Declarations, and to States, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses.

• Cooperative agreements to pass-through entities that will collaborate with EPA to design and build their own processes to receive and evaluate subaward applications from businesses that manufacture construction materials and products for developing and verifying Environmental Product Declarations, and to States, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that will support such businesses. Per the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR 200.74), a pass-through entity is defined as a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward7 to a subrecipient to carry out part of a federal program. See Sections I.B, III.A, IV.E for more details on pass-through entities.

Some applicants may seek to provide subgrants to subrecipients through a pass-through cooperative agreement. These pass-through entities may propose projects that offer construction material and product manufacturers assistance in producing robust EPDs.

EPA expects to select top ranked applicants in both grants and/or cooperative agreements; and cooperative agreements to pass-through entities, ensuring both tracks are represented.

Including partnerships in applications is encouraged where they can strengthen the application in terms of EPD technical assistance or other aspects of the merit evaluation criteria described in Section I. C. and V.A., Merit Evaluation Criteria.

Federal awards through this funding opportunity in FY2024 are anticipated to total up to $100 million and are anticipated to be in the range of $250,000 to $10 million for individual grant and cooperative agreements for periods of performance of up to 5 years. In addition, EPA will consider subranges of grants in the amounts of $250,000 to $749,999; $750,000 to $4.99 million dollars; and $5 million to $10 million dollars. Eligibility criteria, merit evaluation criteria, reporting requirements, example projects, and other critical, related information are set forth in the sections that follow.

B. Program Goals and Objectives

The Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products grant program will advance the goals of EPA’s EPD Assistance Program as follows:

• Increase the robustness of greenhouse gas emissions data associated with the production, use, and disposal of construction materials and products;

• Assist businesses in disclosing and verifying these data via robust EPDs, as well as states, Indian tribes and non-profit organizations that assist these businesses; and

• Spur market demand for construction materials and products that have lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions.

Applicants interested in applying for funding under this grant program should describe in their project narratives how projects will advance these goals.

7 If grants will involve contracts and/or subawards, applicants are strongly advised to consult the applicable rules for using contracts and issuing subawards in federal assistance agreements. Applicants will find a discussion of the applicable rules in Section IV of the EPA Solicitation Clauses website at: https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-solicitation-clauses.

https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-solicitation-clauses

As more businesses develop and improve EPDs, they will gain a better understanding of key contributors to the embodied carbon of construction materials and products and be better positioned to drive reductions of GHG emissions and other pollutants that are often co-produced with GHG emissions. Thus, it is an aspirational goal of this grant program that businesses will take steps to lower their GHG emissions and reduce emissions of hazardous and other locally impacting pollutants. Such reductions have the potential for significant positive impacts in disadvantaged communities8 (including any geographic area within Tribal lands as included in EJScreen), and the Territories, as many construction material manufacturers are located in or near these communities.

Funding from this program may also help U.S. businesses better compete in supplying federal and other institutional construction projects, creating jobs and other economic opportunities, and furthering the development of a workforce educated in embodied carbon skills (e.g., life cycle assessment, GHG measurement, data standardization, and industrial decarbonization).

As indicated in Section V. Table I, this grant program will prioritize—but not limit—assistance to small businesses, business who are producing EPDs for the first time, and to projects that focus on materials that have greatest potential to support lower embodied carbon construction (e.g., concrete, asphalt, steel, glass, salvaged materials9 and other materials with one or more attributes described in Section V.A., Merit Evaluation Criteria 1.d.). Furthermore, the grant program seeks to enable national coverage for assistance to support robust EPDs across the construction materials and products sector.

EPA reserves the right to fund projects one year at a time, approving subsequent years based on the performance of a grantee and projects in the earlier years as well as on the state of the market and inspection of EPDs produced and published.

This grant program is associated with Federal Assistance Listing 66.721, Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products.

