Applying LCA in early stages of timber construction projects — Potential and challenges to support decision-making

IF 8.2 2区工程技术 Q1 CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Developments in the Built Environment Pub Date : 2025-08-09 DOI:10.1016/j.dibe.2025.100731

Yishu Niu, Gerhard Fink

{"title":"Applying LCA in early stages of timber construction projects — Potential and challenges to support decision-making","authors":"Yishu Niu, Gerhard Fink","doi":"10.1016/j.dibe.2025.100731","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Construction sector has been noticed to be a major source of carbon footprint and energy consumption, which prioritizes life cycle assessment (LCA) in the decision-making process in pilot projects. However, little research has examined the limitations of LCA in such context. This paper addressed relevant aspects regarding variability in LCA, also noted potential benefits of applying LCA at early stages of construction projects. Selected parameters and the associated uncertainties in the LCA are investigated, focusing on timber structural components. Followed by a case study, which investigated the uncertainty of using LCA at the early stage of a timber project, with consideration of different scenarios. The investigation shows that the variation of global warming potential can be significantly reduced by introducing constraints at early design stage. In conclusion, when applying the LCA in early stages of projects to assist the decision-making, setting requirements or limits might help improving the efficiency and comparability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34137,"journal":{"name":"Developments in the Built Environment","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article 100731"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Developments in the Built Environment","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666165925001310","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Construction sector has been noticed to be a major source of carbon footprint and energy consumption, which prioritizes life cycle assessment (LCA) in the decision-making process in pilot projects. However, little research has examined the limitations of LCA in such context. This paper addressed relevant aspects regarding variability in LCA, also noted potential benefits of applying LCA at early stages of construction projects. Selected parameters and the associated uncertainties in the LCA are investigated, focusing on timber structural components. Followed by a case study, which investigated the uncertainty of using LCA at the early stage of a timber project, with consideration of different scenarios. The investigation shows that the variation of global warming potential can be significantly reduced by introducing constraints at early design stage. In conclusion, when applying the LCA in early stages of projects to assist the decision-making, setting requirements or limits might help improving the efficiency and comparability.

查看原文本刊更多论文

在木结构项目的早期阶段应用LCA -支持决策的潜力和挑战

建筑业已被认为是碳足迹和能源消耗的主要来源，在试点项目的决策过程中优先考虑生命周期评估（LCA）。然而，很少有研究考察了在这种背景下LCA的局限性。本文讨论了与LCA的可变性相关的方面，也指出了在建设项目的早期阶段应用LCA的潜在好处。研究了LCA中选定的参数和相关的不确定性，重点是木结构部件。接下来是一个案例研究，该案例研究了在木材项目的早期阶段使用LCA的不确定性，并考虑了不同的场景。研究表明，在设计初期引入约束可以显著降低全球变暖潜势的变化。综上所述，在项目早期阶段应用LCA辅助决策时，设置需求或限制可能有助于提高效率和可比性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Developments in the Built Environment Multiple-

CiteScore

7.40

自引率

1.20%

发文量

审稿时长

22 days

期刊介绍： Developments in the Built Environment (DIBE) is a recently established peer-reviewed gold open access journal, ensuring that all accepted articles are permanently and freely accessible. Focused on civil engineering and the built environment, DIBE publishes original papers and short communications. Encompassing topics such as construction materials and building sustainability, the journal adopts a holistic approach with the aim of benefiting the community.