Your search resulted in 169 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.
Declaring life cycle inventory of toxicity related emissions in environmental product declarations of preservative treated wood products
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50339
Life cycle assessment (LCA) including impacts on toxicity for preservative treated wood has been shown to have large uncertainties. With the growing demand for verified LCA in environmental product declarations (EPD), the need for reliable data is crucial for realistic assessment of wood products. Uncertainty is caused by several issues such as service life prediction, leaching rates and calculati...
L G F Tellnes, C Askham, P-O Flæte, M Klamer
Pest and pathogens threaten the sustainability of plantation forestry: Global research collaboration will define the future
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50341
Global plantation forestry is dominated by intensively managed stands of Pinus, Populus, Acacia and Eucalyptus species. The greater proportion of these plantations has been established in areas where the trees are non-native and have thus been separated from their natural enemies. In all documented cases, these plantations have initially been free of serious pest and disease problems. But as ti...
M Wingfield
Potential of totora and derivatives as sustainable lignocellulosic material
2019 - IRG/WP 19-40859
Totora (Schoenoplectus californicus C.A. Mey. Soják) is a macrophyte from the Cyperaceae family that grows in the Americas from California to Chile. This plant has long been used by several cultures such as the Ohlone in California, the Moche in Peru, or the Incas in Los Andes. Some communities have maintained its traditional use until the present, such as the communities living nearby Lake San P...
J F Hidalgo-Cordero, D Casado, J García, L Robertson, M T Troya
Durability and climate change - implications for wood building structures
2019 - IRG/WP 19-50361
Sustainable building practices are rooted in the need for reliable information on the long-term performance of building materials; specifically, the expected service-life of building materials, components, and assemblies. This need is ever more evident given the anticipated effects of climate change on the built environment and the many governmental initiatives world-wide focused on ensuring that ...
M Lacasse
Aiming for eco-friendly log production and wooden construction!
2021 - IRG/WP 21-50365
In order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero by 2050 in the fields of forest and forest products, it is necessary to promote appropriate management and renewal of planted forests, and development of wooden building materials and the wooden construction of mid-to-high-rise buildings with lower GHG emissions. Unless we also try to reduce the environmental loads other than GHG for such d...
N Hattori
Evaluation of ecotoxicological effects of different coniferous wood treatments on two marine bioindicator species
2022 - IRG/WP 22-10999
Coniferous wood panels (Picea abies) were treated with two concentrations of copper-based impregnating agent to increase its durability in marine and brackish environment. In order to assess the environmental compatibility of the treatments a laboratory experiment was conducted with two marine invertebrate species: bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis and a gastropod Steromphala albida. The bioindica...
T Marčeta, N Nesto, I Guarneri, D Tagliapietra, V Moschino
An Update on the Status of Industrial Heavy-Duty Preservatives in Europe
2022 - IRG/WP 22-30762
Creosote has been used for over 150 years for preservation of heavy duty industrial timbers such as railway sleepers, utility poles, and agricultural posts. The regulatory regimes in place today across Europe (eg EU & GB Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR)) require a detailed assessment of the environmental and human health properties of wood preservatives at both the active substance and product l...
S Uphill, H Griffiths, M Giannuzzi, A Hughes
A new project - Circular use of wood in Norway for improved sustainability and innovation (CircWOOD)
2022 - IRG/WP 22-50369
In Norway, around 12 m3 timber are logged each year. If our society is to succeed in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, it is expected that the need for resources will be significantly greater than that. Recycled wood will be a crucial input factor through new reuse and material recycling solutions. In order to close knowledge gaps related to the availability and quality of recycled wood, the ...
L Ross, L Huang, E Trømborg, R Modaresi, H Sjøli, C A S Hill
Simulations of microclimates for wood-decaying fungi in the built environment using environmental analysis
2023 - IRG/WP 23-20703
Simulations of fungal decay risk were run on two similar building geometries exposed to typical annual climate conditions of two different geographical locations, Brunswick (Germany) and Cairns (Australia). The simulations were conducted to capture the effect of wind-driven rain and solar irradiation exposure over nodes of the common building geometry. The moisture content and temperature variatio...