C. Scope of Work and Eligible Projects

The Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products grant program will advance standardization and transparency in EPDs which will support procurement decisions accounting for embodied carbon of construction materials and products. Applicants should demonstrate how they will invest in projects and activities that provide support for industry data preparation, reporting, and analysis; provide financial and technical assistance to develop, update, digitize, and verify EPDs; improve standards and verifications for PCRs and EPDs; provide financial support for mid-cycle updates to PCRs to reflect new datasets/guidance; and amplify EPD educational resources.

EPA envisions funded projects to fall under five broad categories:

8 See Key Terminology section for definition.

9 Note: Salvaged and reused materials/products do not refer to recycled content in manufactured materials/products nor surplus materials/products sourced from over ordering or unrealized use (e.g., canceled construction project).

See Key Terminology section for definitions for both “salvage” and “reuse”.

https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen https://sam.gov/fal/ada8e60e6adb4a01b9cf10eef572ff50/view

• Robust Data for EPDs: Projects that contribute new and/or improve critical data, analysis, or feedback for producing robust EPDs.

• Robust Product Category Rule (PCR) Standard Development, PCRs, and Associated Conformity Assessment Systems: Projects that encourage the development of robust, standardized PCRs, including identifying what data needs to be collected for EPDs, how that data should be collected, how it should be reported in EPDs, and what transparency and verification needs to be in place to ensure credible EPDs.

• Robust Tools & Resources to Support & Incentivize Development and Verification of EPDs: Projects that contribute to the development of tools and resources to make it easier, faster, and more cost effective to produce and disclose robust EPDs.

• EPD Development and Verification: Projects that offer construction material and product manufacturers assistance in producing robust EPDs, or in which a construction material or product manufacturer is producing robust EPDs.

• Robust EPD Data Platforms and Integration: Projects that support EPD reporting, availability, and verification; support the standardization of disparate EPD systems; and support future EPD integration into construction design and procurement systems.

Please see Appendix B for an expanded list of example eligible projects in these categories. Projects described in Appendix B are intended to provide examples of the range of the types of projects and activities that may be eligible for funding under this funding opportunity. Please see Section I.D. for the definition of “robust,” as used in this section and throughout the document.

An applicant may focus on one or more projects within each application. The list of project examples is not exhaustive – projects that do not fit into one of these categories may be considered and will be subject to the same merit evaluation criteria.

Applicants may propose project work in the form of a 1) direct grant (or cooperative agreement) 2) a pass-through cooperative agreement, or 3) a combination of the two as explained below. Depending on the nature of EPA’s involvement in a project, an applicant may be awarded a “cooperative agreement,” as described in Section II.D. All pass-through programs will be issued as cooperative agreements.

The following are the categories of assistance agreements that will be awarded under this funding opportunity:

1. Direct Grants and Cooperative Agreements: Grants or cooperative agreements may be made to eligible entities to directly carry out the proposed work. These applications would not include a plan to manage a subaward program to carry out the work. Direct grants and cooperative agreements may utilize contracted services to support discrete technical aspects of the project workplan.

2. Pass-through Cooperative Agreements: Pass-through cooperative agreements would develop a subaward program to carry out the proposed work, in accordance with their subaward plan.

Subawards must be consistent with the definition of that term in 2 CFR 200.1 and comply with EPA’s Subaward Policy.

Applicants should demonstrate how the proposed project will achieve the expected outputs and outcomes, as defined in EPA Order 5700.7A1, Environmental Results under EPA Assistance Agreements and in https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-order-57007a1-epas-policy-environmental-results-under-epa-assistance-agreements

Section I.D. Examples of possible outputs and outcomes can be found in the discussion of reporting in Section VI.C.

