GMA Insights | Top Q&A for SCoBA’s RFP for Low-carbon Cement

On April 8, 2026, the Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance (SCoBA), a program of GMA and RMI, launched its pilot procurement to accelerate the market for low-carbon cement. Since then, SCoBA has hosted a webinar targeted to suppliers (available to view here) and collected a number of questions about the RFP.

RFP questions and answers were published on April 27, grouped around common themes of ongoing and future engagement opportunities, applicability of the RFP to public procurement, registry development, RFP eligibility, and the content of RFP submissions. If you’re a supplier interested in participating in this RFP process, we invite you to take a look at the most frequently asked questions and answers below, and review the complete collection here. It is encouraging to see the strong engagement to date – there is clear enthusiasm to progress this market and we look forward to a robust set of RFP responses.

Top 3 Questions About the Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance Pilot RFP

• Will a registry rulebook be developed by SCoBA Organizers? How can the winning respondent expect to interact with the registry?Ownership, tracking, and retirement of EACs will be managed consistent with the Book and Claim Framework and AIM Platform Standard and Guidance. Registries are considered best practice for long-term scalability and transparency of book and claim systems, and SCoBA intends to develop or partner with a centralized registry to support issuance, tracking, and retirement of EACs beginning in the second half of 2026.

  If an interim tracking mechanism is used, contractual terms will recognize the interim mechanism to ensure EAC integrity and enforceability. For more on this, please see Section 2.3 of the Introductory Materials.

  Internal supplier registries do not meet SCoBA’s registry requirements for this RFP. For this RFP, the selected Respondent(s) is/are required to work with SCoBA Organizers to ensure that the environmental attributes procured as a result of this RFP are registered appropriately at the time of cement EAC delivery and for subsequent retirement.

• Are supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) producers eligible to respond to this RFP?SCoBA Organizers welcome SCM producers to respond to this RFP in partnership with a cement producer. As this procurement focuses on the cement functional unit, SCM technologies are eligible only when incorporated into a cement product that meets the RFP’s criteria including the emissions threshold. Section 2.1 of the Book and Claim Framework articulates the current approach to SCMs and describes a separate ongoing exploration into the potential for direct EAC issuance for SCM producers.
• How does physical delivery fit into the context of EAC delivery? How can physical offtakers get involved in SCoBA?EACs are generated at the point of sale, after the physical cement product is produced and shipped, at which point the environmental attributes are decoupled and transferred separately to EAC purchasers. Physical offtakers receive the cement through conventional supply chains. To avoid risk of double counting, the physical product recipient is limited to qualitative claims as outlined in Section 2.5.4 of the Introductory Materials. For more information on physical claims, please review Section 8 of the Book and Claim Framework.

  SCoBA procurements may incorporate a physical purchase opportunity where relevant and feasible.

The RFP is open until June 19! Companies with Scope 3 cement and concrete emissions who are interested in purchasing through this pilot procurement can explore SCoBA membership by emailing info@buildscoba.org.