Chair of Ecological Systems Design

Search

en

Life Cycle Management of wood in Switzerland: methods, tools, and environmental decision support

Wood resources are scarce and can at the same time be used for a variety of applications ranging from construction, components, pulp and paper, and chemicals to energy. In order to make optimal use of wood from the environmental perspective this project aims at identifying strategies for a sustainable management of wood resources in Switzerland. To achieve this and provide results and recommendations relevant for policy making, decision makers in the wood industry and forest management, technology developers, as well as the scientific community, the project aims at:

  • establishing process models of new technologies in the forestry and wood sectors in collaboration with other modules of external pageNRP66 and providing capacity building and environmental hot-spot analyses
  • improving current life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods to capture all major environmental impacts of associated with wood-based value chains
  • assessing current and future wood use scenarios by combining material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) in a dynamic and spatial model of Swiss wood-based value chains (including cascade use, substituted products, policy incentives, etc.)

Collaboration

This project is carried out within the National Research Program "Resource Wood" (DownloadNRP66), which is financed and coordinated by the Swiss National Science Foundation (DownloadSNF).

The following partners are involved:

Team members ETH Zürich

Bernhard Steubing (PostDoc): Development of a pilot model / methodological framework for modeling wood value chains : combining material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle assessment (LCA) and mathematical optimization in a dynamic model of Swiss wood-based value chains

Florian Suter (PhD student): Modeling of wood value chains: assessing current and future wood use scenarios by combining MFA, LCA and optimization in a dynamic model of Swiss wood-based value chains (including cascade use, substituted products, policy incentives, etc.). Doctoral Thesis of Florian Suter

Niko Heeren (PhD student): Modeling buildings and the building sector: highlighting ecological potentials of wood as a construction material for the future building stock and comparing it to other material, such as brick and concrete, while taking into account the interaction of energy and material use in the building stock. Doctoral Thesis of Niko Heeren

Abhishek Chaudhary (PhD student): Further development of impact assessment methodology: improving current life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods to capture all major environmental impacts of associated with wood-based value chains. Doctoral Thesis of Abishek Chaudhary

Our Advisory Group

Paolo Camin and Tatiana Pasi (Swiss Federal Office of the Environment)
Birgit Neubauer-Letsch and Katrin Tartsch (Bern University of Applied Sciences)
Oliver Thees and Esther Thürig (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL)
Thomas Näher (Swiss Wood Innovation Network S-WIN)

Tracking construction material over space and time: Prospective and geo-referenced modeling of building stocks and construction material flows

Heeren, Niko; Hellweg, Stefanie
Journal of Industrial Ecology

Environmentally optimal wood use in Switzerland—Investigating the relevance of material cascades

Mehr, Jonas; Vadenbo, Carl; Steubing, Bernhard; Hellweg, Stefanie (2018)
Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 131, 181 - 191
DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.12.026

Building Inventory and Refur-bishment Scenario database development for Switzerland

Ostermeyer, Y.; Nägeli, C; Heeren, N; Wallbaum, H, (2017)
Journal of Industrial Ecology

Big data GIS analysis for novel approaches in building stock modelling

Buffat, René; Froemelt, Andreas; Heeren, Niko; Raubal, Martin; Hellweg, Stefanie (2017)
Applied Energy, 208, 277 - 290
DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.10.041

Streamlining scenario analysis and optimization of key choices in value chains using a modular LCA approach

Steubing B, Mutel C, Suter F, Hellweg S (2016)
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 21(4), 510 - 522
DOI: 10.1007/s11367-015-1015-3

Life Cycle Impacts and Benefits of Wood along the Value Chain: The case of Switzerland

Suter, Florian; Steubing, Bernhard; Hellweg, Stefanie (2016)
Journal of Industrial Ecology
DOI: DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12486

Spatially Explicit Analysis of Biodiversity Loss due to Global Agriculture, Pasture and Forest Land Use from a Producer and Consumer Perspective

Chaudhary A, Pfister S, Hellweg S, (2016)
in Environmental Science and Technology, 50, 3928 - 3936
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b06153

Impact of Forest Management on Species Richness: Global Meta-Analysis and Economic Trade-Offs

Chaudhary A, Burivalova Z, Koh LP, Hellweg S (2016)
Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group), 6, open
DOI: doi 10.1038/srep23954

Environmental impact of buildings - what matters?