Ineligible Activities Please note that the following types of activities are not eligible for funding because they are beyond the scope of Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112(1)(a) (in some cases, other federal grant programs are funding these projects):

• Projects that focus on construction materials and products that do not have the potential to significantly address embodied GHGs either because of barriers to adoption in the U.S., and/or their use in limited amounts (i.e., weight or volume)

• Research, development, demonstration, and testing of advanced, not-yet-commercialized, technologies to reduce emissions from construction materials/products;

• Projects that allow funds to be used outside the U.S. (Funds can still be provided to entities that are owned by a foreign company. However, those funds can only be used to support U.S.-based facilities and/or that support U.S.-based EPD verifiers, Program Operators, Conformity Assessment Bodies, manufacturers, etc.);

• Projects that fund the physical act of construction/deconstruction or procurement of construction materials/products.

D. Key Terminology

For the purposes of this NOFO, please refer to the terminology and definitions below.

Background Data: Background data include energy and materials that are delivered to the foreground system as aggregated data sets in which individual plants and operations are not identified. This is consistent with the definition in EPA’s Lifecycle Assessment Principles and Practices Glossary.

Baseline: Baseline, in the context of Whole Building LCA (WBLCA), refers to the initial set of criteria and/or conditions describing the material(s) prior to any action occurring to address the embodied greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project.

Buy Clean: Buy Clean refers to a policy – federal, state, local, private, or other – that prioritizes the purchase of construction materials and products with lower embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, taking into account the life cycle emissions associated with the production of those materials.

Built Environment: Built Environment refers to the part of the physical surroundings that are people-made or people-organized, such as buildings and other major structures, roads, bridges, and the like, down to lesser objects such as traffic lights. This is consistent with the EPA’s Enterprise Vocabulary from April 2018.

Circular Economy: Circular Economy refers to an economy that uses a systems-focused approach and involves industrial processes and economic activities that are restorative or regenerative by design;

enables resources used in such processes and activities to maintain their highest values for as long as possible; and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, and systems (including business models). This is consistent with the Save our Seas 2.0 Act.

https://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/enterprisevocabulary/search.do?search=&searchString=Background%20data&matchCriteria=Contains&tierTwoSelected=0

Construction Material: Construction material refers to the supplies used in building. This is consistent with the definition in the EPA’s Enterprise Vocabulary.

Deconstruction: Deconstruction refers to the systematic dismantling of a structure, typically in the opposite order it was constructed, to maximize the salvage of materials for reuse, in preference over salvaging materials for recycling, energy recovery, or sending the materials to the landfill. This is consistent with the definition of deconstruction from City of Portland (OR) City Code 17.106.020.

Disadvantaged Community: Under this NOFO, disadvantaged communities are defined as any community that meets at least one of the following characteristics:

• Is identified as disadvantaged by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST);

Any census block group that is at or above the 90th percentile for any of EJScreen’s Supplemental Indexes when compared to the nation or state; and / or

Any geographic area within Tribal lands as included in EJScreen10.

Within EJScreen, EPA's IRA Disadvantaged Community layer can be found in the "Places" tab by clicking on the "Justice40/IRA" category, and then selecting "EPA IRA Disadvantaged Communities".

Embodied Carbon: See definition for embodied greenhouse gas emissions.

Embodied Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: Embodied Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions are synonymous with embodied carbon; both refer to the amount of GHG emissions associated with the extraction, production, transport and manufacturing of materials. Inflation Reduction Act Sections 60112 also directs EPA to consider the use and disposal stages, where relevant. This is consistent with the definition found on EPA’s Low Embodied Carbon Webpage.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): Environmental Product Declaration refers to an environmental report providing quantified environmental data using predetermined parameters and, where relevant, additional environmental information. An EPD also includes additional product and company information. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 14025:2006.

Facility-Specific EPD: Facility-Specific EPD refers to an EPD in which the environmental impacts are based on data from one industrial facility at which a specific product that is represented by the EPD is manufactured. This is in contrast to an industry-wide EPD where the data is based on industry averages across many industrial facilities.

Global Warming Potential (GWP): GWP is a unit of measurement that refers to the index used to translate the level of emissions of various gases into a common measure in order to compare the relative radiative forcing of different gases without directly calculating the changes in atmospheric concentrations.

