Current practice makes it difficult to know the true climate profile of wood products in most cases.

The current conventions of wood product Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) ignore landscape-level carbon flows and fail to shed light on the impacts and benefits associated with climate-smart forestry.

The Climate Smart Wood Group is working to develop trustworthy, replicable data solutions that differentiate the climate impacts of different forest management techniques and resulting wood products.

Existing standards and data fall short

We need better data to understand the true climate impact of wood products: current LCA methods do not account for how different approaches to forestry affect the amount of carbon that forests store. As a result, EPDs for wood products do not reflect carbon gains or losses that are actually occurring in managed forests.

To understand the implications of growing mass timber markets and the value of climate-smart forestry and wood products, there is a need for additional cross-sector research, guidance and education.

Building toward data-driven decisions

The Measuring Impact technical team is advancing the following goals:

  • Produce a methodological framework for measuring, monitoring, and reporting impacts associated with forest management with forestry, design-build, and science and technology leaders and innovators.
  • Develop methods to integrate the benefits of climate-smart forest management into EPDs and whole building LCA, so designers are able to compare the climate consequences of sourcing wood from different forest management systems and specific sites.
  • Create resources that increase awareness and capacity to apply LCA and other impact assessment frameworks to understand and differentiate the values of climate-smart wood.

We are here to help

From goal-setting to procurement, the Climate Smart Wood Group can support your project. For more information contact the Climate Smart Wood Group Director, Aaron Everett.