Buy Clean California Act: Environmental Product Declarations: concrete.

The State Contract Act governs the bidding and award of public works contracts by specific state departments and requires an awarding department, before entering into any contract for a project, to prepare full, complete, and accurate plans and specifications and estimates of cost. The Buy Clean California Act, requires, among other things, the Department of General Services to establish a maximum acceptable global warming potential for specific eligible materials, which include carbon steel rebar, flat glass, mineral wool board insulation, and structural steel. The Buy Clean California Act requires an awarding authority, as defined, to require a successful bidder to submit a current Environmental Product Declaration, developed in accordance with specified standards, for each type of eligible material proposed to be used on an eligible project, as defined. This bill would require, as part of the Buy Clean California Act, beginning July 1, 2023, an awarding authority to require a successful bidder for a contract for an eligible project, as defined, to submit a report, within 90 days of the completion of the project, that includes the amount used and an Environmental Product Declaration, as defined, that is current at the time of installation for each concrete product used in the project. The bill would require a concrete supplier that is providing concrete products to a successful bidder to provide the successful bidder with an Environmental Product Declaration for each concrete product provided by the supplier to the project. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, on or before January 1, 2025, to establish and publish in the State Contracting Manual, in a department management memorandum, or on the department's internet website, global warming potential (GWP) benchmarks for each performance class of concrete at the regional industry average global warming potential for concrete within each project region, as provided. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the state board, to update, at least once every 3 years, the GWP benchmarks for each performance class of concrete within each project region, as provided. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2025, require an awarding authority to include in a specification for bids for an eligible project a requirement that the total project concrete carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) does not exceed the project concrete CO2e limit and would specify that this requirement also applies to design-build or other project structures. The bill would require an awarding authority to require a successful bidder for a contract for an eligible project to submit, as a part of the report required by this bill described above, an analysis of the total project concrete CO2e demonstrating compliance with that limit. The bill would specify the liability of a supplier of concrete products for an eligible project for penalties and damages that may be imposed by an awarding authority that is attributable to a violation of the requirements of the bill. This bill would exempt from its requirements concrete products under certain conditions. The bill would require an awarding authority, within 45 days of receiving a request for an exemption for concrete products from a successful bidder or a concrete supplier, to provide a successful bidder with a determination as to whether an exemption applies. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would specify that an action to implement the requirements of the bill is not a project for purposes of CEQA.