A Lifecycle Assessment of a Low-Energy Mass-Timber Building and Mainstream Concrete Alternative in Central Chile

Gabriel Felmer, Rodrigo Morales-Vera, Rodrigo Astroza, Ignacio González, Maureen Puettmann and Mark Wishnie
Additional contact information
Gabriel Felmer: Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Instituto de la Vivienda, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8331051, Chile
Rodrigo Morales-Vera: Centro de Biotecnología de los Recursos Naturales (CENBIO), Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca 3480112, Chile
Rodrigo Astroza: Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de los Andes, Santiago 7620001, Chile
Ignacio González: Elige Madera, SpA, CL, Santiago 7810658, Chile
Maureen Puettmann: CORRIM—Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials, Corvallis, OR 97339, USA
Mark Wishnie: BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group, 1180 Peachtree Street NE Suite #1810, Atlanta, GA 30309, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: While high-rise mass-timber construction is booming worldwide as a more sustainable alternative to mainstream cement and steel, in South America, there are still many gaps to overcome regarding sourcing, design, and environmental performance. The aim of this study was to assess the carbon emission footprint of using mass-timber products to build a mid-rise low-energy residential building in central Chile (CCL). The design presented at a solar decathlon contest in Santiago was assessed through lifecycle analysis (LCA) and compared to an equivalent mainstream concrete building. Greenhouse gas emissions, expressed as global warming potential (GWP), from cradle-to-usage over a 50-year life span, were lower for the timber design, with 131 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 of floor area (compared to 353 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 ) and a biogenic carbon storage of 447 tons of CO 2 eq/m 2 based on sustainable forestry practices. From cradle-to-construction, the embodied emissions of the mass-timber building were 42% lower (101 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 ) than those of the equivalent concrete building (167 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 ). The embodied energy of the mass-timber building was 37% higher than that of its equivalent concrete building and its envelope design helped reduce space-conditioning emissions by as much as 83%, from 187 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 as estimated for the equivalent concrete building to 31 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 50-yr. Overall, provided that further efforts are made to address residual energy end-uses and end-of-life waste management options, the use of mass-timber products offers a promising potential in CCL for delivering zero carbon residential multistory buildings.

Keywords: LCA; LCIA; mid-rise timber buildings; carbon storage; passive zero carbon housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1249/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1249/ (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:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1249-:d:731172

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 ().