ESG in Construction

Burress, Ellie

Student Work

ESG in Construction

Public Deposited

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) is a policy framework for any entity to measure and increase the sustainability of its practices. Whereas "environment" refers to abiotic and biotic non-human habitat elements of an area and their interactions, “social” refers to human social behavior, and governance refers to internal rulemaking, regulation, and enforcement by the organization whose ESG maturity is being considered. Within an ESG framework, levels of sustainability are measured as ESG maturity: a combination of its ambition to improve its adherence to ESG principles and the extent to which it has accomplished this. An example of the use of an ESG framework is the development of a practice to decrease the adverse environmental and social impacts of one of the largest suppliers of general contractors, which is considered to have one of the highest adverse environmental impacts in the building materials industry: concrete manufacturers. To that end, this project aims to provide Turner Construction Company with resources for accessing funds made available by America’s greatest single investment in renewable energy: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), focusing on the Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant and 48C Advanced Project Energy Credit (48C). While both provisions are found to promote social sustainability through application requirements regarding apprenticeship and wages, 48C enforces environmental justice by requiring a minimum of the projects awarded aid to be in or near disadvantaged communities. The two other most documented ways these provisions promote environmental sustainability are by financially supporting concrete manufacturers’ transitions to renewable energy and materials and products with lower embodied emissions. Deliverables include the presentation of a bibliography organized by topic, a project management tool, and this report to Turner and the public for promoting the transition of concrete manufacturers of the U.S. to ESG frameworks.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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