P B van Niekerk, J Niklewski, S H Hosseini, B N Marais, I Frimannslund, T Kringlebotn Thiis, C Brischke
Tree bark as a renewable source of wood protection materials for building applications (BarkBuild)
2023 - IRG/WP 23-30792
The BarkBuild project aims to address climate change mitigation by developing new, sustainable, and long-lasting wood building materials with low environmental impact. The project focuses on developing bark-based wood protection and building formulations that demonstrate technical performance, safety, and sustainability in both outdoor and indoor applications. The research objectives of the projec...
A Treu, M Sipponen
CIOL Wood - towards industrial scale production
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40980
CIOL® is a new, low cost, non-toxic wood modification system, needed to replace traditional and non-sustainable alternatives with great potential. It’s important to find sustainable, environmentally friendly replacements to heavy metals and biocides. In the new European Bauhaus, Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European commission, talks about how new living environment should be beautifu...
E Larnøy, J Biørnstad
Environmental Benefits of Wood Preservation
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50377
Over the past decade or two, many people have become significantly more aware and concerned about the global environment and the health of our planet. Building with wood products from sustainably managed forests carries significant environmental benefits. The ability of a growing tree to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and sequester the carbon is beneficial in the role of combating rising CO2 levels...
A Siraa
Improving American Hardwoods Sustainability, Durability and Markets
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50378
The American hardwood industry, which dates back to the first European settlers, has a wealth of experience processing the native hardwoods of North America. The US hardwood resource is mainly located in the eastern United States, from Maine in the North to the Gulf of Mexico in the South and westwards to the Mississippi Valley. The USA has more temperate hardwood species than any other world regi...
D Brooks, M Snow
Fungicidal properties of black liquor from the waste MDF board digestion in terms of wood protection
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50379
The aim of the work was to determine the fungicidal properties of black liquor as a product of the chemical digestion of waste MDF board. The resistance of wood treated with black liquor from MDF waste pulping process was compared with the resistance of wood treated with black liquor from the pulping process of a by-product from agricultural production. The control material consisted of non-treate...
B Mazela, W Perdoch, A Szulc, I Sieminska
Quantifying metal migration from a deck constructed with copper-azole-treated lumber
2024 - IRG/WP 24-50391
Soluble copper or micronized copper wood preservatives are the most common available wood preservative systems for residential applications in the United States. Copper containing wood preservatives have been scrutinized for their potential negative impacts on the environment, across many jurisdictions. Concerns arise from the potential for preservatives to migrate out of treated wood upon water e...
G Presley, M Konkler
Quantitative assessment of wood preservative emissions to waterways
2024 - IRG/WP 24-50393
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Emission Scenario Document (ESD) for Wood Preservatives provides methods to quantify the release of active substances from treated wood for various scenarios including sheet pilings in a flowing waterway (OECD 2013). The ESD is used for environmental risk assessment of wood preservatives according to the Biocidal Products Regulation...
K J Rader, R Carbonaro, C Mackie
Sustainable and environmentally friendly bio-based protection against fire
2025 - IRG/WP 25-20756
Flame-retardant agents are used to confer fire resistant properties with effects strongly dependent on their ability to form char during the thermal degradation. The char coats the polymeric materials and provides a good barrier against heat and oxygen diffusion, thus reducing the combustion rate of the polymeric materials. Halogenated agents that are used today are toxic and may cause severe heal...
M Tanase-Opedal, A Larsson, P O Flaete
CIOL Wood – Industrialization of Sustainable Wood Products: Progress and Prospects
2025 - IRG/WP 25-30820
CIOL® is an innovative, low-cost, non-toxic wood modification system designed to replace traditional, non-sustainable treatments used for wood protection. Since our last contribution in 2023, significant progress has been made in the development of CIOL® towards industrial-scale production. This update presents new results on fire protection, mechanical properties, and the continued scaling of t...
J Biørnstad
Migration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil from creosote-treated Douglas-fir and southern pine posts in the first 12 months since installation
2025 - IRG/WP 25-50404
Creosote is a widely used industrial wood preservative largely used for infrastructure-related applications such as utility poles, railway ties, and in marine pilings for protection against fungi, insects, and marine wood borers. Creosote is a coal tar distillate consisting of a complex mixture of organic compounds that together function as a biocide. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are th...
K Quigley, G Presley