(a) By January 1, 2022, the department, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, shall 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 following requirements:

(1) The department shall set the maximum acceptable global warming potential at the industry average of facility-specific global warming potential emissions for that material with a phase-in period of not more than two years. The department shall determine the industry average by consulting recognized databases of environmental product declarations. If the department determines that the facility-specific environmental product declarations available do not adequately represent the industry as a whole, it may use industrywide environmental product declarations based on domestic production data in its calculation of the industry average. When determining the industry averages pursuant to this paragraph, the department should include all stages of manufacturing required by the relevant product category rule. However, when setting the initial industry average, the department may exclude emissions that occur during fabrication stages, and make reasonable judgments aligned with the product category rule.

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(2) The department shall express the maximum acceptable global warming potential as a number that states the maximum acceptable facility-specific global warming potential for each category of eligible materials. The department may set different maximums for different products within each category and, when more than one set of product category rules exists for a category or set of products, may set a different maximum for each set of product category rules. The global warming potential shall be provided in a manner that is consistent with criteria in an Environmental Product Declaration.

(b) The department, by January 1, 2022, shall 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 pursuant to subdivision (a). The report required by this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with § 9795 of the Government Code.

(c) By January 1, 2025, and every three years thereafter, the department shall review the maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible materials established pursuant to subdivision (a), and may adjust that number downward for any eligible material to reflect industry improvements if the department, based on the process described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), determines that the industry average has changed, but the department shall not adjust that number upward for any eligible material. At that time, the department shall update the State Contracting Manual, department management memorandum, or information available on the department’s internet website, to reflect that adjustment.

(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 77, Sec. 23. (AB 137) Effective July 16, 2021.)