Summary
Details
- Colorado
Design teams, contractors and material suppliers on covered projects that provide the following “eligible materials”:
- Asphalt and Asphalt Mixtures
- Cement and Concrete Mixtures
- Glass
- Post-tension Steel
- Reinforcing Steel
- Structural Steel
- Wood Structural Elements
Deep dive
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Introduction
The Buy Clean Colorado Act, enacted in 2021, amends Colorado’s construction-bidding statutes to limit the global-warming potential of certain materials used in state public projects. It is codified mainly in C.R.S. 24-92-117 (buildings and non-road projects) and 24-92-118 (roads, highways and bridges).
The law defines “eligible materials” for buildings to include asphalt and asphalt mixtures, cement and concrete mixtures, glass, post-tension steel, reinforcing steel, structural steel and wood structural elements. For CDOT’s transportation projects, eligible materials focus on asphalt and asphalt mixtures, cement and concrete mixtures and steel. The OSA and CDOT must set maximum acceptable GWP limits for each category of eligible materials, based on industry-average data from nationally or internationally recognised EPD databases, and review those limits at least every four years without making them less stringent.
The Act works by tying these limits to procurement: on covered projects, designers must specify materials that meet the relevant GWP limits, and contractors cannot install eligible materials until compliant EPDs have been submitted and accepted (subject to narrow waiver conditions).
Reporting implications for companies
The Act creates concrete reporting and data-management obligations for suppliers, contractors and design teams that provide eligible materials to covered state projects.
For state building and non-transport projects, the OSA explains that the Act applies to state public projects where the total project cost exceeds USD 500,000 and the solicitation is issued on or after 1 January 2024. “Eligible projects” exclude maintenance programmes and any road, highway or bridge project; those are handled under CDOT’s separate programme.
For CDOT-supervised public projects, “public project” generally means a transport project above USD 250,000 in anticipated expenditure, and CDOT’s EPD protocol currently applies the Buy Clean requirements to projects with an engineer’s estimate over USD 3 million, with the expectation this threshold may fall over time.
In practical terms, companies that manufacture, supply or install eligible materials on covered projects, among other requirements, need to:
Obtain compliant Type III EPDs: EPDs must be current, product-specific, third-party verified Type III declarations that cover life-cycle stages A1–A3 (cradle-to-gate) and cite the relevant ISO standards (ISO 14025, 14040, 14044 and 21930) and applicable Product Category Rules (PCRs).
Integrate EPDs into design and bidding documents: For OSA-covered projects, designers awarded contracts must include current Type III EPD requirements for each eligible material in project specifications before final construction documents are released.
Submit EPDs and obtain approval before installation: On both building and transport projects, contractors may not install eligible materials until the relevant EPDs have been submitted and deemed compliant with the specifications or policy.
For companies, this effectively turns Colorado’s state construction market into a GHG-reporting environment for key materials: EPD readiness, data quality and ongoing monitoring of GWP limits become central to winning and delivering public projects.
Current status and future outlook
HB21-1303 was signed into law in July 2021. The statute sets staggered timelines: for CDOT projects, contractors have been required to submit EPDs for eligible materials on bids issued on or after 1 July 2022, with GWP-limit compliance becoming mandatory from mid-2025 once CDOT finalised its policy and limit values.
On the building side, OSA’s programme applies to state public projects above USD 500,000 with solicitations from 1 January 2024, and OSA now publishes GWP limits and standard forms for EPD submittals and waivers online. Both OSA and CDOT have begun running regular trainings and webinars for agencies, higher-education institutions and industry stakeholders to support compliance and data quality.
Looking ahead, the law is designed to become more demanding over time. Statutory review cycles prohibit relaxing the limits, and CDOT’s policy signals that:
project cost thresholds for EPD requirements may be lowered,
more materials and bid-item categories will be covered, and
expectations around facility-specific and supply-chain-specific data will increase.
Companies that supply construction materials into Colorado’s public sector should therefore treat EPD capability and embodied-carbon performance as long-term, strategic requirements rather than one-off box-ticking exercises.
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