UMass Amherst Receives $6.4 Million from EPA for Steel Industry Carbon Footprint Reduction

The building and construction industry accounts for 37% of global greenhouse emissions—and the steel production process can be a significant contributor to these emissions. To steer the industry in a new direction, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been selected to lead a $6.37 million five-year grant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“We’re trying to recalibrate the industry,” says Kara Peterman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst and lead researcher on the project. “What can we do in these 5 years of EPA funding to propel us 50 years in the future? We are trying to transform an industry, not make temporary or incremental change.”

Currently, the environmental impact of construction materials is described in a document called an environmental product declaration (EPD). EPDs describe the whole lifecycle of the product, including energy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and the ultimate carbon footprint.

However, there are several limitations to this process. “EPDs are costly to make—as a result, we only have a handful of steel makers with EPDs,” says Peterman. She also adds that EPDs vary widely in detail and quality, and there’s inherent distrust across the construction materials industry as to where the data supporting these EPDs come from. Altogether, this creates a transparency issue in the industry.

“The ultimate goal is more and better EPDs,” she says. “There are thousands of steel makers in the United States and we want to expand access to data and software so that every single one of them can have an EPD.”

With this $6.37 million grant, Peterman’s team will create a free EPD generator tool. She also wants to establish industry trust in EPDs with a national database of these reports so that there can be an industry standard to measure against.

Another key aspect of this project is retraining industry professionals. “We need to train engineers to use EPDs, and to recognize what makes a product less energy-intensive than another,” she says. “We need to train steelmakers how to use our tool once we create it. We need to build trust in our industry and across all construction industries by being completely transparent with our data.” At the student level, she sees a reimagining of the current steel curriculum to focus on carbon emissions instead of pure cost or time savings.

“I’m thrilled to be working closely with the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Iron and Steel Institute, in addition to the  20 different steel and sustainable construction organizations who are supporting the work,” says Peterman. “We’re demonstrating that we have the access to reach every corner of the industry. We have a broad base of support and that will be the key to our success.”

This is part of nearly $160 million in grants from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at supporting the renewal of American manufacturing by helping businesses produce low-carbon materials.