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SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: 11/22/2021  
Subject:    CONSIDER REFERRAL from Board of Supervisors regarding letter from Sustainability Commission recommending actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Submitted For: John Kopchik, Director, Conservation & Development Department
Department: Conservation & Development  
Referral No.:  
Referral Name: CONSIDER REFERRAL from Board of Supervisors regarding letter from Sustainability Commission recommending actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
Presenter: Jody London, DCD, and Steve Kowalewski, Public Works Contact: Jody London (925)655-2815

Information
Referral History:
On August 3, 2021, the Board of Supervisors referred to the Sustainability Committee a letter received from the Contra Costa County Sustainability Commission on July 17, 2021, that recommends actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. The Sustainability Commission’s Green Building subcommittee developed four recommendations: All-electric requirements for new buildings, Procurement policies and lifecycle GHG analysis, Buy Clean California Act specifications, and Adaptability and repurposing of public buildings.
Referral Update:
Staff is supportive of the recommendations because they are consistent with the County’s Climate Action Plan and will have a positive impact on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from County facilities and operations. Staff is working on implementing the recommendations and we have summarized our research findings and provided updates on status where appropriate below.

1. All-electric requirements for new buildings
The Sustainability Commission fully supports current work by County staff to develop all-electric building reach codes for new construction in both public and private sectors. We recommend the adoption of a prescriptive, rather than performance-based, reach code.

The Department of Conservation and Development (DCD) is leading the work on an all-electric ordinance for new construction. DCD expects to bring a first read version of the draft ordinance to the Board of Supervisors before the end of the year.

2. Procurement policies and lifecycle GHG analysis
We recommend adoption of procurement standards that incorporate total lifecycle GHG analyses. Products and materials should be selected with consideration for their recovery, resale and reuse potential. Such policies will result not only in reducing lifetime GHG emissions but also bring cost savings over the long-term, factoring in operations, durability, and maintenance.

The Interim Climate Action Work Plan for 2021-2022 set a goal of updating the County's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing policy (EPP) by the end of 2022. Purchasing staff reviewed the recommendation for adoption of procurement standards that incorporate total life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions analysis. Purchasing staff plan to update the County’s current EPP policy, dated April 15, 2008, to add to current statements on this topic. Purchasing staff plans to incorporate specific standards to reduce GHG emissions and consider recovery, resale, and reuse potential including considering cost savings over the long-term, factoring in operations, durability, and maintenance. Staff is reviewing the paper, Circular Economy: Principles for Building Design, in addition to other public agencies’ procurement standards, and participating in a webinar on November 16th hosted by The Center for Corporate Climate Leadership: Working with Supplier to Reduce Scope 3 Emissions. After the webinar and additional research, staff will continue drafting the EPP. When a draft EPP is ready for review, staff will report to the Sustainability Committee and Sustainability Commission with recommendations to reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions through the adoption of procurement standards in an updated EPP policy that considers lifecycle GHG analysis.

3. Buy Clean California specifications
The Buy Clean California Act states the Department of General Services (DGS) is required to establish and publish the maximum acceptable Global Warming Potential (GWP) limit for select construction materials.

We recommend that the county’s Requests for Proposals require use of the construction materials identified by Buy Clean California. These materials currently include structural steel, concrete reinforcing steel, flat glass, and mineral board insulation.

The Buy Clean California Act (Public Contract Code 3500-3505) requires successful bidders on State contracts to submit, for eligible materials, a facility-specific environmental product declaration (EPD) for that material. The Buy Clean California Act was later modified by AB137 to codify new deadline timeframes for the development of Global Warming Potential (GPW) and for Caltrans to report back to the Legislature on implementation of the Act. The current law only applies to state agencies, the Regents of the University of California, and the Trustees of the California State University. Eligible materials include structural steel, concrete reinforcing steel, flat glass, and mineral board insulation. The EPD discloses the life cycle environmental performance of products using pre-determined parameters. The Department of General Services for the State of California is required by January 1, 2022, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, establish a maximum acceptable GPW for each category of eligible materials. The purpose of establishing the GPW is to reduce GHG emissions for materials used in construction of public works projects. The State’s General Services Department is required to submit to the Legislature by July 1, 2023 a report on any obstacles to the implementation of the Act. Caltrans has spearheaded several pilot projects to determine any issues with the process of requesting EPDs and enforcing specifications to address the process and outcome.

The County will continue to monitor the progress on the efforts described in California Public Contract Code Section 3500-3505 and the Caltrans pilot projects. The County uses Caltrans specifications for County road projects. Although Caltrans has developed a contract specification for the Buy Clean California Act, the “Non-Standard Special Provision” is only to be used on the pilot projects. We will monitor any changes to the Caltrans specifications related to EPDs and GPWs for certain construction materials and incorporate into County projects when appropriate. It is staff’s recommendation to follow Caltrans’ lead rather than the County undertaking a separate effort to incorporate these concepts into project specifications.

For County building projects, the County has set a minimum LEED certification standard. The LEED scoring process includes points for EPDs. As we learn more from the Caltrans pilot projects, we will review and consider changes to construction specifications to address EPDs and GPW of eligible materials.

Caltrans is also looking at expanding the eligible list of materials to include concrete, asphalt concrete and aggregates and has required EPDs to be submitted for their pilot projects.

Staff is supportive of the Commission’s recommendation and will continue to monitor the pilot projects. When appropriate, staff will move forward with incorporating the Buy Clean California Act into County project specifications.

4. Adaptability and repurposing of public buildings
Promote adaptability and capacity for re-purposing in new and existing public buildings. For example, community centers should be designed with potential for being quickly adapted as cooling and clean air centers or as evacuation support facilities. Planning for such contingencies aligns with the Climate Emergency Resolution, which identifies the need to plan for the needs of the County’s most vulnerable populations.

The ongoing updates to the County’s General Plan and Climate Action Plan include policies and actions on climate resilience. The draft goals and strategies for the Climate Action Plan, which were presented to the Sustainability Commission on October 25, 2021, include as implementation actions to identify existing community facilities that can serve as resilience hubs during hazard events, and to retrofit selected facilities to act as resilience hubs. DCD has requested funding from Measure X for increased staff to provide leadership and coordination to help anticipate and respond to changing conditions from sea level rise.

The County will be preparing a County Facilities Master Plan. This would be an opportunity to consider identifying resilience hubs as part of the evaluation of the entire County’s portfolio of leased and owned facilities. It would also be a good opportunity to engage the County’s Emergency Operations Center staff to evaluate and recommend locations and facilities that would be suitable for resilience hubs for extreme weather or other climate related events.
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
CONSIDER REFERRAL from Board of Supervisors regarding letter from Sustainability Commission recommending actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
Fiscal Impact (if any):
No fiscal impact at this time.
Attachments
Board Referral and Letter from Sustainability Commission

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