GWPs are calculated as the ratio of the radiative forcing that would result from the emissions of one

10 The Tribal Lands category in EJScreen to use for this purpose includes Alaska Native Allotments (EPA Metadata Record), Alaska Native Villages (EPA Metadata Record), American Indian Reservations (EPA Metadata Record), American Indian Off-reservation Trust Lands (EPA Metadata Record), Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Areas (EPA Metadata Record) https://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/enterprisevocabulary/search.do?search=&searchString=Construction%20Material&matchCriteria=Exact&tierTwoSelected=0 https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/en/#3/33.47/-97.5 https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen/ej-and-supplemental-indexes-ejscreen https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen/ej-and-supplemental-indexes-ejscreen https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/inflation-reduction-act-programs-fight-climate-change-reducing-embodied kilogram of a greenhouse gas to that from the emission of one kilogram of carbon dioxide over a period of time (usually 100 years). Gases involved in complex atmospheric chemical processes have not been assigned GWPs. This is consistent with the definition found in the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Sinks Glossary.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG): Greenhouse Gas refers to the air pollutants carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. This is consistent with the definition found in the Inflation Reduction Act, Section 60112.

Industry-Wide EPD: Industry-Wide EPD refers to an EPD that is reflective of the average production impacts for a given declared unit of product within one category spanning multiple production facilities and companies.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) refers to the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system or whole building throughout its life cycle. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 14044:2006.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA): Life Cycle Impact Assessment refers to the phase of LCA aimed at understanding and evaluating the magnitude and significance of the potential environmental impacts for a product system throughout the life cycle. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 21930:2017.

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI): Life Cycle Inventory refers to a set of input and output data of a process.

All of them are related to the same reference of this process. Usually, an inventory dataset also contains metadata describing, for example, geography, time reference, and ownership of the dataset. The process can be a unit process or an aggregated process. This is consistent with the definition of used in the United Nations Environment Programme Global Guidance Principles for Life Cycle Assessment Databases.

Life Cycle: Life Cycle refers to all consecutive and interlinked stages in the life of the object under consideration. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 21930:2017.

Material Category: For this competition, please reference the definition of Product Category.

Material Type: Material Type refers to a specific breakdown within a Material Category that adds specificity to indicate what subgroup of a material category is being referred to in a given context.

Metadata: Metadata refers to the summary information about data, such as format, structure, version, or quality of the data. This is consistent with the definition found in EPA’s Emissions Inventory System Glossary.

Outcome: The term “outcome” means the result, effect or consequence that will occur from carrying out an environmental program or activity that is related to an environmental or programmatic goal or objective. Outcomes may be environmental, behavioral, health-related or programmatic in nature, must be quantitative, and may not necessarily be achievable within an assistance agreement funding period.

Output: The term “output” means an environmental activity, effort, and/or associated work products related to an environmental goal or objective, that will be produced or provided over a period of time or https://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/enterprisevocabulary/search.do?search=&searchString=Metadata&matchCriteria=Exact&tierTwoSelected=0 https://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/enterprisevocabulary/search.do?search=&searchString=Metadata&matchCriteria=Exact&tierTwoSelected=0 by a specified date. Outputs may be quantitative or qualitative but must be measurable during an assistance agreement funding period.

Pass-through Entity: Per the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR 200.74), a pass-through entity is defined as a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a federal program. See Sections I.B, III.A, IV.E for more details on pass-through entities.

Primary Data: Primary Data refers to quantified value of a unit process or activity obtained from a direct measurement, or a calculation based on direct measurements at its original source. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 21930:2017.

Product Category Rules (PCRs): Product Category Rules refers to a set of specific rules, requirements, and guidelines for developing EPDs for one or more product categories. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 14025:2006.

Product Category: Product Category refers to a group of construction products, construction elements, or integrated technical systems that can fulfil equivalent functions. This is consistent with the definition found in ISO 14025:2006.

