Minnesota Department of Administration Launches 'Buy Clean' Construction Materials Pilot Program
Saint Paul — A pilot program is underway to measure the greenhouse gas emissions from materials used in state construction projects over the course of the product stage of their lifecycle. This “cradle-to-gate” lifecycle measurement seeks to calculate all the emissions associated with a product’s extraction, manufacturing, and transportation.
The program is required by legislation passed in 2023 and being conducted by the State of Minnesota’s Environmental Standards Procurement Task Force in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Administration, Department of Transportation (MnDOT), and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Sustainable Building Research.
The pilot program encourages state vendors on several recently completed and in progress state construction projects to provide information on key materials such as asphalt paving mixtures, concrete, carbon steel rebar, structural steel, and other construction materials that the Task Force deems relevant. The pilot will include seven Minnesota state building projects, listed below. MnDOT completes about 80 eligible state roadway paving projects a year and around a quarter of these will be analyzed in the pilot.
Pilot Projects - Buildings
- Bell Museum
- Hennepin County Medical Examiner Facility
- Inver Hills Community College - Technology and Business Center Renovation
- Northland Community & Technical College, Thief River Falls Campus - Aviation Addition and Renovation
- State Veterans Home in Bemidji
- State Veterans Home in Montevideo
- State Veterans Home in Preston
The main goals of the pilot program include gaining a better understanding of Minnesota's supply chain of the materials, the relative availability of EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations), and the potential upstream and downstream impacts of setting future GWP (Global Warming Potential) limits for the materials. In addition, the pilot program will help identify possible challenges and intricacies for specific materials and processes, situations that require additional considerations to ensure equal and fair implementation of the Buy Clean program, and conditions that might warrant a waiver or adjustment of program requirements.
The Task Force will also explore viable options for a publicly accessible database to store and manage EPD data that is consistent with data governance procedures of the state and is compatible for data sharing with other states and federal agencies. Results of the pilot program will be published by the Task Force in forthcoming legislative reports, starting in December 2025.
For additional information, contact:
- Natalie Georgieff, PE, Center for Sustainable Building Research at (206) 713-9404 or [email protected]
- Richard Graves, FAIA, Director and Associate Professor, Center for Sustainable Building Research at (651) 605-5450 or [email protected]
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