Cradle-to-Gate Life-Cycle Assessment of a Glued-Laminated Wood Product from Quebec's Boreal Forest

“…For the purposes of this study, the commercial buildings were assumed to be located in Vancouver, Canada, as there are benchmarks for energy and emissions within various locations. To focus exclusively on near term embodied emissions, carbon storage in the timber material was excluded [41,42]. e carbon intensity of the CLTfrom Athena was compared with available environmental product declaration values from major CLT producers in Canada [43,44] and was found to overestimate the intensity by 15-30%.…”

Section: Deflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Design Considerations for Timber‐Concrete Composite Floor Systems

Mirdad

Daneshvar

Joyce

et al. 2021

Advances in Civil Engineering

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Over the last few decades, there has been growing interest in the use of low-carbon materials to reduce the environmental impacts of the construction industry. The advent of mass timber panels (MTP), such as cross laminated timber (CLT), has allowed structural engineers to specify a low-carbon material for a variety of floor design considerations. However, serviceability issues such as vibration and deflection are limiting the construction of longer span timber-only floor systems and have encouraged the development of timber-concrete composite (TCC) systems. The use of concrete would negatively impact on the carbon footprint of the TCC floor system and should be minimized. The purpose of this study was to study the impact on embodied carbon in the TCC system, when the ratio of timber and concrete was varied for specific floor spans. Two MTP products were considered, CLT and glued laminated timber (GLT). The floors were designed to satisfy structural, acoustic, and vibration criteria, and the results were presented in the form of span tables. It was found that using thicker MTP instead of adding concrete thickness to meet a specific span requirement can lead to lower embodied carbon values. Increasing concrete thickness for long-span floor systems led to a reduction in allowable floor span due to the vibration criterion being the controlling design parameter. Increasing timber thickness also resulted in higher strength and stiffness to weight ratios, which would contribute toward reducing the size of lateral load resisting systems and foundations, resulting in further reductions in the embodied carbon of the entire structure.

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“…Technological advancements are also needed to reduce the environmental impact of timber production, including decarbonised wood drying and transport, and novel materials (e.g. non-fossil derived glues) [286].…”

Section: Advances In Science and Technology To Meet Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sustainable materials roadmap

et al. 2022

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Our ability to produce and transform engineered materials over the past 150 years is responsible for our high standards of living today, especially in the developed economies. Yet, we must carefully think of the effects our addiction to creating and using materials at this fast rate will have on the future generations. The way we currently make and use materials detrimentally affects the planet Earth, creating many severe environmental problems. It affects the next generations by putting in danger the future of economy, energy, and climate. We are at the point where something must drastically change, and it must change NOW. We must create more sustainable materials alternatives using natural raw materials and inspiration from Nature while making sure not to deplete important resources, i.e. in competition with the food chain supply. We must use less materials, eliminate the use of toxic materials and create a circular materials economy where reuse and recycle are priorities. We must develop sustainable methods for materials recycling and encourage design for disassembly. We must look across the whole materials life cycle from raw resources till end of life and apply thorough life cycle assessments based on reliable and relevant data to quantify sustainability.

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Cradle-to-Gate Life-Cycle Assessment of a Glued-Laminated Wood Product from Quebec's Boreal Forest

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Cradle-to-Gate Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of the Portfolio of an Innovative Forest Products Manufacturing Unit

Cradle-to-Gate Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of the Portfolio of an Innovative Forest Products Manufacturing Unit

Sustainability Design Considerations for Timber‐Concrete Composite Floor Systems

The sustainable materials roadmap

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