American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2013, Vol. 1, No. 6, 122-128 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajcea/1/6/2 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/ajcea-1-6-2 The Environmental Profile of Wood in the Building Industry Today: Comments on the Results of Some LCA Studies Chiara Piccardo * , Adriano Magliocco Department of Architectural Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy *Corresponding author: chiara.piccardo@libero.it Received August 28, 2013; Revised September 04, 2013; Accepted September 11, 2013 Abstract In the last years, following the technological progress in wood processing industry and the increased use of wood-based products in construction industry, the scientific community has investigated the environmental performances of wood-base building materials and their substitution potential of energy-intensive material. The article describes and comments the results of a representative sample of LCA studies, most of them published in international journals or in free access research reports. All analyzed LCA studies compare wood, as a building system, with other materials and construction technologies (such as reinforced concrete, steal and masonry); these studies highlight the potential of wood-based building materials to improve the environmental performances of construction industry besides the possible negative aspects related to the wood product manufacturing and the construction process. Some methodological limits are considered comparing LCA results among selected studies, because of the variability of the case studies, the subjectivity of the system boundary definition and the differences between the referenced data sources. However the comparative purpose of this analysis provides an interesting framework of the current research and highlights how timber buildings and wood-based products could still improve their environmental performances during all life cycle stages. Wood, as construction material, could increase its competitiveness in building industry thanks to its environmental performances, starting from its renewable source and its carbon storing potential. Keywords: wood, LCA studies, embodied energy, Global Warming Potential Cite This Article: Chiara Piccardo, and Adriano Magliocco, “The Environmental Profile of Wood in the Building Industry Today: Comments on the Results of Some LCA Studies.” American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 1, no. 6 (2013): 122-128. doi: 10.12691/ajcea-1-6-2. 1. Introduction Wood as renewable resource – when dealt with in a sustainable manner – is generally considered an «environmentally friendly» material [26] and such we often tend to consider its by-products, including products used in construction. However, progressive engineering of wood (engineered wood products) in the last decades has lead to an intensification of industrial processes, aimed at improving its performances, in particular its mechanical endurance and its durability. Today the increasing supply of wood-based construction materials leads to a multiplicity of products, different for environmental performances and also for technical performances, functional characteristics and woody species. However, there is a lack of information about wood products [10] and in particular about their environmental performances; advertising measures and product information are usually inadequate to allow customers and decision-makers to understand environmental consequences of their choices. Moreover it’s difficult to evaluate environmental sustainability in construction industry without a standardization of environmental assessment criteria and methodologies (see green building certification systems). So many environmental labels don’t provide clear information on real environmental performances of building products. The ISO 14000 family has become an international reference for environmental management systems and in particular ISO 14040:2006 describes the principles and the framework for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA-guidelines were created in 1993 by SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry), which presents the name of the method and its general structure first. Life Cycle Assessment is a comprehensive method for estimating the environmental impacts of a product (in construction industry, building products as well as entire buildings) “from cradle to grave”. In order to understand the potential impact of using wood in construction, it is necessary to refer to the LCA tool (Life Cycle Assessment). The LCA procedure, by its own nature, allows the carrying out of comparative studies between products as well as between whole buildings, provided that there is a correspondence between: the system boundaries, which establish the life cycle stages and related fluxes of