§ 73 — Carbon intergovernmental coordinating council; carbon reduction plan

[ Text of section added by 2024, 239, Sec. 4 effective February 18, 2025.]Section 73. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:--"Division'', the division of capital asset management and maintenance."Environmental product declaration'' or "EPD'', an independently verified and registered declaration that provides a life cycle assessment of a product's global warming potential and facilitates a comparison of environmental impacts between products fulfilling the same function; provided, however, that such declaration shall be a Type III or higher as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 14025:2006, or substantially similar life cycle assessment and comparative methodologies that have uniform standards in data collection and scientific integrity, and any pertinent product category rule developed in conformance with ISO 14025:2006."Global warming potential'', a numeric value that measures the total contribution to global warming from the emission of greenhouse gasses or the elimination of greenhouse gas sinks."Life cycle assessment'' or "LCA'', an assessment used to calculate the environmental primary and secondary impacts of a product, service or process over the lifetime of such product, service or process."Low-embodied carbon material'', material used in building and transportation construction that has been verified by the division to embody carbon emissions that are sufficiently low, based on a threshold set by the division, as compared to the embodied carbon emissions of a conventional material fulfilling the same function.(b) There shall be within the division, but not subject to the control of the division, an embodied carbon intergovernmental coordinating council. The council shall consist of: the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance or a designee, who shall serve as co-chair; the climate chief or equivalent climate official within the office of the governor or a designee, who shall serve as co-chair; the secretary of energy and environmental affairs or a designee; the secretary of transportation or a designee; the secretary of housing and livable communities or a designee; the secretary of administration and finance or a designee; the secretary of economic development or a designee; the chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Port Authority or a designee; the general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or a designee; the chief executive officer of the Massachusetts clean energy technology center or a designee; the chair of the board of building regulations and standards or a designee; the chairs of the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities and energy or their designees and the house and senate minority leaders or their designees, who shall serve as nonvoting members with respect to any spending matters; and 5 persons who shall be appointed by the governor, 1 of whom shall be a representative of the building trades, 1 of whom shall be a general contractor, 1 of whom shall be a licensed architect with expertise in using low-embodied carbon materials of construction, 1 of whom shall be a structural engineer who shall be a licensed professional engineer with expertise in using low-embodied carbon materials of construction, and 1 of whom shall be the executive director of a regional planning agency. The council shall not be a public body as defined in section 18 of chapter 30A; provided, however, that the council shall hold a public meeting not less than quarterly while the council is developing the plan pursuant to subsection (f).(c) The council shall prepare an embodied carbon reduction plan, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, strategies to measure, monitor and reduce embodied carbon. The plan shall: (i) with respect to major building and transportation projects of executive offices, departments, divisions, centers, agencies and authorities of state and municipal governments, include, but not be limited to, steps to encourage and, where appropriate, recommend requiring: (a) environmental product declarations for construction materials commonly used in such projects; and (b) the use of low-embodied carbon materials, with particular attention to cement and concrete mixtures, steel, glass, asphalt and asphalt mixtures and wood, in such projects; (ii) review progress in research, development and commercialization of low-embodied carbon technologies and materials in the government, private and nonprofit sectors within and outside of the commonwealth; (iii) make recommendations for establishing a process to set, on or before January 1, 2026, maximum global warming potential values for products likely to be used in such building and transportation projects including, but not limited to, cement and concrete mixtures, steel, glass, asphalt and asphalt mixtures and wood; (iv) develop recommended procedures for the use of: (a) EPDs in state government contracting and procurement; and (b) low-embodied carbon materials in the commonwealth, where available and at reasonable cost, including conditions under which waivers may be obtained; (v) examine current laws, regulations, policies and guidelines that affect the use of EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials in the private and nonprofit sectors and recommend laws, regulations, policies or guidelines to increase the use of EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials; and (vi) consider interactions between embodied carbon and operational carbon to ensure policy recommendations to reduce embodied carbon will also contribute to the reduction of operational carbon. The council shall consider: (i) the best approaches to integrate the reduction of embodied carbon into the state building code, including the stretch and specialized stretch energy code pursuant to section 96 of chapter 143 and the state building code; and (ii) best practices to incentivize and enhance the reuse of building materials and decrease building demolition.(d) The council shall meet regularly and seek data, input and advice related to EPDs and low-embodied carbon materials from stakeholders, which shall include, but not be limited to, companies, contractors and subcontractors involved in construction, architecture, engineering, design and procurement and organizations and associations of such companies, contractors and subcontractors, academic and nonprofit institutions with relevant missions and activities, labor organizations involved in construction and transportation, organizations focused on environmental, energy and climate policy and perspectives and groups representing consumers, including, but not limited to, low income consumers. The council shall hold not less than 3 public hearings in geographically diverse areas of the commonwealth prior to finalizing the plan.(e) The division and the executive office of energy and environmental affairs shall provide administrative support to the council.(f) The council shall update the plan and submit the updated plan and a progress report at least every 2 years to the senate and house committees on ways and means, the joint committee on state administration and regulatory oversight and the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities and energy and shall cause the plan and the report to be publicly available on the website of each cabinet official, executive office, department, division, center, agency and authority represented on the council.