A Functionality Based Wood Substitutability Index

Elaine Garcia de Lima, Cécile Bulle and Cássia Maria Lie Ugaya
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Elaine Garcia de Lima: UTFPR–PPGEM-DADIN, Department of Industrial Design, Federal University of Technology—Paraná, Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering, Sete de Setembro Ave, 3165, Curitiba 80230-901, Brazil
Cécile Bulle: CIRAIG, ESG UQAM, Department of strategy and corporate social responsibility, C.P. 8888, succ. Centre ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada
Cássia Maria Lie Ugaya: UTFPR–PPGEM-DAMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology–Paraná, Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering, and CNPq fellow, Deputado Heitor Alencar Furtado St., 5000, Curitiba 81280-340, Brazil

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-28

Abstract: Recent progress in Life Cycle Impact Assessment highlighted the need to assess the loss of resources’ functional value when assessing the life cycle impacts of resource depletion. To be able to assess the loss of functional value of resources due to scarcity and depletion, there is a need to assess the potential substitutions among different resources to fulfill the same functionality. In this sense, the main objective of this study is the development of a method for obtaining a substitution index (SI) for wood, quantifying to what extent the wood is substitutable by other available resources for the different functions it can fulfill. The aim of our method is to characterize wood through its functions and inherent properties by using following parameters (availability, price, current usage). As a result, we obtained SI for five functions of wood, classified by country and region. The results showed that wood substitution varies between each of its functions and also for each region. In general, replacing wood with other resources is a challenge for most regions and most functions, with SI usually below 0.5 on a scale from 0 to 1, where 0 indicate that there is no substitution and 1 indicate that the resource can be thoroughly replaced.

Keywords: resource substitutability; life cycle impact assessment; forest resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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