International Marketing Practices

What Science Says About the Environmental Performance of Wood Products Which of these alternatives produces less of an environmental impact: engineered bamboo flooring vs. solid oak flooring, steel studs vs. softwood studs, a home made of concrete vs. a wood-frame house? Answering these questions is not easy. Results from a study conducted on flooring materials denotes clearly superior performance by wood products through an analysis of each product, from raw material extraction to disposal or recycling (see table below). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized approach of systematically accounting for the flows of materials and energy of a product associated with its life cycle. The environmental impacts are grouped into categories, such as global warming potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential, and ozone depletion potential. The following table is an example of the results from a study that compared flooring of different materials, including solid pine. Results show that solid wood has the best environmental performance in seven of the nine impact categories.

Impact category (all units per m 2 of flooring) Linoleum Vinyl

Solid wood

Service life (years)

25 13

29 29

40* -64* 424*

Energy consumption (MJ equiv.) Global warming potential (g CO 2 equiv.) Acidification potential (g SO2 equiv.) Eutrophication potential (g. phosphate equiv.) Ozone creating potential (g. ethene)

1,600

4,174

13* 1.7 2.5 555 17.2 236 34.5

31

24

1.3* 0.9 801 197 212 6.8

4.2

0*

Ash waste (g)

198*

Sector specific wastes (g) Hazardous waste (g)

0* 0*

Dust generated (g)

1.2*

* Denotes best performance. Source: [154] as cited by [155] Additional information regarding the environmental performance of wood products using LCA can be accessed using the sources below. • Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM): https://corrim.org • The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC): https://www.americanhardwood.org • WoodWorks: https://www.woodworks.org/why-wood • Dovetail Partners Inc.: https://www.dovetailinc.org/index.php

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