Policy & Advocacy Working Group
Members of the policy & advocacy group provide education, technical presentations and testimony in support of embodied carbon policies in Massachusetts.
Current Working Group Co-Chairs:
Joe De Larauze
Jaein Lee
Brian Sandford
The CLF Hub Policy and Advocacy Working Group's mission is to:
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Grow embodied carbon policy awareness and education efforts throughout our local municipalities, state, and larger region with the goal of more policies being implemented.
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Help to ensure and facilitate coordination on embodied carbon policy across Massachusetts and Northeast municipalities and state agencies.
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Work on alignment of embodied carbon policy with state climate legislation.
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Stay up to date on new policies, incentives and implementation programs across the country to provide case studies and inform new policy across the Northeast.
Interested in learning more?
Want to help advocate for embodied carbon policy?
Members of the Policy and Advocacy Group have provided education, technical presentations and testimony in support of several embodied carbon policies in Massachusetts.
Fill out this form to sign up or check the events calendar for our next meeting!
Resources & Links:
CLF:
CLF Embodied Carbon Policy Toolkit
CLF Northeast U.S. & Canada Embodied Carbon Policy Case Studies
CLF Pacific Coast Collaborative Embodied Carbon Policy Case Studies
Local & Municipal Level:
City of Boston - Zero Net Carbon Building Zoning Initiative
City of Boston - Zero Net Carbon Building Zoning Initiative - Final Report
City of Boston - Boston Mass Timber Accelerator- BSA
Recycling Works in Massachusetts
Brookline Resolution for Embodied Carbon Reduction in Concrete
Cambridge Net Zero Action Plan
Cambridge Article 22 Green Building Requirements
Cambridge Section 22.20 of the Zoning Ordinance
Cambridge Net Zero Narrative Template
Newton Sustainability Ordinance (IN PROGRESS)
State Level:
Proposed DOER Net Zero Stretch Energy Code (Opt In)
MA Bill H.4182 'An Act Relative to Green Building Materials' (Buy Clean legislation) (IN PROGRESS)
Federal Level:
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Standard ASCE7 (IN PROGRESS)
Latest Policies, Legislation and Ongoing Initiatives:
Latest Advocacy
in Progress
In Progress
On August 12, 2024, DOER released proposed revisions to the Stretch and Specialized codes for both residential and commercial sections - with embodied carbon incentives for concrete and insulation in the form of HERS points.
In Progress
Major enhancements for the 2025-2027 Plan related to embodied carbon include: - Incentives for new measures that produce meaningful GHG savings for medium and large commercial customers, such as refrigerant leak mitigation and retrofits and behind-the-meter gas leak mitigation - Incentives for both commercial customers and residential new construction associated with reducing embodied carbon in construction materials. This would be the very first program for MassSave that doesn’t save kWh or therms, but instead kgCO2e, and would be the first utility-sponsored embodied carbon incentive in the country.
State Level Policies
Signed by Governor Healey on November 21, 2024
Creation of an Embodied Carbon Intergovernmental Coordinating Council to be co-chaired by the MA Climate Chief and the Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM). The Council is directed to prepare an embodied carbon reduction plan for major building and transportation projects of executive offices, departments, divisions, centers, agencies and authorities of state and municipal governments including recommendations for: - Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for construction materials commonly used in such projects -The use of low-embodied carbon materials, with particular attention to cement and concrete mixtures, steel, glass, asphalt and asphalt mixtures and wood. And consideration of: - The best approaches to integrate the reduction of embodied carbon into the state building code, including the stretch and specialized stretch energy code. - Best practices to incentivize and enhance the reuse of building materials and decrease building demolition.
Issued by MA Governor Baker in April of 2021
This executive order directs efforts to reduce gas emissions in Massachusetts facilities. It served as an update to previous ‘Leading by Example’ Executive Order No.484, adopted in 2007. In support of the statewide goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; to be achieved through: 1. Advancing high performance buildings for new construction 2. Expanding energy efficiency and decarbonizing fuels in existing buildings 3. Acquiring fuel efficient and zero emission vehicles and 4. Continuing the deployment of new renewable energy. Section 3: For new construction and major renovations for state agencies over 20,000 SF, “Evaluate and implement strategies to reduce embodied carbon contained in building materials, where possible and cost-effective.”
Local and Municipal
Level Policies
Passed the Boston Zoning Commission approval on January 29, 2025.
