Wood First Plus LCA database draws Ecobuild crowd

The new open access resource, billed as the largest LCA tool of its kind for timber and wood products worldwide, and developed with consultancy PE International, will actually go live during the UK Green Building Council's Embodied Carbon Week in April. But Wood for Good director David Hopkins decided to "sow seeds of interest" to the Ecobuild audience of architects, engineers, contractors and other specifiers.

"LCA is set to become an increasing factor in building product specification and use," he said. "If you make an eco claim of any sort today, you need to be able to back it up with solid data on impacts from forest floor to manufacture, to end of life options. To date this sort of data on timber and wood products has only been available in rather nebulous, fragmented format."

In construction, he added, LCA is increasingly informing design and one aspect of the data - embodied carbon - is set to become even more of a game changer.

"Given advances in renewables technology, it's estimated that in 10 years, operational carbon, the CO2 emitted by the use of the building over its life, will comprise just 5% of its carbon impacts," he said. "The only way to reduce these further will be through specifying the right building fabric materials, and this is where timber, with its high embodied carbon and low energy processing has the advantage."

The Wood First Plus database will also have the information and tools for timber businesses to develop Environmental Product Declarations.

"The overall aim is to provide empirical evidence on the impacts and performance of wood products, making it easier for construction professionals to demonstrate the benefits of [specifying and using them]," said Mr Hopkins.

Next, he added, technical performance data would be added to the site to make it a complete specification reference tool.

Wood First Plus will be launched live on April 7 at the Building Centre in London.