Standard compliant life cylce assessment data for wooden building products

Lead Institute HF Institute of Wood Research

When processing wood into semi finshed goods, components or buildings, thermal and electrical energy is required and resources are consumed.
We calculate the effects on climate and environment associated with industrial wood processing using the product life cycle assessment method according to the ISO EN 14040/44 standard and in accordance with the international standards relevant to sustainable construction.

Background and Objective

Standard-compliant life cycle assessments represent the central information when examining and optimizing environmental impacts as part of the sustainability assessment of buildings (including the federal government’s Sustainable Building Assessment System (BNB)).

The transparent presentation of the environmental impact associated with the utilization of wood is a basic requirement for a well-founded assessment within company-internal and political decision-making processes.

The results are used for environmental product declarations and published in the ÖKOBAUDAT database hosted by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB).

Approach

In cooperation with companies and associations of the German wood industry, we collect the data necessary for the creation of product life cycle assessments.

Data and Methods

In addition to the inclusion of reliable secondary data sources, the creation of high-quality life cycle assessment data sets requires an extensive collection of primary data. If correspondingly high demands are placed on the representativeness of the life cycle inventory data, the large number of medium-sized and small companies in the wood processing industry poses particular challenges for the implementation of data collection and further data aggregation.

Our life cycle assessments are created in compliance with the following European and international standards:

ISO EN DIN 14040 and 14044
EN 15804
EN 16485
ISO EN DIN 21930

Preliminary Results

Our life cycle assessment datasets for timber construction products are continuously updated and made available as German average data sets in the ÖKOBAUDAT life cycle assessment database hosted by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB).