Reducing the environmental footprint of interior wood doors in non-residential buildings – part 2: ecodesign

Abstract

a b s t r a c tEcodesign is a concept that emerged few decades ago as a response to the larger concept of sustainable development. Multiple tools exist to address ecodesign. Life Cycle Assessment, a comprehensive, robust and recognized evaluation tool, enables to identify the product environmental profile. Based on previous LCA results on interior wood doors, this paper aims at proposing an ecodesign strategy based on the generation and evaluation of alternative scenarios. The three selected targets for environmental improvement are particleboard components, transportation and end-of-life. For the particleboard manufacturing, the use of adhesives based on bio-sourced resources was not very conclusive, except for the use of pine tannins in panel manufacture that showed promising results. Concerning transportation issues, switching from road to rail transportation, as well as having a local supplier, decreased the overall environmental impact of the door. The most notable alternative was the end-of-life recycling scenario. The reutilization of the door core in the door manufacturing process proved a great benefit due to the avoidance of new raw materials production. Developing services around door recovery and remanufacturing seems promising in reducing doors environmental impacts. This scenario would be readily viable and realistic.

Life Cycle Assessment of Plywood Manufacturing Process in China

“…In the preparation of all raw materials, veneer production presented the highest contribution to all environmental categories (Figure 3). Veneer manufacturing consists of five main processes: Log debarking, log cut-off, softening of logs, peeling the logs into veneers, and drying the veneers [12]. The first step of debarking by debarking machines represents remaining waste in the forest industry; thus, the debarking subsystem was a primary contributor to all impact categories.…”

Four Sustainability Paradigms for Environmental Management: A Methodological Analysis and an Empirical Study Based on 30 Italian Industries

“…Time is crucial in any LCA, whereas space is considered in versions of LCA that are based on donor-side (i.e., production) sources for energies (e.g., emergy in [67,68]), user-side (i.e., consumption) destinations for energies (e.g., exergy in [69,70]), and recycled content (i.e., production) for materials (e.g., [71,72]); in contrast, space is disregarded in versions of LCA based on end-of-life recycling (i.e., consumption) for materials (e.g., [73,74]). …”

From Economic General Equilibrium to Ecological System Services for Nature Conservation and Management: A Methodological Analysis and an Empirical Study Based on 30 Italian Industries

“…If time and space are relevant, the net present value is common to CBA and MCA, whereas the benefit-cost ratio and internal rate of return are peculiar to CBA, where the benefits and costs are assumed to be properly evaluated. Time is crucial in any LCA, whereas space is considered in versions of LCA that are based on donor-side (i.e., production) sources for energies (e.g., emergy in Bala Gala et al, 2015;Raugei et al, 2014), user-side (i.e., consumption) destinations for energies (e.g., exergy in Hamut et al, 2014;Koroneos & Stylos, 2014), and recycled content (i.e., production) for materials (e.g., Ardente & Mathieux, 2014;Johnson et al, 2013); in contrast, space is disregarded in versions of LCA based on end-of-life recycling (i.e., consumption) for materials (e.g., Silvestre et al, 2014;Cobut et al, 2015). In the case of uncertainty, the sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, fuzzy analysis, the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and the expected-value approach are common to both CBA and MCA, whereas the expected-utility or mean-variance approaches are peculiar to CBA, with probabilities determined under the assumption that benefits and costs are properly evaluated.…”