CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — The Biden administration is asking companies to cut back on carbon and using a south-central Pennsylvania company as the benchmark.
"42% of emissions come from the built environment," said Robin Carnahan, U.S. General Services Administrator.
Carnahan visited Vitro's South Middleton Township facility on Thursday alongside a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The company's Carlisle facility opened in 1972, making industrial glass for building construction.
It's the nation's first EPA Energy Star-certified flat glass facility, using specialized oxygen-fueled gas furnaces to produce tons of low-embodied carbon panes.
"That process reduces the amount of natural gas that's burned in the process by about 20%," said Paul Bush, vice president of sustainability, technical services and government affairs at Vitro.
Vitro said it also lowers emissions, helping the company meet GSA standards that make it eligible for federal improvement projects.
"What we're doing with inflation reduction act money, $3.4 billion, is to try to figure out how to modernize our federal buildings," Carnahan said.
Vitro is installing vacuum insulating glass in a federal building in Washington, D.C. as part of a GSA program.
The company said it offers four to five times better insulation than standard windows and can help save on energy costs.
Vitro's Solarban glass will be installed in a Richmond courthouse, blocking out the sun to make the building easier to cool.
The company's installation at a Kansas City courthouse will be even bigger.
"The amount of glass is the size of three football fields," Carnahan said.
GSA hopes to incentivize more companies to follow Vitro's lead.
"We're seeing that there isn't a greater expense for the low-embodied carbon construction materials," said Jennie Romer, EPA's deputy assistant administrator for pollution prevention.
GSA is supporting low-embodied carbon products in Pennsylvania, planning to spend $63 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds on companies in the Commonwealth.