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Carbon impacts of engineered wood products in construction

Formally Refereed

Abstract

Buildings and the construction sector together account for about 39% of the global energy-related CO2 emissions. Recent building designs are introducing promising new mass timber products that have the capacity to partially replace concrete and steel in traditional buildings. The inherently lower environmental impacts of engineered wood products for construction are seen as one of the key strategies to mitigate climate change through their increased use in the construction sector. This chapter synthesizes the estimated carbon benefits of using engineered wood products and mass timber in the construction sector based on insights obtained from recent Life Cycle Assessment studies in the topic area of reduced carbon emissions and carbon sequestration/storage.

Keywords

life cycle assessment, mass timber products, forest carbon, wood products carbon, carbon sequestration/storage, avoided emissions

Citation

Gu, H.; Nepal, P.; Arvanitis, M.; Alderman, D. 2021. Carbon impacts of engineered wood products in construction. Chapter 8. In: Gong, M. (ed.) Engineered wood products for construction. London: IntechOpen. 358 pp. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.99193.
Citations
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/64259