After four years in development, the City of Boston voted to pass the Zero Net Carbon Zoning amendment, including embodied carbon accounting for all new buildings with 15+ units or 20,000+ SF and additions of 50,000 SF. It goes into effect July 1st, 2025. It accelerates the operational carbon timeline, requiring all new buildings to be net zero operational on day 1 and all existing buildings to get to net zero by 2050. Development process: In September 2020, the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) launched the Zero Net Carbon Building Zoning Initiative to assess and identify strategies to strengthen the existing green building zoning requirements to a zero net carbon standard for new construction. To begin the zoning amendment process, the City of Boston assembled four different technical advisory groups as part of its process to revise the current Article 37 green building zoning ordinance. There were TAG’s for 1) Low Carbon Buildings, 2) On-site Renewable Energy, 3) Renewable Energy Procurement and 4) Embodied Carbon. Members of the CLF Boston/Northeast Hub participated in the embodied carbon technical advisory group from fall 2020 to fall 2022, which developed a set of recommendations and implementation pathways to address embodied carbon in the City’s zoning revisions for the first time. The final draft of the Zero Net Carbon Zoning amendment was released in 2024 and passed the Boston Zoning Commission approval on January 29, 2025.
Final Program Report issued on April 22, 2024.
As an offshoot of the work of the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) Zero Net Carbon Building Zoning Initiative embodied carbon TAG, Boston launched the Mass Timber Accelerator grant program in 2022. Funding for the Boston Mass Timber Accelerator program came from the USDA Forest Service, the Softwood Lumber Board, ClimateWorks Foundation and technical assistance from Woodworks. The Boston Society for Architecture (BSA), whose mission includes work in the areas of climate and equity, and is a longstanding partner with the City of Boston, joined the BPDA as a program partner to facilitate the mass timber accelerator. The goals included raising public awareness about the benefits of using mass timber and introducing more local practitioners to mass timber construction. Each project selected was awarded a $25,000 grant to study mass timber as a lower embodied carbon structural solution, and alternative to their already proposed concrete and steel building.
Deconstruction One-Pager Published in 2022.
As part of Boston’s 2019 Zero Waste Plan and work to incorporate construction and demolition waste into that plan for the first time, the City of Boston Environment Department launched a Building Deconstruction Pilot Program. The City partnered with Recycling Works who are providing technical assistance to project teams. Five pilot projects were selected and are working with RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts to develop plans that identify opportunities for deconstruction and recycling or reuse of building materials. The Environment Department developed a Deconstruction One Pager in order to increase awareness of adaptive reuse, deconstruction and the wide variety of forms it can take. The one-pager includes several prior case studies of deconstruction projects in Massachusetts.
Embodied Emissions Reporting Regulations Effective June 17, 2024.
A proposal to address embodied emissions was made by the Cambridge City Council towards the end of 2021 and an amendment to the zoning code was finally approved in March 2023. Accounting of embodied carbon is now included in Article 22- Green Building Requirements of the code. In the first phase, the amendment applies to special permit projects that are over 50,000 square feet, however the requirement provides an exemption for projects that will house residential units. At this time, there is only a reporting requirement for data collection purposes, but in the future, as described in the Net Zero Action Plan, Cambridge plans to use the data to create baselines and then develop embodied carbon reduction requirements as a series of phased in targets over time. This zoning amendment is included in the "CLF Northeast U.S. & Canada Embodied Carbon Policy Case Studies" report.
In Progress
The City of Newton became the 2nd city in MA (after Cambridge) to require projects to calculate and report embodied carbon in projects. The city council unanimously passed the bill and is now incorporated into zoning language. Newton now requires projects over 20,000 SF with a special permit to calculate and report the embodied carbon of their projects. Right now, all projects in Newton over 20,000 SF need to go through the special permitting process, so this will affect a good amount of projects. To get the permit, teams will need to (early in the design process) have a discussion on how they will submit the embodied carbon data along with construction documents. There will be a second submittal at the time of permitting where they will need to report the embodied carbon of their project and compare it against a baseline for the type of project that it is. Local baselines are not yet defined, so in the meantime they will use CLF benchmarks.
Resolution passed in 2021.
Brookline passed a Resolution to mandate low carbon concrete in all municipal construction, enacted Fall 2021. It includes both buildings and paving surfaces. Low-carbon concrete products are defined as those that produce at least 10% less CO2 emissions in their production and use, than the average mixture. The Resolution passed Brookline’s Town Meeting unanimously.