Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Industrial  -  January 6, 2025

NYSDOT Receives Grant for Low-Carbon Materials

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has received a $32 million grant to advance the use of low-carbon materials in construction projects. 

The funding from the Federal Highway Administration will help further NYSDOT’s ongoing efforts to identify and use construction materials that have lower levels of embodied carbon, which lower GHG emissions. The money was provided via the Low-Carbon Transportation Materials Grants program, which was established under the Inflation Reduction Act and provides funding for the use of construction materials that result in substantially lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Whether it’s droughts, wildfires or record-breaking snowstorms, New Yorkers are feeling the effects of climate change in their daily lives, and these low carbon grants are an important tool in our efforts to stop it,” Governor Hochul said in a statement. “This funding from the Biden-Harris Administration will help us use cleaner materials in our transportation projects, which will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere and advance our battle against climate change.”

Embodied carbon refers to the estimate of the GHG emissions that are produced during the stages of a building or infrastructure’s life cycle. Embodied carbon accounts for about one-third of the carbon emissions from the construction industry. Selecting and procuring lower embodied carbon materials requires transparency around the embodied carbon associated with a given material or product to allow for comparisons.

The funding will allow NYSDOT’s Low Carbon Transportation Materials program to continue to work to identify low carbon materials, adopt lower carbon specifications for large volume materials for state projects and develop standards for reducing the environmental impact from construction materials. Specifically, the funding will help NYSDOT:

• Develop and implement outreach and training for agency staff and industry stakeholders.
• Evaluate low carbon materials to ensure they meet technical and performance requirements.
• Develop or update technical specifications to allow for use of materials, products and strategies that result in lower embodied carbon materials.
• Establish a process to identify, verify and use materials with lower levels of embodied GHG emissions.

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