LCA study reveals the strong environmental performance

THE American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) will promote the environmental credentials of American hardwoods amid a growing green building movement in the Middle East.

The announcement follows the first critical review meeting for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research into American hardwoods, which was held at the PE International offices in Stuttgart.

PE International presented the goal and scope report to a very high profile review panel, which is expected to have a positive bearing on the credibility of the research once the results have been approved and published.

The first stage of the critical review focused on the aims and method of the research, including data collection and the PE modeling system, which will allow US hardwood companies to develop LCA impacts for their own lumber and veneer production.

The current study scope outlined by PE International does not cover the full ‘cradle to grave’ life cycle including impacts of product fabrication in export markets and key issues of product durability and end-of-life.

However, having prepared EPDs for lumber and veneer, it is Ahec’s intention to work with manufacturing industries to develop a modeling system for products (furniture, flooring, joinery), which will be used to create examples of full life cycle.

As such, AHEC has decided to always publish results for lumber and veneer showing impacts with and without carbon sequestration. It was also agreed that Ahec would obtain input from those members who have not yet taken part in the data collection.

“Of all the numerous environmental benefits of American hardwoods, just one should make many users and specifiers of building materials sit up and take notice,” said Roderick Wiles, AHEC director for Africa, Middle East, India
and Oceania.

“This is the fact - supported by national forest assessments undertaken by the US federal government every ten years – that between 1953 and 2007, the volume of hardwood standing in US forests more than doubled from 5 billion cu m to 11.4 billion cu m. This huge expansion of the resource, which actually coincides with a period of significant increase in US and international wood demand, is testament to a long-term commitment to good forest governance and sustainable hardwood production in the US.”

“Preliminary data released from the LCA study reveals the strong environmental performance of American hardwoods - underpinned by an expanding forest resource, sustainable management and low carbon emissions,” Wiles added.

“Particularly encouraging is the carbon footprint of kiln dried American hardwood lumber which shows that sequestration of carbon during the growth of the tree more than offsets total carbon emissions during extraction, processing and shipment to the Middle East.”

“Given the growing acceptance of EPDs, particularly in Europe where they provide the foundation for all the leading green building rating systems like DGNB (Germany), BREEAM (UK and the Netherlands) and HQE (France), we remain optimistic that our efforts to provide science-based information on the environmental credentials of American hardwoods will help architects and specifiers to select the material on the basis of full environmental disclosure,” concluded Wiles.