Life cycle assessments help set wood apart

Life cycle assessments (LCA) have been around for many years but AHEC European director David Venables believes the time is right to capitalise on them.

“We’ve always known wood’s environmental credentials but until there are policies and initiatives that allow them to be demonstrated, it’s been very difficult to make use of those arguments,” said Mr Venables.

However, now that green rating systems are embedding LCA principles and there are more guidelines and legislation on procurement and environmentally-friendly products, the timing is right.

“The more the [regulatory] environment hardens, the more LCA becomes a driver for decision making,” said Mr Venables. “Just by highlighting the words life cycle assessment on our stand at Ecobuild lots of people came up to talk to us. It was a conversation starter. I don’t think it would’ve been quite the same five years ago.”

AHEC’s LCA will help to assess market potential for certain species and enable manufacturers to establish Environmental Product Declarations. “Ultimately it’s going to be the way that you set wood apart,” said Mr Venables. “It adds a credibility to our rhetoric and passion.”

AHEC will use the LCA in its marketing, and the changing appetite for environmental information has encouraged the organisation to be more bold.

“This research is making us more confident to challenge our gremlins,” said Mr Venables.

New adverts highlight the connection between carbon-storing, sustainable forests, and carbon-storing sustainable products. One is on the cover of this issue of TTJ; another features a photo of a man felling a tree with a chainsaw. “Ten years ago I’d never have dreamed of doing it; five years ago I’d have been scared. Today I believe the timing is right to do it, to be provocative and make the connection that this resource doesn’t just look nice and store carbon, it provides us with a material that gives us another carbon advantage but you can’t do that without the cycle of growing and cutting,” said Mr Venables.

The advert will be included in the programme for this year’s Hay Festival, which has a distribution of 60,000.