Program Operator: Program operator refers to the body or bodies that conduct an EPD Program. A program operator can be a company or a group of companies, industrial sector or trade association, public authority or agency, or an independent scientific body or other organization. Program Operators are typically the organizations that develop Product Category Rules. This is based on the definition found in

ISO 14025:2006.

Recycle: Recycle refers to the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. This is consistent with EPA’s definition of recycle.

Reuse: Reuse refers to a previously utilized material or product that requires limited to no processing for reinstallation and use on a different project. Reuse extends the life cycle of a material or product and avoids many of the production-related impacts associated with newly manufactured materials or products.

Robust: Robust, in reference to data, PCRs, EPDs and associated tools and resources, refers to the following characteristics: conformance with international, voluntary consensus standards, and/or other standards that are effective and otherwise suitable for the U.S. market; third-party verification; facility and supply-chain specific data; inclusion of relevant stages of production, use, and disposal; inclusion of additional environmental and human health impact categories beyond GWP; interoperability via digitization; transparency via disclosure of background dataset(s), upstream data source(s), and uncertainty/assumptions; readily and publicly available (free of charge) via an open data platform(s); and potentially other characteristics as the market develops.

Salvage: Salvage refers to the deliberate reclamation of reusable materials from the disassembly, deconstruction, or demolition of buildings or structures.

Small Business: Businesses that meet size requirements set by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

The SBA assigns a size standard to each NAICS code. Most manufacturing companies with 500 https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-united-states https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-united-states employees or fewer and most non-manufacturing businesses with average annual receipts under $7.5 million will qualify as a small business. Exceptions by industry can be found in Title 13 Part 121.201 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) or in the SBA’s table of small business size standards. For more information see the SBA’s Size Standards Tool.

Supply Chain Specific Data: Supply Chain Specific Data refers to data representative of a construction product input originating from a single plant along a product’s supply chain.

Technical Assistance: For the purposes of this grant program, technical assistance is defined as providing advice and support, in the form of specialized knowledge, to a person or organization with the goal of guiding them with developing EPD and related EPD topics.

Toxicity: Toxicity refers to the degree to which a substance or mixture of substances can harm humans or animals. Acute toxicity involves harmful effects in an organism through a single or short-term exposure.

Chronic toxicity is the ability of a substance or mixture of substances to cause harmful effects over an extended period...usually upon repeated or continuous exposure sometimes lasting for the entire life of the exposed organism. Subchronic toxicity is the ability of the substance to cause effects for more than one year but less than the lifetime of the exposed organism. This is consistent with the definition of toxicity in EPA’s Terms of Environment.

Whole Building LCA (WBLCA): Whole Building LCA refers to an LCA of a building’s or project’s environmental impacts, usually from a GHG emissions perspective, or focused on the GHG emissions a building or project is responsible for throughout its life cycle. WBLCA can be updated to reflect project specific data during construction. This is consistent with the definition used by the U.S. GSA’s Sustainable Facilities’ Tool.

E. Strategic Plan Linkage

Pursuant to Section 6.a. of EPA Order 5700.7A1, “Environmental Results under EPA Assistance Agreements,” EPA must link proposed assistance agreements with the Agency’s Strategic Plan.

Awards made under this funding opportunity will support the following goals and objectives of the FY 2022-2026 EPA Strategic Plan:

• Goal 1: Tackle the Climate Crisis o Objective 1.1: Reduce Emissions that Cause Climate Change o Objective 1.3: Advance International and Subnational Climate Efforts

• Goal 2: Take Decisive Action to Advance Environmental Justice and Civil Rights o Obj 2.2: Embed Environmental Justice and Civil Rights into EPA’s Programs, Policies, and Activities https://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/enterprisevocabulary/search.do?search=&searchString=Toxicity&matchCriteria=Exact&tierTwoSelected=0 https://sftool.gov/learn/about/657/building-decarbonization#WBLCA https://sftool.gov/learn/about/657/building-decarbonization#WBLCA https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-guide/basic-requirements

• Goal 4: Ensure Clean and Healthy Air for All Communities o Objective 4.1: Improve Air Quality and Reduce Localized Pollution and Health Impacts

All applications must demonstrate how the work proposed will support at least one strategic plan goal and at least one of the objectives identified above and should include an explanation for how they will achieve relevant outputs and outcomes (examples can be found in the discussion of reporting in Section VI.C).

