American Wood Council Partnership
Infographic shows the closed loop of forest carbon in the atmosphere, contrasted with an open system with fossil fuels where carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-established tool to examine the environmental aspects and sustainability practices of wood products manufacturing over their entire life cycle. The Forest Products Lab is partnering with the American Wood Council to collect and analyze high-quality transparent mill data for traditional U.S.-based harvested wood products to produce LCAs and LCA-based ecolabels. The project will also upload the associated life cycle inventory datasets into a free federal database (i.e., LCA Commons) as part of data management.
Objectives
Researchers will use surveys to collect and analyze high-quality transparent mill data. Researchers will then analyze the data to produce LCAs and LCA-based ecolabels.
Expected Results
- Surveys to collect mill data
- Updates to the American Wood Council Wood Sourcing Website
- A free federal database of life cycle inventory datasets
Geographies and High-Risk Landscapes to be Addressed
National level
Key Research Updates
In May 2023, the project received a USDA Wood Innovations Grant, which will allow for expansion of the Lifecycle Survey beyond AWC membership to include all U.S. wood product manufacturers. The expanded survey will launch in August 2024 and will incorporate hundreds of mills.
People
Principal Investigator
-
Person
Richard Bergman, PhD
Supervisory Research Forest Products Technologisthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/richard.d.bergman
Collaborators
Anna Ostrander, LCA Data Specialist, American Wood Council