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Life Cycle Analysis of Hardwood Products from Lumber to Floor Coverings
September 21st 2010
Fredericton, NB
™
Patrick Lavoie
Researcher – Markets and
Economics Group
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Presentation content
� What is Life Cycle
Analysis (LCA)?
� Example of previous
work
� Progress on
hardwood initiative
� Results for hardwood
lumber and flooring
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What is Lifecycle Analysis (LCA)?
Source: O’Connor.
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30/09/2010 4
How is LCA done?
Source: O’Connor. 2009.
Cradle Gate Grave
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Typical Steps in LCA
� Establish goal and scope.
� Identify participating manufacturing
facilities according to ISO 14040.
� Develop questionnaire
� Data collection (LCI)
� Create LCA model
� Assess impacts using LCI data
� Perform sensitivity analysis
� Interpret results, make recommendations
and draw conclusions
� Write report and submit to peers for review
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Information needed to perform LCA
� Production and residues
� Consumption
– Species
– Volumes
– Distances
– Energy
– Water
– Nails / screws
– Other inputs (fluids, greases, plastics,
etc.)
� Emissions
– Air
– Water
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What does Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) do?
� Differentiation from
competing products on
an environmental
standpoint
� Objective picture of
manufacturing
operations and overall
efficiency
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Greenhouse gas emissions due to manufacturing
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LCA limitations
� Quantifies the impact of a product / process across a number of dimensions
– Embodied energy
– Waste
– Air pollution
– Water pollution / Eutrophication / Acidification
– GHG emissions
– Resource use
– Water use
� No global number, weighting and interpretation is necessary
• Does not cover IEQ, toxicology and site specific extraction effects
• Expensive exercise
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Wood’s Negative Carbon Footprint – A Positive!
Using LCA, we can calculate carbon balances for wood products.
CO2 removal
The C is used to
make wood
The C balance here
is negative
C is captured /
sequestered in
products
CO2 emissions due
to harvesting,
manufacturing,
transportation
More C is in the product than was
emitted to atmosphere in making the
product - negative ‘Net C’
-
-
+
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OSB’s carbon balance
1,000 ft² OSB:
Stored: - 912 kg
CO2
Emissions: + 154
kg CO2
Net GHG = -758 kg
CO2
= emissions from 1.8
barrels of oil
Not included: Emissions avoided by not using some other product.
This number is even larger.
Harvesting
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Environmental footprint for various walls
This data was generated using the simplified LCA software tool, the Athena EcoCalculator.
Available for free at www.athenasmi.org
Ben
chm
ark
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LCA: Wood vs. steel across 7 sample measures
Source: Calculated using the Athena Impact Estimator
For a post-and-beam building, wood is the benchmark and shown against typical
steel (25% recycled content) and a hypothetical steel at 100% recycled content.
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Embodied energy, typical house
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FPInnovations involvement in LCA
� Eastern hardwood initiative
funded by most provincial and
federal governments
� Numerous projects within
initiative
� LCA of floor covering (hardwood)
� Hardwood harvesting and
sawmilling
� Next year: cabinets, mouldings,
furniture and pallets
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Progress of LCA project
Lumber manufacturing
cradle-to-gate LCA
Hardwood
flooring cradle-to-
grave LCA
Harvesting
LCA
Various floorings,
comparative cradle-
to-grave LCA
Alternate floorings
cradle-to-grave
LCAs
Hardwood
flooring gate-to-
gate LCA
Cabinet
cradle-to-
grave LCA
Furniture
cradle-to-
grave LCA
Millwork
cradle-to-
grave LCA
Pallets
cradle-to-
grave LCACompleted
Aug. 31 2010
Completed
Completed for March 2011
Cradle-to-Grave Flooring – the Product System
Forestry
Manufacturing
End of life
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Method
� A multi-product system:
– Lumber manufacturing
�Main product: lumber
�Co-products: pulp chips, sawdust, bark
– Flooring manufacturing
�Main product: flooring
�Co-product: hog fuel
• Allocation of environmental burden to products and co-products was done according to ISO standards for LCA (socio-economic option)
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Method
� Environmental impact indicators were chosen
according to the ISO standards for building material
EPDs (ISO 14025 and 21930)
� Chosen impact indicators
– Global warming: greenhouse gas emissions in CO2
equivalent
– Acidification: sulphate and nitrate emissions to air and water
– Eutrophication: phosphate, nitrate and sulphate emissions
to water
– Ozone depletion: ozone depleting substances
– Smog formation: ground level ozone formation due to VOCs
and NOx emissions
– Non-renewable resource depletion, e.g. fossil fuel
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Method
� Required minimum sample size: – An LCA needs a representative sample with at
least three companies and at least 5% of total industry production.
� Harvesting – 3 harvesting companies from QC, ON and NB
– Sample size: 20% of industry production in 2008.
� Lumber Manufacturing– 4 mills from QC and NB.
– Sample size: 10% of industry production in 2007.
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Green hardwood lumber (cradle→→→→ gate)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Cl i mat e Aci di f i ca t i on Eut r ophi cat i on Ozone Smog T ot a l ener gy Fossi l non-
r enewabl e
Nucl ear non-
r enewabl e
Bi omass
r enewabl e
Other r enewabl e
Sawmilling Harvesting
Note: 76% environmental impacts allocated to green lumber manufacturing. Benchmark graph
presenting normalized results based on highest score.
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Hardwood flooring(gate to gate)
*Note: 95% environmental impacts allocated to pre-finished flooring
**Impact evaluation method: TRACI 2 and CED for presentation V3.03 / Characterization /
Excludes infrastructures linked to processes..
-100%
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Climate Acidification Eutrophication Ozone Smog Fossil fuel non-
renew.
Flooring (gate→gate) Moulding Drying Finishing
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Conclusions
� Wood, in general, is well positionedfrom an environmental standpoint
� LCA is the best tool available to quantify environmental performance of products
� LCA can force companies to re-examine products, processes, inputs, etc. (continuous improvements)
� Initiative underway in 2010/11
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Questions / comments?
Patrick LavoieResearcher – FPInnovations
Markets and Economics Group
(418) 659-2647 x 3106
www.fpinnovations.ca
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