Life cycle assessment of cross laminated timber: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is an engineered wood material that has been used in civil construction in structural functions previously reserved for materials such as steel or concrete. As it is a renewable material and promotes carbon sequestration, its use in civil construction is linked to mitigating global warming promoted by the industry. However, the increase in demand for this material raises questions about sustainability and what the environmental burden would be resulting from its mass production. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an environmental management tool that can analyze this product chain as it maps and quantifies emissions and resource consumption from the production process, providing support for the calculation and analysis of environmental impacts. The goal of this study was to observe how the most recent research has been developed methodologically in terms of scope and what are the main scientific gaps presented in LCA studies of CLT material throughout its life cycle. To this end, a systematic literature review was carried out based on the Systematic Search Flow (SSF) method by Ferenhof and Fernandes (2014). The review points out the growing interest of the scientific community in the environmental profile of the product and the scope definitions were mostly cradle-to-grave study boundaries; the most applied functional unit is m² of building; impact analysis focus on quantifying global warming potential, energy resource consumption and carbon sequestration. The studies point to the end of life and the accounting of the material's biogenic emissions as scientific gaps, as well as the lack of studies with Brazilian data.