Assessing the greenhouse gas effects of harvested wood products manufactured from managed forests in Canada

Abstract

We developed a life-cycle analysis (LCA) system to quantify the carbon dynamics for Canadian-made harvested wood products (HWP). We considered the carbon stocks of HWP in use and in landfills/dumps, emissions reduced by substituting HWP for non-wood construction materials, HWP production emissions and methane emissions from decomposing wood disposed of in landfills. Carbon dynamics analyses were conducted for five HWP production scenarios. Results indicate structural panels have the highest potential in mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, followed by lumber and non-structural panels. Net GHG effects of Canadian-made HWP were evaluated by integrating HWP carbon dynamics with forest carbon analysis using four forest management units (a total of 2.21 million ha of forests managed for timber production) from Ontario, Canada, as a case study. If HWP substitution benefits were estimated using the average displacement factor, and the wood obtained by increasing harvesting (relative to the baseline harvest scenario) in these four management units is used for structural panel, lumber, non-structural panel and business as usual HWP production, 0, 21, 39 and 84 years are needed to achieve net emission reductions, respectively; net emission reductions were, respectively, estimated to be 112, 93, 66 and 21 Mt CO₂-equivalent in 100 years. Our results suggest harvesting sustainably managed forests in Canada to produce long-lived solid HWP can significantly contribute to GHG mitigation.