Extreme chronic and acute heat exposes millions of American lives to dangerous health risks and threatens our infrastructure. Yet there are many physical solutions available to mitigate the risk of heat to people and systems in our built environments. Despite clear evidence that heat exposure is a substantial challenge to human health, economic vitality, and the goals of the Justice40 initiative, very little has been done to galvanize viable markets for materials and technologies that can improve heat resilience.

In order to spur demand and send a strong signal for beneficial private sector innovation and scale, the federal government can lead by example to drive the market for products and services that build heat resilience. The General Services Administration (GSA) should require new and existing public structures (e.g. buildings and parking lots), products, supplies, and service procurement to meet minimum requirements for heat adaptation. These requirements could be adapted from existing green codes (e.g., ASHRAE 189.1 and IEA’s Annex 80) that recognize some of the non-energy benefits of heat-resilient materials and products, recognized supply chain vulnerabilities due to extreme heat (e.g. specialty crops, commodity crops, livestock, pharmaceutical precursors, etc.), and best practices for workplace protections (e.g. Fair Food Program).