Heeren, Niko; Mutel, Christopher L.; Steubing, Bernhard; Ostermeyer, York; Wallbaum, Holger; Hellweg, Stefanie (2015)
Environmental Science & Technology, 9832 - 9841
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b01735

Harmonizing the assessment of biodiversity effects from land and water use within LCA

Verones, F., Huijbregts, M. A., Chaudhary, A., de Baan, L., Koellner, T., Hellweg, S. (2015)
Environmental Science and Technology, 49(6), 3584 - 3592

Quantifying Land Use Impacts on Biodiversity: Combining Species-Area Models and Vulnerability Indicators

Chaudhary, Abhishek; Verones, Francesca; de Baan, Laura; Hellweg, Stefanie (2015)
Environmental Science & Technology, 9987 - 9995
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b02507

LCA-based optimization of wood utilization under special consideration of a cascading use of wood

Höglmeier, K., B. Steubing, G. Weber-Blaschke and K. Richter (2015)
Journal of Environmental Management , 152, 158 - 170
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.01.018

Welches sind die ökologischsten Holzverwendungen?

Steubing, Bernhard; Suter, Florian; Heeren, Niko; Chaudhary, Abhishek; Ostermeyer, York; Wallbaum, Holger; Hellweg, Stefanie Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen, 166, 335-338 2015

Including Indoor Offgassed Emissions in the Life Cycle Inventories of Wood Products

Chaudhary, Abhishek; Hellweg, Stefanie (2014)
Environmental Science&Technology, 48, 14607-14614

Scaling Relationships in Life Cycle Assessment: The Case of Heat Production from Biomass and Heat Pumps

Caduff M; Köhler A; Huijbregts MAJ; Althaus HJ; Hellweg S (2014)
Journal of Industrial Ecology, 18(3), 393 - 406

Influence of construction material choice and design parameters on greenhouse gas emissions of buildings

Heeren, Niko; Hellweg, Stefanie (2014)
World Sustainable Building Conference SB14, Barcelona, Spain

Ecological use of wood resources in Switzerland: an overview from the Swiss National Research Program (NRP) 66

Steubing, Bernhard; Heeren, Niko (2013)
19th International Wood Construction Conference (IHF 2013), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 5-6.12.2013

Die Ökobilanz der energetischen Holzverwertung: Faktoren für einen hohen ökologischen Nutzen

Steubing Bernhard (2013)
Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen, 164, 408 - 419

  • Heeren, N., Hellweg, S., "The role of wood for the Swiss building stock", 60th LCA Discussion Forum, 2015, Zurich, Switzerland, 4. December 2015
  • Heeren, N., Hellweg, S., "A bottom-up model for material-energy coupled environmental assessment of the Swiss building stock", ISIE Conference 2015, Guildford, UK, 7-10 July 2015
  • Heeren, N.; Hellweg, S., "The environmental significance of construction: the case of wooden buildings", 57th LCA Discussion Forum, December 2, 2014, Zurich.
  • Hellweg, S. (2014), "Optimizing the Life Cycle of Wood", Gordon Research Conference, Industrial Ecology, Lucca, Italy.
  • Suter F., Steubing B., Mutel C., Hellweg S. (2014). A life cycle based environmental analysis of the resource wood. SETAC, Basel.
  • Chaudhary A. & Hellweg S. (2014), "Characterizing regionalized land use flows for Swiss forestry products and quantifying their impact on biodiversity" (24th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC Europe); May 11-16; Basel, Switzerland).
  • Chaudhary A. & Hellweg S. (2014), "Indoor exposure to emissions from wood products: Complementary views from life cycle assessment and risk assessment" (24th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC Europe); May 11-16; Basel, Switzerland).
  • Combining LCA, MFA, and optimization to identify the optimal use of wood resources from cradle to grave
    Steubing B.; Mutel C.; Suter F.; Hellweg S.;
    ISIE 2013 South Korea, Switzerland, 2013
  • Chaudhary A. & Hellweg S. (2013), "Integrating Human Indoor Air Pollutant Exposure in Life cycle Assessment of Wood Related Consumer Products" (23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC Europe); May 12-16; Glasgow, Scotland, U.K).
  • Combining MFA and LCA to identify environmental strategies for a sustainable management of wood resources in Switzerland
    Steubing B.; Suter F.; Mutel C.; Heeren N.; Ostermeyer Y.; de Schryver A.; Chaudhary A.; Bösch M.; Pfister S.; Caduff M.; Hofer P.; Wallbaum H.; Hellweg S.; Gordon Research Conference, Switzerland, 2012
JavaScript has been disabled in your browser