Global warming potential estimates of mass timber constructions beyond the first life: A dynamic radiative forcing modeling approach

Journal Article · Wed May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Environmental Impact Assessment Review

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2025.107968· OSTI ID:2999607

Bjarvin, Christina ^[1]; Pierobon, Francesca ^[2]; Ganguly, Indroneil ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

In the face of a warming planet, steps must be taken to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated with our building industry, which is a significant contributor to global emissions. Large, prefabricated wood elements such as mass timber panels (MTP) have great potential to achieve these reductions as they help displace high-embodied‑carbon materials like concrete and steel. Furthermore, storing the wood's biogenic carbon in buildings benefits the climate because it delays the eventual release of the carbon into the atmosphere. While these climate impacts have been assessed for the construction phase of mass timber buildings, relatively few life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have evaluated the climate impacts for the buildings' end-of-life (EOL) phase. This research estimates the climate impacts of four EOL scenarios for MTP: reusing as MTP, recycling into particleboard, incinerating, and landfilling. Using dynamic radiative forcing modeling and factoring in temporal GHG emissions and biogenic carbon storage, the global warming potential impacts are calculated for construction, deconstruction, and EOL processing of hybrid mass timber buildings in the U.S. Pacific Northwest for 160 years (GWP₁₆₀). The 160-year temporal scale used in this paper is an arbitrary scale, with the first 80 years being the assumed life of the building, followed by a series of reuse, recycle, or disposal scenarios over the second 80 years of that temporal scale. Of the four EOL scenarios considered in this paper, the ‘reuse’ scenario has the lowest net GWP₁₆₀ impact (calculated by summing the GWP₁₆₀ and carbon storage benefits, i.e., GWP$$^{bioCS}_{160}$$ ), emerging as a climate-preferred scenario, followed by ‘landfill’, ‘incinerate’, and ‘recycle’ scenarios. The lower net GWP₁₆₀ impact associated with the reuse scenario is due to the low fossil carbon emissions during EOL processing, as well as the biogenic carbon storage benefits. The results of this study also highlight the importance of efficient reuse and recycling strategies for wood in MTP.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• Grant/Contract Number: AR0001624
• OSTI ID: 2999607
• Journal Information: Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Journal Name: Environmental Impact Assessment Review Vol. 115; ISSN 0195-9255
• Publisher: Elsevier BV
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
cross-laminated timber
end-of-life
global warming potential
life cycle assessment
mass timber
radiative forcing