Wood as a building material in the light of environmental assessment of full life cycle of four buildings

This paper presents the results of the research project financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (N N309 078138) and coordinated by the Wood Technology Institute in Poznan. One of the key points of this project was LCA study of four detached single-family dwellings in the context of intensification of wood usage. Four functionally equivalent buildings with different material structure, building technology and energy standards have been subjected to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) environmental impact analysis. The study has taken into account a full life cycle of the buildings, including the following stages: production of building materials, prefabrication, transport to the building site, building, use, demolition, transport of waste and final disposal of waste. Wood and wood-based materials, are the only ones from among the analysed building materials, that have shown an environmental benefit both from the “cradle-to-gate” (stage 1) and “gate-to-grave/reincarnation” (stage 7) perspective.