Improving biogenic carbon and land use accounting for construction wood

Harvested wood product (HWP) inventory data in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) databases are limited in terms of geographical scope. Thus, LCA studies of wood products often neglect important variations in growth rates and wood densities across tree species and regions. Resulting discrepancies in biogenic carbon accounting along value chains for HWP used in construction undermines accurate representation of their climate mitigation potentials. This study provides LCA practitioners with a preliminary dataset of European Union country-specific biogenic carbon contents and land footprints for coniferous sawn wood by tree species. These are calculated by linking (1) merchantable wood productivity for even aged conifer plantations based on the EU Carbon Budget Model, and (2) sawn wood national product breakouts and sawmill product efficiency factors. Incorporating these factors into LCA of construction and wood value chains could enhance accuracy of climate mitigation attribution, and enable soft-linking of wood use in construction with land use models.