A Comparative Study on Life Cycle Assessment of Typical Wood base Furniture

Abstract

Abstract. The assessment of environmental performance was carried out to identify the environmental impact of three typical solid wood based furniture: A beech wood desk (P1), A white oak-and-fabric sofa (P2), A rubber wood wardrobe (P3). A field research of company' s manufacturing plant was conducted in order to investigate the production process as well as collect the inventory data under assessment. Life cycle environmental impact were assessed throughout subjects' life cycle by utilizing LCA software tool (Simapro) and Eco-indicator 99 method. The damage impact under study including three main categories: Ecosystem Quality, Human Health, Resources. The results showed that P1 has the smallest negative impact (22.1 pt) compares to P2(57.3 pt) and P3 (142 pt). Hot spots and key environmental processes were also identified. Moreover, key processes and impact categories as well as damage per unit mass had been addressed and analyzed respectively. Improvement alternatives were suggested to improve environmental performance of solid wood base furniture at the end of the article.

Environmental sustainability assessment of wooden furniture produced in Pakistan

“…Many LCA studies have shown that wooden products generally have favorable environmental profiles as compared with other competing products such as plastics, concrete, steel and iron (Glover et al, 2002;Werner and Nebel, 2007). Many studies have been conducted on LCA of wooden furniture in other countries of the world such as Europe (González-García et al, 2009a), China (Wang et al, 2016), Germany (Wenker et al, 2018), and Brazil (Medeiros et al, 2017). González-García et al (2012) conducted a comprehensive study on environmental profile of a wooden childhood furniture to propose an effective benchmark for its eco-labeling.…”

“…The data was analyzed by using SimaPro v8.5 (Wang et al, 2016;Mirabella et al, 2014). This software was developed by PRé-Consultants (González-García et al, 2011).…”

“…This software was developed by PRé-Consultants (González-García et al, 2011). The environmental impact categories were analyzed by using CML 2 baseline 2000 V2.05 methodology in the SimaPro v 8.5 (Wang et al, 2016;Mirabella et al, 2014). Cumulative energy demand (CED) was evaluated for woodbased furniture set in Mardan Division during 2018-19.…”

“…Wood has been used as an efficient raw material for different purposes such as construction, furniture, locomotive interiors, and packing (Nakano et al, 2018;Gasol et al, 2008). Wood is the most favorable material by the industries (Werner and Nebel, 2007;Wang et al, A abordagem de avaliação do ciclo de vida foi realizada para um conjunto de móveis de madeira convencional produzido na divisão Mardan da província de Khyber Pakhtunkhwa do Paquistão durante 2018-19. Os dados primários sobre entradas e saídas foram coletados por meio de pesquisas por questionário de 100 fabricantes de conjuntos de móveis de madeira convencionais, 50 no distrito de Mardan e 50 no distrito de Swabi.…”

The application of Life Cycle Assessment in sustainable furniture system design

“…When designing furniture, it is essential to define the most impacting components, like seatback for chair, and reduce the dimension (Laemlaksakul and Sangsai, 2013), e.g. reducing the thickness by conducting Finite Element Analysis (Wang, Su and Zhu, 2016). Advanced technology in the production processes could improve eco-efficiency by minimizing raw materials (Ika Rinawati et al, 2018).…”