Forest related Life Cycle Assessment Network

Last changed: 24 April 2020

The Forest related Life Cycle Assessment Network provides a forum in which organizations, universities and companies can share their experiences on working with Life Cycle Assessment with a focus on forest biomass and products.

Life Cycle Assessment is an established methodology for calculating the environmental impact of products and processes. The pressure on forest biomass for using it for different products (e.g. advanced biofuels, construction material) has increased which leads to a debate on the availability and scarcity of forest biomass and also on the potential effects of increased biomass harvesting on the development of the forest and also its use for recreation purposes.

The aims of the network are:

i) Discuss research outcomes within the area of LCA and its development

ii) Discuss methodological aspects in LCA: Cascading use of forest biomass, impacts of system boundaries and allocation methods, forest as a carbon sink or source, LCA database development related to forest biomass supply chain, Integration of LCA with GIS for better show the spatial effects of e.g. bioenergy systems

iii) Share data among the network on processes that are difficult to find good data in the existing databases

iv)  Form a research consortium that will apply for European Union projects in the new Horizon Europe program

 

First ForLCA network meeting

The first meeting was organised on February 27.

The agenda included:

1. Short presentation of the participants in the meeting

2. Short Introduction to the network aim and resources.

3. Presentations from each country/organisation on the projects they run on LCA with main focus on projects that deal on forest biomass (15 minutes per presentation and ~ 5 minutes questions). Methodological aspects that we mention in the proposal (Cascading use of forest biomass, impacts of system boundaries and allocation methods, forest as a carbon sink or source, LCA database development related to forest biomass supply chain, Integration of LCA with GIS for better show the spatial effects of e.g. bioenergy systems) should be highlighted in the presentations.

4. Discussion on the Physical meeting in the end of April.

Second ForLCA network meeting

The second ForLCA network meeting was held online on April 24, 2020.

The agenda included:

1. Information from the coordinator (Dimitris)
2. Discussion on sawmilling industry's carbon footprint (example from Finland) (Tarmo)
3. Sustainability criteria and life cycle assessment for forestry (Invited speaker: Karin Ågren; Skogforsk). Development of Product Specific Rules for three basic assortments sawn timber, pulpwood and energy assortments (https://www.vinnova.se/en/p/sustainability-criteria-and-life-cycle-assessment-for-forestry/)
4. Information on a possible proposal opportunity (Dimitris). I noticed that the BBI JU calls have opened (Call identifier: H2020-BBI-JTI-2020). There is on area there called “Use enabling technologies to improve feedstock availability and sustainability for the bio-based industry” (ID: BBI-2020-SO2-R1) that is very close to the aims of our network and includes a lot of LCA. In short the idea is that we present supply chains (emerging technologies) that use other than fossil fuels and/or are more gently to the forest soil/remaining trees during operations (the 10 wheel Ponsse forwarder as an example). Then we compare some current supply chains with our tailor-made by means of LCA (SLCA, LCC and ELCA). BBI projects that just ended on the same theme but no LCA are Efforte and Tech4Effect.


Third ForLCA network meeting

Fourth ForLCA network meeting

Facts:

Project timetable: January 2020 - December 2020

Financers: SNS and participating organisations
   

Project leaders: Dimitris Athanassiadis, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Partners: The network has been initiated by four universities (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, University College Dublin), one research institute (Natural Resources Institute Finland) and one NGO (Green Liberty Latvia) that all work in the area of LCA and forestry. The network meetings are open to other organizations as well.

Project budget: 600000 SEK