Life Cycle Assessment of the Environmental Benefits of Using Wood Products and Planting Trees at an All-Electric University Laboratory

Abstract

Many countries across the globe have set targets for different economic sectors, aiming to tackle global warming by reducing the overall carbon footprint of human-related activities. Among these sectors, the building industry stands out as a major consumer of materials and energy resources, making it a key player in achieving carbon neutrality. It is one of the main contributors responsible for energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including both operational emissions and embodied emissions in materials and equipment manufacturing. Nature-based design solutions, such as planting trees in urban spaces, or incorporating the use of wood products, have regained attention in recent years due to their potential to mitigate carbon emissions from buildings. Within this context, this paper presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of a recently built research facility, with a focus on demonstrating how the benefits of nature-based solutions, specifically carbon sequestration from trees and biogenic carbon content in wood products, can be quantified and reported using the latest LCA standards and tools. The analysis is provided under three end-of-life scenarios for wood products: wood incineration with energy recovery, wood landfilling, and wood recycling/repurposing. The results indicate that the set of strategies adopted in this building, i.e., tree planting, the use of wood products, and the end-of-life treatment of materials, can potentially offset carbon emission by 37.2% up to 83.9% when included in the LCA, depending on the scenario considered. By continuing to refine LCA standards and tools, and fostering collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals, we can advance our understanding and ultimately achieve the widespread adoption of carbon-neutral buildings.

TimberTracer: A Comprehensive Framework for the Evaluation of Carbon Sequestration by Forest Management and Substitution of Harvested Wood Products.

“…Typically, LCA is applied to particular instances to evaluate carbon flows within a specific product group or functional unit. It is also utilized to estimate secondary effects, such as substitution or the social values associated with carbon storage (Grossi et al, 2023). This method which has the advantage of providing high accuracy and traceability may hardly be applicable to the national level due to its large data requirements.…”

External Wall Systems in Passive House Standard: Material, Thermal and Environmental LCA Analysis

“…Buildings constructed in accordance with the principles of the passive construction standard can significantly contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as confirmed in LCA, particularly in the building use phases defined as B1 to B6. Passive houses are designed to maximize their energy efficiency, allowing for heating, cooling, and the production of domestic hot water with minimal energy consumption, often utilizing renewable sources [40,41]. This directly results in lower greenhouse gas emissions during phases B1-building use, B6-energy use, and B7-water use.…”