EFO-LCI: A New Life Cycle Inventory Database of Forestry Operations in Europe

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become a common methodology to analyze environmental impacts of forestry systems. Although LCA has been widely applied to forestry since the 90s, the LCAs are still often based on generic Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). With the purpose of improving LCA practices in the forestry sector, we developed a European Life Cycle Inventory of Forestry Operations (EFO-LCI) and analyzed the available information to check if within the European forestry sector national differences really exist. We classified the European forests on the basis of "Forest Units" (combinations of tree species and silvicultural practices). For each Forest Unit, we constructed the LCI of their forest management practices on the basis of a questionnaire filled out by national silvicultural experts. We analyzed the data reported to evaluate how they vary over Europe and how they affect LCA results and made freely available the inventory data collected for future use. The study shows important variability in rotation length, type of regeneration, amount and assortments of wood products harvested, and machinery used due to the differences in management practices. The existing variability on these activities sensibly affect LCA results of forestry practices and raw wood production. Although it is practically unfeasible to collect site-specific data for all the LCAs involving forest-based products, the use of less generic LCI data of forestry practice is desirable to improve the reliability of the studies. With the release of EFO-LCI we made a step toward the construction of regionalized LCI for the European forestry sector.

Seemingly Unrelated Mixed-Effects Biomass Models for Young Silver Birch Stands on Post-Agricultural Lands

“…Those stands during the first eight years produce 31.2 Mg/ha aboveground biomass [7] and after 15 years can produce up to 75 tons Mg/ha [8]. By introducing rapid rotation in these areas, it is possible to increase the potential of fast growing silver birch stands, which can be assessed using a life cycle analysis [9].…”

Life cycle inventory for currently harvested birch roundwood

“…per m 3 depending on wood species, geographical region, forest management practices, used technology, system boundary and assumptions of the life cycle assessment (LCA) study etc. (Klein et al 2015, Cardellini 2018. These emissions contribute to climate change, which is the main concern nowadays.…”

The lifecycle of wood from tropical forests in Costa Rica

“…Carbon neutrality is a broad simplification of the system that is based on the assumption that forest management itself is sustainable. This assumption is now recognized as a major weakness and methodological adjustments and recommendations are constantly being done to address the challenges of a complete LCA for bio-materials and bio-energy (Cardellini et al, 2018;Helin et al, 2013;Johnson, 2009). Yet, there are issues that remain unresolved (Breton, Blanchet, Amor, Beauregard, & Chang, 2018;Helin et al, 2013;Klein, Wolf, Schulz, & Weber-Blaschke, 2015;Knauf et al, 2015;Lippke et al, 2011).…”

“…In the tropics, efforts have been made to integrate the lifecycle of timber harvesting and wood use to determine an overall BioC-LC, but attempts so far have been restricted by a lack of empirical data (Murphy, 2004;Numazawa et al, 2017;Piponiot et al, 2016). This situation is not unique for tropical forests since only few lifecycle studies include a complete BioC-LC (Aleinikovas et al, 2018;Cardellini et al, 2018;De Rosa, Schmidt, Brandão, & Pizzol, 2017;Downie, Lau, Cowie, & Munroe, 2014;Helin et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2017;Newell & Vos, 2012). It is often assumed that the overall integration of these processes results in a carbon neutral outcome, but this assumption has raised a considerable debate (Cardellini et al, 2018;Helin et al, 2013;Johnson, 2009).…”

“…The simplification of the system by the carbon neutrality assumption has been criticized given that the exclusion of this source of emissions or storage may underestimate the climate impact of forestry (Cardellini et al, 2018;Helin et al, 2013;Johnson, 2009). For instance: there are large biomass losses during harvesting, biogenic carbon will not be released immediately during use as it will remain stored in products in use or will accumulate in solid waste disposal sites (SWDS).…”