Best footprint forward

Summary
¦ Oak accounts for 40% of the hardwood resource in eastern US.
¦ AHEC is undertaking a life cycle assessment of white and red oak.
¦ It will provide science-based research data to support AHEC’s marketing.

The major new life cycle assessment study (LCA) from The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) will compile life cycle inventory data for sawn lumber and veneers of selected top species, including two of the most prolific American hardwoods – American white oak and American red oak – from point of extraction through to delivery to the importers’ yards in Europe and South-east Asia.

Probably the most popular of the American species, oaks (Quercus) still represent around 40% of the hardwood resource of the eastern US where many commercial red and white oaks grow. The new LCA study has been commissioned by AHEC as a direct response to green specification requirements and to competitors’ (both wood and non-wood) increasing use of scientific data to support environmental claims. Probably the largest LCA study ever undertaken in the international hardwood sector, it is likely to include the development of LCAs and carbon footprints for product groups where the use of the American oak species is particularly prevalent – doors, flooring and furniture.

Research data

The study will be a significant piece of work for AHEC because it will provide science-based research data to support its marketing efforts and challenge its competitors from Europe and across the world. As a discrete component, the assessment of the carbon footprint of American red oak and American white oak will have particular resonance in the European market, where questions about CO₂ emissions related to the transport of American hardwoods from the US are frequently asked. While it may be reasonable to respond that the largest part of that journey is by sea, with relative low emissions, the provision of independent science-based facts and figures is expected to have a real impact on the marketing messages for these popular species in Europe.

Both the American oak species are available in lumber and veneer in a wide range of grades and specifications. The long clear lengths, compared with the shorter character grade oak from Europe, are attractive for buyers and oak’s availability for a wide range of applications in furniture, joinery and flooring has maintained its market strength as it remains a firm favourite for architects and designers.

The study, which will be carried out by leading experts PE International, will also provide life cycle assessment and carbon footprint data for selected finished products such as interior doors, flooring and furniture. In each case a product manufactured in popular species such as American white oak and American red oak will be compared with products manufactured in a representative range of alternative materials, both wood and non-wood. Complex supply chain patterns will mean that this will cover both the product manufacture in a typical EU location as well as in an East Asian location, followed by re-export to a typical European market.

Projects

In 2010 three projects have demonstrated the beauty and adaptability of American oak. Hopkins Architects chose American red oak for, appropriately, the stairs and walls of the new Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies building, which scored LEED platinum, the highest category in the US system which is roughly equivalent to BREEAM.

In the colonnade of the Universita Statale, the hub of the 2010 Milan Furniture Fair, architect Matteo Thun constructed his three ‘beacons’ in lightly finished American red oak to demonstrate the life cycle of products. These basket shaped installations housed bijoux, fabric offcuts and discarded ‘toiles’ (cutting patterns) from clothes designer Marni.

And in Ghent, architect Joris Van Huychem chose American white oak as “the best solution” for the University auditorium because of its colour and acoustic qualities.

All three of these projects provide good marketing case studies for American oak at a time when new EU illegal logging legislation centred on due diligence and risk assessment has been approved and volumes of American hardwood standing in American forests continue to increase. AHEC’s investment in a comprehensive LCA study will pay dividends in demonstrating transparency and a clear understanding of the need for science-based data to argue its competitive case.

• For more information: www.americanhardwood.org