IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i14p7831-d593579.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of a High-Rise Mass Timber Building: A Case Study in Pacific Northwestern United States

Author

Listed:
  • Shaobo Liang

    (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI 53726, USA)

  • Hongmei Gu

    (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI 53726, USA)

  • Richard Bergman

    (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI 53726, USA)

Abstract

Global construction industry has a huge influence on world primary energy consumption, spending, and greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. To better understand these factors for mass timber construction, this work quantified the life cycle environmental and economic performances of a high-rise mass timber building in U.S. Pacific Northwest region through the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Using the TRACI impact category method, the cradle-to-grave LCA results showed better environmental performances for the mass timber building relative to conventional concrete building, with 3153 kg CO 2 -eq per m 2 floor area compared to 3203 CO 2 -eq per m 2 floor area, respectively. Over 90% of GHGs emissions occur at the operational stage with a 60-year study period. The end-of-life recycling of mass timber could provide carbon offset of 364 kg CO 2 -eq per m 2 floor that lowers the GHG emissions of the mass timber building to a total 12% lower GHGs emissions than concrete building. The LCCA results showed that mass timber building had total life cycle cost of $3976 per m 2 floor area that was 9.6% higher than concrete building, driven mainly by upfront construction costs related to the mass timber material. Uncertainty analysis of mass timber product pricing provided a pathway for builders to make mass timber buildings cost competitive. The integration of LCA and LCCA on mass timber building study can contribute more information to the decision makers such as building developers and policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaobo Liang & Hongmei Gu & Richard Bergman, 2021. "Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of a High-Rise Mass Timber Building: A Case Study in Pacific Northwestern United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-16, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7831-:d:593579
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7831/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7831/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhongjia Chen & Hongmei Gu & Richard D. Bergman & Shaobo Liang, 2020. "Comparative Life-Cycle Assessment of a High-Rise Mass Timber Building with an Equivalent Reinforced Concrete Alternative Using the Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, June.
    2. Ying Liu & Haibo Guo & Cheng Sun & Wen-Shao Chang, 2016. "Assessing Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) as an Alternative Material for Mid-Rise Residential Buildings in Cold Regions in China—A Life-Cycle Assessment Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-13, October.
    3. Cindy X. Chen & Francesca Pierobon & Indroneil Ganguly, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Produced in Western Washington: The Role of Logistics and Wood Species Mix," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-17, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chiara Passoni & Elisabetta Palumbo & Rui Pinho & Alessandra Marini, 2022. "The LCT Challenge: Defining New Design Objectives to Increase the Sustainability of Building Retrofit Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-34, July.
    2. Martyna Maniak-Huesser & Lars G. F. Tellnes & Edwin Zea Escamilla, 2021. "Mind the Gap: A Policy Gap Analysis of Programmes Promoting Timber Construction in Nordic Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-14, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katsuyuki Nakano & Masahiko Karube & Nobuaki Hattori, 2020. "Environmental Impacts of Building Construction Using Cross-laminated Timber Panel Construction Method: A Case of the Research Building in Kyushu, Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Tetsuya Iwase & Takanobu Sasaki & Shogo Araki & Tomohumi Huzita & Chihiro Kayo, 2020. "Environmental and Economic Evaluation of Small-Scale Bridge Repair Using Cross-Laminated Timber Floor Slabs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Kamalakanta Sahoo & Richard Bergman & Sevda Alanya-Rosenbaum & Hongmei Gu & Shaobo Liang, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of Forest-Based Products: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-30, August.
    4. Moncef L. Nehdi & Yannian Zhang & Xiaohan Gao & Lei V. Zhang & Ahmed R. Suleiman, 2021. "Experimental Investigation on Axial Compression of Resilient Nail-Cross-Laminated Timber Panels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Mahboobeh Hemmati & Tahar Messadi & Hongmei Gu, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of Cross-Laminated Timber Transportation from Three Origin Points," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Cindy X. Chen & Francesca Pierobon & Susan Jones & Ian Maples & Yingchun Gong & Indroneil Ganguly, 2021. "Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Mass Timber and Concrete Residential Buildings: A Case Study in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Gabriel Felmer & Rodrigo Morales-Vera & Rodrigo Astroza & Ignacio González & Maureen Puettmann & Mark Wishnie, 2022. "A Lifecycle Assessment of a Low-Energy Mass-Timber Building and Mainstream Concrete Alternative in Central Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-19, January.
    8. Kevin Allan & Adam R. Phillips, 2021. "Comparative Cradle-to-Grave Life Cycle Assessment of Low and Mid-Rise Mass Timber Buildings with Equivalent Structural Steel Alternatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Henriette Fischer & Martin Aichholzer & Azra Korjenic, 2023. "Ecological Potential of Building Components in Multi-Storey Residential Construction: A Comparative Case Study between an Existing Concrete and a Timber Building in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-18, April.
    10. Yuki Fuchigami & Keisuke Kojiro & Yuzo Furuta, 2020. "Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wood-Plastic Recycled Composite (WPRC) and Verification of the Effect of Reducing Emissions through Multiple Recycling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Alberto Bezama & Jakob Hildebrandt & Daniela Thrän, 2021. "Integrating Regionalized Socioeconomic Considerations onto Life Cycle Assessment for Evaluating Bioeconomy Value Chains: A Case Study on Hybrid Wood–Concrete Ceiling Elements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Haibo Guo & Ying Liu & Yiping Meng & Haoyu Huang & Cheng Sun & Yu Shao, 2017. "A Comparison of the Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction Performance between Reinforced Concrete and Cross-Laminated Timber Structures in Residential Buildings in the Severe Cold Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    13. Bin Huang & Ke Xing & Rameez Rameezdeen, 2023. "Exploring Embodied Carbon Comparison in Lightweight Building Structure Frames: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Hana Svobodová & Petra Hlaváčková, 2023. "Forest as a source of renewable material to reduce the environmental impact of buildings," Journal of Forest Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 69(10), pages 451-462.
    15. Sabika Nasrim Pilathottathil & Abdul Rauf, 2024. "Barriers to the Use of Cross-Laminated Timber for Mid-Rise Residential Buildings in the UAE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-26, August.
    16. Joseph Abed & Scott Rayburg & John Rodwell & Melissa Neave, 2022. "A Review of the Performance and Benefits of Mass Timber as an Alternative to Concrete and Steel for Improving the Sustainability of Structures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-24, May.
    17. Haibo Guo & Ying Liu & Wen-Shao Chang & Yu Shao & Cheng Sun, 2017. "Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction in the Operation Stage of Cross Laminated Timber Residential Buildings in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.
    18. Franz Dolezal & Isabella Dornigg & Markus Wurm & Hildegund Figl, 2021. "Overview and Main Findings for the Austrian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-12, July.
    19. Markku Karjalainen & Hüseyin Emre Ilgın & Lauri Metsäranta & Markku Norvasuo, 2021. "Residents’ Attitudes towards Wooden Facade Renovation and Additional Floor Construction in Finland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-17, November.
    20. Endrik Arumägi & Targo Kalamees, 2020. "Cost and Energy Reduction of a New nZEB Wooden Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-16, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7831-:d:593579. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.