Within the walls, floors, and foundations of our buildings is an often-overlooked source of climate pollution  commonly referred to as embodied carbon — the millions of tons of carbon emitted during the extraction,  manufacturing, transport, construction, and end-of-life disposal of the materials that surround us. 

Public and private sector stakeholders must act now to establish pathways to decarbonize building and  infrastructure design and construction, including reducing emissions from building material supply chains. 

The US federal government is the largest consumer in the world, spending more than $650 billion on  products and services each year. The procurement of materials for its large portfolio of buildings (2.8 billion  square feet) presents a ripe opportunity for agencies to dramatically reduce embodied carbon emissions  and meet President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from  federal procurement by 2050. The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains funding to support  low-carbon public procurement and industrial decarbonization, provides valuable momentum toward  achieving this vision.