The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of treated wood, concrete, galvanized steel, and plastic marine piles using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood piles are significant. • Less Energy & Resource Use: Treated wood marine piles require less total energy and less fossil fuel than concrete, galvanized steel, and plastic marine piles. Treated wood marine piles require less water than concrete and plastic marine piles. • Lower Environmental Impacts: Treated wood marine piles have lower environmental impacts than concrete, steel, and plastic marine piles in all six impact indicator categories assessed: anthropogenic greenhouse gas, total greenhouse gas, acid rain, ecotoxicity, and eutrophication-causing emissions. • Decreases Greenhouse Gas Levels: Use of treated wood marine piles lowers greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere whereas concrete, galvanized steel, and plastic marine piles increase greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. • Offsets Fossil Fuel Use: Reuse of treated wood marine piles for energy recovery in permitted facilities with appropriate emission controls will further reduce greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, while offsetting the use of fossil fuel energy. Impact indicator values were normalized to better support comparisons between products and to understand the quantitative significance of indicators. Product normalization sets the cradle-to-grave life cycle value of maximum impact to 1.0, and all other values are a fraction of 1.0. The carbon embodied in wood products, such as marine piles, is removed from the atmosphere during growth, stored for decades while the product is in use, and can be used for beneficial energy recovery at disposition. This temporary storage of carbon in the wood product reduces atmospheric levels of CO2 because the service life of the pile exceeds the time required for tree growth.

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