Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an objective, science-based method to compare the environmental impacts of products, assemblies, and buildings. Wood products have been shown to outperform other materials in terms of embodied energy, greenhouse gas emissions and recyclability. Today, LCA is incorporated into many green building standards.

Life cycle assessment illustrates the environmental impacts associated with choosing one building material over another.

Worldwide, there are several tools that provide LCA for materials, assemblies, and whole buildings; in North America there are two, both offered by the Athena Institute:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Life Cycle Assessment research
The Environmental Performance of Renewable Building Materials in the Context of Residential Construction Report from CORRIM.
Sustainability and Life Cycle Analysis for Residential Buildings Learn more about Sustainability and LCA for Residential Buildings in this Canadian Wood publication.