Contractors say embodied-carbon and EPD requirements could add substantial upfront costs

Tim Atterberry, with the Associated General Contractors of Washington, told the State Building Code Council work group that pilot projects implementing Environmental Product Declarations, or EPDs, generated substantial unbudgeted costs for contractors and project teams.

Atterberry said an email from Craig Holt, a former SBCC member who led a pilot EPD project at the University of Tacoma, showed that suppliers and fabricators billed tens of thousands of dollars for EPD work and that managing the process required weeks of staff time. “The project had to pay our mass timber supplier…