Since its inception in 1996, the nonprofit Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM; www.corrim.org) has developed comprehensive environmental performance information on wood building materials consistent with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for life-cycle inventory (LCI) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) research. The majority of prior CORRIM work on structural wood products has been published in two special issues of Wood and Fiber Science (CORRIM 2005, CORRIM 2010) based on data collected and analyzed starting in 1999. Many changes that were likely to affect the life-cycle results have occurred since the
In commemorating almost anything, it can be easy to forget what came before the event celebrated. In the case of the Committee on Renewable Resources for Industrial Materials (CORRIM) or, more accurately CORRIM II, the roots are deep, extending at least back to 1970. This report chronicles the events leading up to the creation of the original CORRIM effort, outlines the early history of CORRIM II, and includes observations regarding future directions. The story begins around the time of the first Earth Day, involves a congressionally authorized initiative focused on industrial raw materials that largely ignored renewables, leads to action by the wood science and technology community to include consideration in federal policymaking of wood and agriculturally derived material, and results in the formation of CORRIM I. After a period of several decades during which raw material issues loom progressively larger, the story resumes with the reengagement of the wood science community concurrent with development of a new environmental impact evaluation tool—life-cycle assessment—and concludes with incorporation of CORRIM II in 1996. The end of the story, however, is also the beginning, with much already accomplished but much yet to be done.Abstract
Life-cycle inventory (LCI) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) were used to provide quantitative assessments of the environmental impacts of forest management activities that are required to produce feedstock for wood products such as lumber, engineered panels, and pulp. Primary and secondary data were gathered for the Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir region of the United States to produce an attributional LCA that includes planting, growing, and harvesting trees that are destined for use in wood manufacturing. Using the Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI) method, under average management conditions, forest operations can expect to generate from 10 to 18 kg CO2 equivalent (CO2 eq) per cubic meter (m3) of logs ready to leave the landing for the manufacturing facility, depending on the amount of forest residues that are piled and burned. This same cubic meter of log plus bark will have sequestered 960 kg CO2 eq during its growth cycle, for a net greenhouse gas sink of 942 to 950 kg CO2 eq per m3. Forest management impacts are from 1 to 13 percent of the total impacts from the cradle to gate for global warming potential and the potential to increase smog, eutrophication, and acidification. Upstream impacts associated with the production of herbicides are reflected in the ozone potential impact category. These LCA results can be used as upstream processes for wood manufacturers interested in developing Environmental Product Declarations for products that use these resources as inputs.Abstract
A cradle-to-gate life-cycle inventory was done for 2 by 4 to 2 by 12 dimension lumber produced from logs in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Southeast (SE) regions of the United States. Seven mills in the PNW and 11 mills in the SE provided data for 2012 lumber and coproduct production, raw material and fuel use, electricity consumption, and on-site emissions. The mills represented 17 and 11 percent of the production volumes in the regions, respectively. Five processes existed within the mill, log yard, sawing, drying, planing, and energy generation. Data for the first four processes came exclusively from the survey. The functional unit was 1 m3 of planed dry wood. Data for energy generation were based on a nationwide wood boiler survey that included PNW lumber mills. The cradle-to-gate processing energy in the PNW region was 3,434 MJ/m3 of planed, dry lumber, 96 percent of which is owing to log transport and wood processing. The value was higher, 5,151 MJ/m3, for the SE region in part owing to a higher initial wood moisture content. In each region, more than 70 percent of the energy is from bio-based residuals with less than 30 percent from fossil sources. The global warming impact indicator is 58.7 kg CO2 eq per m3 in the PNW and 81.4 kg CO2 eq per m3 in the SE, of which 85 percent is a result of log transport and processing. Planed, dry lumber from the PNW region stores 856 kg CO2 eq per m3 compared with 935 kg CO2 eq per m3 for lumber from the SE region. The coproducts, emissions, and material and energy inputs are further discussed in this article.Abstract
To keep environmental product declarations current, the underlying life-cycle inventory (LCI) data and subsequent life-cycle assessment data for structural wood products must be updated. Primary data collected from the industry for the year 2012 were analyzed using the weighted-average to update LCIs for laminated veneer lumber (LVL) production on a 1-m3 basis in the Southeast (SE) and Pacific Northwest (PNW) regions of the United States. In addition, cradle-to-gate life-cycle impact assessments (LCIAs) were performed to assess the environmental impacts associated with LVL production for both regions. The cradle-to-gate LCIAs included three life-cycle stages: forestry operations, dry veneer production, and LVL production. The LCIs revealed that the dry veneer life-cycle stage dominated overall primary energy consumption for both the SE and the PNW at 6.83 (68.5%) and 6.75 GJ/m3 (75.3%), respectively. Energy consumption at the veneer stage was based primarily on renewable sources, especially wood fuel consumed on-site for thermal energy generation. In contrast, the LVL production stage was dependent mainly on fossil fuels, where the major resources consumed were natural gas and coal. The LCIA results showed that the veneer production stage dominated the majority of the five impact categories investigated with a greater than 50 percent contribution. Yet the LVL production stage had a significant contribution to the ozone depletion impact category, with 92 and 98 percent of total impact, for the SE and the PNW, respectively, coming from resin production used in LVL manufacturing. Overall, the contribution of forestry operations to the resulting impacts was minor.Abstract