Outputs and Outcomes Applicants should demonstrate how the proposed project will achieve the expected outputs and outcomes, as defined in EPA Order 5700.7A1, Environmental Results under EPA Assistance Agreements and in Section I.D. Examples of possible outputs and outcomes can be found in the discussion of reporting in Section VI.C.6.

F. Statutory Authority & Assistance Listing

EPA is issuing this Notice of Funding Opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 60112 of the Inflation Reduction Act (Pub. L. 117-169), consistent with Assistance Listing No. 66.721.

G. Performance Reporting

In accordance with 2 CFR § 200.329 and pursuant to EPA Order 5700.7A1, Environmental Results under Assistance Agreements, EPA requires applicants to adequately describe their plan for reporting progress and performance under assistance agreements.

Applicants should discuss the plan for performance and progress reporting on their proposed project/program(s) in their Project Narrative as described in Section IV.E. Performance measurement examples that align with eligible projects and the objectives of EPA’s EPD Assistance program arising from Inflation Reduction Act Section 60112, are detailed in Table II in Section VI.C.6. EPA will further describe the required performance results, as well as how grantees will gather data to measure, track, and report those results in the reporting requirements defined in the grant’s terms and conditions. Section VI.C.6. details initial guidance on these anticipated requirements. The reporting plan must provide a comprehensive plan for gathering and reporting on relevant performance measures. Grantee reporting will allow EPA to collect metrics and data to verify the results of each grant project.

The grantee will be required to submit semi-annual updates and annual reports throughout the lifetime of the program within 30 days of the end of each reporting period, as well as a final program report, within 120 days after the end of the project period. EPA will use information from these reports as part of program-wide public reporting, except to the extent such information includes confidential business information (CBI) or personally identifiable information (PII) pursuant to 2 CFR § 200.338.

For funding requests that exceed $2.5 million, EPA expects applicants to integrate program evaluation activities. Relevant applications should include plans and funding for conducting evaluations of program administration and project portfolios. Program evaluations should include assessments of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in achieving objectives and performance results as described. All evaluations must be conducted in adherence with ORDER 1000.33 03/25/2022 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Policy for Evaluations and Other Evidence-Building Activities, including timely publication of findings.

http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/epa_order_5700_7a1.pdf http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/epa_order_5700_7a1.pdf https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-05/epa-evaluation-evidence-building-policy.pdf https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-05/epa-evaluation-evidence-building-policy.pdf

Grantees required to include program evaluation activities will also be expected to report on an ongoing basis the underlying methodologies, technologies, data sources, inputs and assumptions, and other significant analytical choices used to calculate or estimate performance results in their annual reports.

EPA will work with grantees to ensure standardized program evaluation reporting requirements and identifying tools to support reporting.

H. Additional Provisions for Applicants Incorporated into the Solicitation

Additional provisions that apply to sections III, IV, V, and VI of this solicitation and/or awards made under this solicitation, can be found at EPA Solicitation Clauses. These provisions are important for applying to this solicitation and applicants must review them when preparing applications for this solicitation. If you are unable to access these provisions electronically at the website above, please contact the EPA point of contact listed in this solicitation in Section VII to obtain the provisions.

I. Minority Serving Institutions

EPA recognizes that it is important to engage all available minds to address the environmental challenges the nation faces. At the same time, EPA seeks to expand the environmental conversation by including members of communities which may have not previously participated in such dialogues to…