Robust models are needed to assess how and which underutilised wood resources can be used in construction in an effective and sustainable way to maximise the carbon sequestration and to minimise negative climatic and environmental effects.
WoodStock uses these models:
- Material Flow Analysis (MFA) for supply-demand quantification of underutilised resources
- current and improved models for Harvested Wood Products (HWP) accounting
- holistic sustainability framework with dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (d-LCA)
Data collection and resource mapping includes:
- reviewing national and international databases, statistics, reports, and scientific papers for data that can be used in the MFA, HWP and LCA models
- mapping, quantifying and characterising forest-derived resources throughout the value chain, including imports and exports at national and European levels
- including resources such as standing forests, harvested wood products, by-products, and post-consumer wood
WoodStock will analyse wood resources and their use in European buildings, focusing on selected individual countries (such as Norway, Finland, France, Slovenia) and then scaling up to a regional European level. This model will provide insights into the possibilities and constraints of wood utilisation in European buildings, as well as its potential for climate mitigation.
Lone Ross
project partner NIBIO
Material Flow Analysis (MFA) for supply-demand quantification of underutilised resources
The MFA includes four steps:
- analysing the building stock
- developing a Material Flow Analysis Model
- developing a dynamic stock model
- prepare future scenarios
Analysing the building stock
- quantify wood in the European building stock, lifetimes of buildings and components
- use building typologies and wood intensities from literature and ongoing projects
Developing a Material Flow Analysis model
- create a multilayer quasi-stationary MFA model for wood flows from forests to buildings, with separate layers for total mass and carbon content
- use flow, material intensity data, and transfer coefficients to quantify the wood cycle
- conduct sensitivity analysis to identify key model parameters to support the storylines and identify the potentially most effective system interventions
Developing a dynamic stock model
- develop a dynamic stock model for forests and the built environment
- explore wood resource availability and carbon sequestration potentials
- list possibilities and constraints to use conventional and underutilised wood resources such as post-consumer wood and low-quality wood
Preparing future scenarios
- develop high-level storylines for the future role of wood in European society in the co-creation activities of the Living Labs
- conduct scenario analysis using the dynamic MFA model
- focus on climate mitigation measures under different scenarios for:
- wood product use in buildings, lifetimes, and circularity potential
- wood availability based on sustainable forest management strategies and carbon sequestration
- interventions such as increased use of by-products, lifetime extension, reuse strategies, and new wooden product designs
Improved Harvested Wood Products (HWP) accounting
Since different methods and approaches are allowed for HWP accounting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it is difficult to directly compare carbon storage in wood products between countries. WoodStock will use a production approach with default half-lives and conversion factors to compare carbon storage in HWP for European countries and model scenarios (see ‘4. Future scenarios’ above).
WoodStock will put forward a new HWP model for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reporting, a tier 3-level method based on material flows, rather than half-lives and decay models. This will enhance the activity data necessary to attain higher tier levels for HWP reporting and a way to easily integrate reused, reclaimed and underutilised wood materials.
Holistic sustainability framework with dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (d-LCA)
Carbon sequestration in wood and other biobased building materials can capture and store biogenic carbon and contribute to carbon reduction in the building stock. However, current dynamic LCA methods that account for carbon sequestration in wood products are too complex for the wood and building industry.
WoodStock aims to develop an accessible, robust and transparent method that can be adopted by the wood and building industry to include temporal carbon removal and can fit the underutilised wood streams.
Existing biogenic modelling approaches within LCA will be mapped and their ability to model underutilised wood streams will be compared. Main challenges include their ability to model prolonged carbon storage in case of reused wood or the allocation of impacts when modelling residual wood streams.
Image source: www.canadianwood.in
The d-LCA approach will be supplemented with a societal and economic perspective, to obtain a holistic sustainability framework encompassing all three sustainability angles. Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) will be used as a method to include social aspects such as local employment and the effect on well-being. The d-LCA approach and the sustainability framework will be used to validate and assess the zero-waste solutions developed within WoodStock.
d-LCA will be used to estimate the effect of future scenarios on the use of circular wood products in buildings, and the consequences it brings in terms of environmental impacts and carbon storage compared to building-as-usual scenarios. These future scenarios are based on the high-level storylines developed in the co-creation activities of the Living Labs and inspired by anticipated policy changes that stimulate a higher use of wood in buildings or incentivise the reuse of wood in new buildings or renovations.