Transparency of environmental impacts for building products is of increasing concern. For wood building products, updating life-cycle assessment (LCA) data are critical to ensure that the corresponding environmental product declarations are of the proper recency to maintain this transparency. This study focused on the developing up-to-date life-cycle inventory (LCI) and associated life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) data for composite I-joist production in the Southeast (SE) and Pacific Northwest (PNW) regions of the United States. Components of the I-joist production system included in the analysis were laminated veneer lumber (LVL), finger-jointed lumber (FJL), and oriented strandboard (OSB), while the study itself considered five life-cycle stages, including forestry operations and I-joist manufacturing, in addition to the production of the components. Primary 2012 production data were collected and analyzed, and the resultant LCI flow and LCIA results were modeled on a declared unit of 1 km. The cradle-to-gate primary energy consumption was 82.0 and 74.2 GJ/km for all five life-cycle stages in the SE and PNW, respectively. The LVL stage had the highest share at 55 percent (SE) and 51 percent (PNW), followed by OSB and I-joist, while the contribution of forestry operations was minor. The global warming (GW) impact from gate-to-gate I-joist production in the SE, about 59 percent, was attributed to resin inputs and electricity consumption. The main reasons for relatively high GW impacts for LVL and I-joist production were that little wood fuel was available on-site to provide thermal energy for processing and the consumption of natural gas and electricity to aid in emission control.Abstract
This study was an update on the 2000 life-cycle inventory data on material and energy inputs associated with the production of 1 m3 of glued-laminated (glulam) timbers produced in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and the Southeast (SE) regions of the United States. This article looks at the cradle to gate for the entire glulam production processes, which include forest harvest, lamstock production, and glulam beam production. Data collected from glulam beam manufacturers in 2013 allowed for the development of a life-cycle assessment utilizing the product category rules for North American Structural and Architectural Wood Products so that the results from these analyses can be used for the development of environmental product declarations of glulam beams produced in the United States. Comparing the results of this study with the life-cycle assessment based on the 2000 survey data shows 30 percent reductions in global warming potential of glulam beams produced in both the PNW and the SE and reductions in the use of energy derived from fossil fuels by 40 percent in the PNW and SE. The overall net carbon sequestered in 1 m3 of PNW glulam is equivalent to 938 kg of CO2 and 1,038 kg of CO2 in the SE. Utilizing techniques that reduced the use of electricity and minimizing the transportation distances of the raw materials and resins to the mill could help to further reduce the carbon footprint of the glulam beam manufacturing process.Abstract
Many wood production facilities use wood-based fuels for steam generation for drying wood or pressing boards or panels. This process contributes to the life-cycle impacts of the products produced downstream. Past life-cycle assessment studies of wood products have relied on wood boiler data sets that represent both the paper and the wood products industries as well as on secondary data from the US Environmental Protection Agency primarily based on the potential to emit or collect from an uncontrolled source. Primary data were collected by survey for the material and energy inputs and outputs of wood-fired boilers at lumber and plywood wood production facilities in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast regions of the United States. The results were averaged to create a life-cycle inventory model to represent wood-fired boilers at wood production facilities. Results indicated that regional differences, as well as type of wood waste burned, did not warrant separate boiler data sets for each industry and region. The model is useful for including the effects of steam production in the life-cycle assessment of wood products. The primary data used in the model should better represent wood-fired boilers used in US wood production facilities than existing data sets do.Abstract
Wood processing often involves an array of products and coproducts and a cascade of primary and secondary uses. Prior life-cycle assessment (LCA) reporting allocated environmental burdens to products and coproducts based on mass for multiproduct systems to develop environmental product declarations, which are developed from LCAs following the procedures detailed in product category rules (PCRs). A recent PCR for North American structural and architectural wood products requires allocation by economic value when the main products exceed the value of coproducts by greater than 10 percent. Using recent LCAs of wood-based panels, this article describes the differences in LCA results when using mass and economic allocation methods. For wood panel products that do not use wood residues from primary wood manufacturers (e.g., plywood), an increase in environmental impacts results from an economic allocation approach. For wood panel products made from wood residues (e.g., cellulosic fiberboard), there is a slight decrease in most environmental impact metrics with economic allocation. Sensitivity and variability in LCA results are discussed for the mass and economic allocation approaches.Abstract
An environmental product declaration (EPD) presents quantified environmental information on a product or process in a simplified form. EPDs are based on the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of products conducted in accordance with standards of the International Organization for Standardization. An LCA analysis ensures that the environmental impacts associated with all processes undertaken to produce the product, ranging from extraction (cradle) to its final product stage (gate) or postuse disposal (grave), are included. To be able to present temporally accurate EPDs, the corresponding LCA data need to be updated every 5 to 10 years, depending on the nature of the industry. In this article, we present the pros and cons associated with using Web-based data collection tools to conduct and maintain temporally accurate LCA data. We also present the lessons learned in using Web-based survey tools, with reference to the wood-based industry, and propose a methodology to maintain temporally accurate LCA data with minimal intervention, facilitating periodic update of the EPDs.Abstract