Developing a LCA database of imported wood materials

Abstract

Wood is well-recognized as a renewable resource that can contribute to the reduction of environmental load and it has long been used as a material in the building sector. The LCA database for buildings (established by the Architectural Institute of Japan) has been developed and utilized to evaluate the reduction of environmental load through the use of wood materials. However, this method does not evaluate the environmental load incurred through the production and transportation of imported wood materials, although wood materials are imported into Japan in large volumes. Therefore, this study aims to develop a database which includes the environmental load of imported wood materials from several countries and regions.