Successful Appeal of “Buy Clean”-Like Product Procurement Addendum

AWC successfully appealed “Addendum ak” to the ASHRAE 189.1 and the International Green Construction Code, which would have required the inclusion of a “Buy Clean”-like product procurement. ASHRAE 189.1 is a widely used and impactful standard. Therefore, AWC was highly engaged in fighting against Addendum ak to prevent the adoption of the Buy Clean language that would have created unfair burdens for wood products.

Without the appeal, the standard would have required the Buy Clean procurement process for all building materials that cost more than 5% of the total building materials cost. Additionally, 15% of those products would be required to demonstrate that they are below 125% of the industry average for Global Warming Potential (embodied carbon) through product-specific EPDs. Like Buy Clean, this would have compared materials within their own category (concrete to concrete, steel to steel), preventing naturally low embodied carbon materials such as wood from competing fairly.

Now that the provision has been appealed, AWC has stayed actively involved to ensure that no additional provisions are added that would result in similar burdens for wood products. Instead, AWC is working with ASHRAE to rewrite the Materials chapter of the standard to better incorporate a Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment approach, which would help prevent these types of provisions in the future and establish an equal playing field for the comparison of building materials.