Dr. Navneet Garg, from FAA’s Airport Technology Research & Development (ATR) branch, represented the FAA at meetings of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Interagency Label Program Development Team and Interagency Product Category Rules (PCR) Coordination Team on May 10 and 14, 2024, respectively.

As part of EPA’s work funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to shift the market to low-embodied carbon construction materials, EPA created these interagency teams to inform their efforts. The Label Program Development Team is collaborating with EPA to develop a new label for low-embodied carbon construction materials that best meet the needs of the federal agencies who are either procuring these materials or providing federal dollars for others to procure them. The PCR Coordination Team shares updates with those engaged in PCR committees and is working to harmonize PCRs to improve data quality. In a related capacity, Dr. Garg represents the FAA on the Asphalt Institute’s Asphalt Binder PCR committee.

At both meetings, Dr. Garg provided an update on the FAA’s research on low-embodied carbon materials (i.e., warm mix asphalt, recycled asphalt pavement, and an upcoming project on cold central plant recycling). He also provided EPA with a compilation of data gaps and obsolete data in the Federal Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Common’s openLCA software. Along with a team from the University of California, Davis, Dr. Garg is developing a web-based life cycle assessment tool, FAA Life Cycle Analysis (FAALCAn), which uses life cycle inventory data in openLCA.

Dr. Navneet Garg | Navneet.Garg@faa.gov