The goal of this project is to identify environmental strategies for sustainable management of wood resources in Switzerland. In order to reach this goal, we will assess the current and future wood-based value chains by combining a dynamic (temporal) and spatial material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). The combination of MFA and LCA will enable a holistic overview of future resource uses and restrictions and the environmental impacts of the overall system, considering for carbon stocks and several effects such as climate change, human toxicity and biodiversity. The MFA-LCA tool will cover current and new technologies for production of chemicals from wood, pulp and paper, bioenergy, and building components. An advanced numerical building model will calculate the effects of wood application on the running energy use and to quantify related emissions of different building types, taking into account several factors such as thermal mass. Finally, a range of scenarios will be assessed to help deduct strategies for a sustainable management of wood-based value chains from an environmental point of view.
Project leader
Prof. Stefanie Hellweg (ETH Zurich)
Project members
An De Schryver (ETH, Institute of Environmental Engineering: ETH-IFU)
Holger Wallbaum (ETH, Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Man-agement: ETH-IBI)
Michael Bösch (Aveny GmbH)
Peter Hofer (GEO partner AG)
Contact
Prof. Hollger Wallbaum
The project is carried out at the Division of Building Technology and within Area of Advance Built Environment.
Keywords: Material
Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, Cascading, Carbon stock,
Regionalized impact assessment, Upscaling, Wood value chain