The Buy Clean California Act

California law has the “Buy Clean California Act,” which is contained in the Public Contract Code, Division 2, Part 1, Chapter 3, Article 5. Section 3500 provides the name of the act. Section 3501 defines the following terms: “awarding authority,” “department,” “eligible project,” and “greenhouse gas emissions.”

Section 3502 requires the department, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, to establish, and publish in the State Contracting Manual or a department management memorandum, or make available on the department’s internet website, a maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible materials in accordance with both of the specified requirements.

In addition, the department is required to submit a report to the Legislature that describes the method that the department used to develop the maximum global warming potential for each category of eligible materials. Every three years, the department reviews the maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible materials established, and may adjust that number downward for any eligible material to reflect industry improvements if the department determines that the industry average has changed, but the department does not adjust that number upward for any eligible material.

Section 3503 requires the successful bidder for a contract to submit a current facility-specific Environmental Product Declaration, Type III, or similarly robust life cycle assessment methods that have uniform standards in data collection, industry acceptance, and integrity, for each eligible material proposed to be used.

In addition, an awarding authority must include in a specification for bids for an eligible project that the facility-specific global warming potential for any eligible material does not exceed the maximum acceptable global warming potential for that material. A successful bidder for a contract cannot install any eligible materials on the project until that bidder submits a facility-specific Environmental Product Declaration for that material. There are specified exceptions to this rule.

Section 3504 requires an awarding authority to strive to achieve a continuous reduction of emissions over time.