Feasibility of a Local Production Chain for Structural Timber in Sardinia, Italy

Giovanna Concu ()
Additional contact information
Giovanna Concu: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-15

Abstract: The construction sector is currently responsible for over 30% of the consumption of natural resources and the release of solid waste and pollution into the environment. This situation is even more serious in closed communities such as islands, economically highly dependent on the outside world. One of the possible interventions to reverse this trend is the use of eco-sustainable construction materials such as wood, produced through supply chains with a low environmental impact. This paper reports on a research activity that analyzed the feasibility of implementing a sustainable local supply chain in Sardinia to produce Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels made of locally grown wood. This research has experimentally carried out the entire supply chain process: (i) choice and collection of the raw material in the forest for producing strength-graded boards to manufacture laminated timber, (ii) manufacturing of CLT panel prototypes, and (iii) determination of CLT panels’ mechanical performance through laboratory tests. This experimentation allowed, on the one hand, to evaluate the performance and competitiveness of CLT panels made of local wood, and on the other hand, to identify the criticalities that currently hinder the implementation of this supply chain in Sardinia, and to propose possible actions to solve them.

Keywords: sustainability; building sector; timber buildings; short production chain; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/14815/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/14815/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:20:p:14815-:d:1258606

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().