Biden’s ‘Buy Clean Task Force’ aims to create more jobs, boost U.S. competitiveness

The White House announced it will be making advances on ‘clean manufacturing’ by launching the Buy Clean Task Force that will support the making of low-carbon materials in factories.

White House task force aims to reward American manufacturers of ‘clean’ steel and aluminum (Photo: Spencer Davis on Unsplash)

As directed by Biden’s December 2021 executive order to make the federal government more in tune with sustainability practices and initiatives, the Task Force will promote the use of construction materials with lower embodied emissions and pollutants across their lifecycle.

The multi-agency Buy Clean Task Force is being set up to help “create markets for low carbon materials,” by the Council on Environmental Quality and White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy.

The Biden-Harris administration said this will create more jobs and boost competitiveness in global markets.

According to a press release from the White House, the advancement of carbon-based trade policies will seek to reward manufacturers of clean steel and aluminum.

The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages a nationwide federal real estate portfolio and oversees approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, is reported to have made significant progress toward this initiative. Over the past year, the GSA has worked alongside stakeholders to learn and adopt best practices for reducing embodied emissions of buildings and materials.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is also announcing new efforts to support the use of low-carbon materials in federal transportation projects and reduce lifecycle emissions of construction materials used in transportation infrastructure.

A new pilot program will target key products and services to increase the use of Environmental Product Declarations and incentivize the acquisition of low-carbon materials.