SUSTAINABILITY
Putting LCA at the centre of sustainable design: an American hardwood case study AHEC report outlines the environmental life cycle of delivering U.S. hardwood lumber into overseas markets
Image Š AHEC
AHEC has published a comprehensive report on the environmental life cycle of delivering U.S. hardwood lumber into overseas markets. Fully ISO conformant and receiving high praise from independent LCA experts, the report is being used as the basis for innovative tools to integrate sustainability into product design
12 www.timberdesignandtechnology.com | September 2012
I
f sustainability is ever to become
the development of the Life Cycle
more than a mere aspiration
Assessment (LCA), a scientific method
in design, manufacturing and
involving collection and evaluation
construction, decisions need to be
of quantitative data on all the inputs
made based on hard facts. New tools
and outputs of material, energy
are needed to bring in data from
and waste flows associated with a
numerous sources covering a huge
product over its entire life cycle so
range of environmental impacts.
that the environmental impacts can
These tools must also be flexible
be determined.
enough to accommodate widely
The LCA process is now covered
different materials and contexts, and
by international standards, the
yet accessible so that environmental
ISO14040 series, to ensure results
information can be readily integrated
are scientifically rigorous and not
into the design process without adding
subject to manipulation by different
excess cost.
industrial sectors. The standards
That’s a very tall order - but a
require, for example, that data
widening range of scientists, industry
collection and analysis is undertaken
groups, specifiers, government
by independent third parties and
and consumer interests have been
subject to critical review by a panel
chipping away at the problem now
of independent experts.
for several years. Their efforts
AHEC, which represents
are beginning to show results.
the interests of exporters of
Central to this process has been
hardwood lumber and veneer