Built environment causes approximately 40 per cent of the all greenhouse gas emissions. European Union has started many standardization works to assess environmental impacts of construction works. One of the main themes is to reduce greenhouse gas emission from the build environment. EU has set targets to decrease energy use and greenhouse gas emission, and on other hand increase the energy efficiency and use of the renewable energy by year 2020.
In the last decade many life-cycle assessment studies have been done to evaluate environmental impacts of the wood-based building products. Many of these studies have been focused on the carbon footprint assessment, which is an important tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and influence on the global warming. However, different assessment methods are not compatible; there are a disagreement on the allocation procedure in the multi output processes, carbon neutrality of the renewable energy and carbon storage capacity of the wood-based materials. Fair assessment methods for the building sector should be agreed and introduced in EU level. This harmonization work can take some time, but it is vital for the common LCA methodology used in assessments.
Keywords: Life-cycle assessment, carbon footprint, wood-based products
Authors
Linkosalmi L.
Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University, Aalto
Paajanen O.
Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University, Aalto
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