Abstract
Bamboo forest is characterized by large carbon sequestration capability and it plays an important role in mitigating climate change and global carbon cycling. Previous studies have mostly focused on carbon cycling and carbon stocks in bamboo forest ecosystems, whereas the carbon footprints of bamboo products have not received attention. China is the largest exporting country of bamboo flooring in the world. Estimating the carbon footprint of bamboo flooring is of essential importance for the involved enterprises and consumers to evaluate their own carbon footprints. In this study, we investigated the production processes of bamboo scrimber flooring for outdoor use, a typical bamboo flooring in China. Based on business-to-business (B2B) evaluation method, we assessed CO2 emission and carbon transfer ratio in each step of the production process, including transporting bamboo culms and producing and packing the products. We found that to produce 1 m3 of bamboo scrimber flooring, direct carbon emissions from fossil fuels during transporting raw materials/semi-finished products, from power consumptions during production, and indirect emissions from applying additives were 30.94 kg CO2 eq, 143.37 kg CO2 eq, and 78.34 kg CO2 eq, respectively. After subtracting the 267.54 kg CO2 eq carbon stocks in the product from the 252.65 kg CO2 eq carbon emissions derived within the defined boundary, we found that the carbon footprint of 1 m3 bamboo scrimber flooring was −14.89 kg CO2 eq. Our results indicated that the bamboo scrimber flooring is a negative carbon-emission product. Finally, we discussed factors that influence the carbon footprint of the bamboo flooring and gave suggestions on carbon emission reduction during production processes. This study provided a scientific basis for estimating carbon stocks and carbon footprints of bamboo products and further expanded knowledge on carbon cycling and lifespan of carbon in the bamboo forest ecosystem.
Highlights
To cope with climate change and global warming, reduction of carbon emissions is sought worldwide
Our results provide a scientific basis for estimating carbon stock transferred from culms to bamboo products, and thereby expand the research boundary of bamboo forest carbon sequestration and revealed the carbon sequestration capacity of bamboo forest from the perspective of the entire life cycle
We calculated carbon emissions of additives with the existing carbon emission factors from the IPCC database. This may introduce biases in assessing carbon footprints of additives. This is the first empirical study to evaluate the carbon emission and carbon stocks of bamboo scrimber flooring in each step of the whole production processes, including transportation, production, and packing
Summary
To cope with climate change and global warming, reduction of carbon emissions is sought worldwide. Accurate estimates of carbon footprint for wood products are beneficial to both enterprises and consumers, because the carbon footprint tracks the greenhouse gases emissions during the entire. The footprints help enterprises to fulfill their responsibilities to reduce emissions in a goal-oriented way; quantifying carbon emissions aids in finding ways to reduce carbon emissions during design, production, and supply stages. Studies on carbon footprints have mainly focused on micro (i.e., product and individual), or macro (i.e., country and region) levels. [10,11,12,13] studied carbon footprints at different scales from national and regional perspectives. The first problem is that indirect carbon emissions are more difficult to monitor than the direct emissions, and so far, the indirect carbon emissions have been ignored
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