IRG Documents Database and Compendium


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Your search resulted in 341 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.


Waste management of wood products in life cycle assessment
2000 - IRG/WP 00-50154
Within the framework of the European project LIFE SYS WOOD (contractnr. FAIR CT95-7026) TNO has performed a study on the waste management of wood demolition waste for inclusion in Life Cycle Assessment. In LIFE SYS WOOD one of the main aims was to develop a consistent LCA methodology for wood products. LCA case studies have been performed by partners on wood as raw material, glulam contructions, O...
P Esser, P Eggels, A Voss


A methodology for the life-cycle assessment of treated timber products
1993 - IRG/WP 93-50001-01
Using case studies of CCA-treated motorway fenceposts and creosote-treated electricity transmission poles, the paper suggests an approach to evaluation of the overall environmental impact of treated timber products, utilising the emerging systems analysis method of life-cycle assessment (LCA). The development and application of LCA methodologies to date is reviewed and the key features identified....
S R Smith, R J Murphy, D J Dickinson


Assessment of the environmental impacts in life cycle analysis
1995 - IRG/WP 95-50040-31
Evaluation of environmental impacts is of crucial importance nowadays but it is a complex problem. Different methodologies have been proposed for the last 20 years such as the "Life Cycle Assessment" (LCA) approach. Life Cycle Assessment is an evalution tool of the impacts on the environment of a system including the whole activities associated with, from the extraction of the raw materials to the...
I Blanc-Sommereux


Life cycle approached environmental information to promote treated timber
2005 - IRG/WP 05-50224-13
This paper exemplifies the possibilities to compare products and product systems with help of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool for environmental assessment. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute has developed a concept for evaluation of environmental impacts based on normalisation, based on so called environmental quality objectives (EQO). This concept makes it possible to compare a pr...
M Erlandsson


Life Cycle Assessment of borate treated wood
2005 - IRG/WP 05-50224-12
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is being used increasingly around the world by decision-makers to help incorporate the environmental component of sustainability into their activities. U.S. Borax regularly assesses how its products contribute to sustainable development. Using data gleaned from LCA of its products, the company recently completed its first ISO 14040 compliant cradle-to-grave LCA of lum...
M J Manning


Conclusions and Summary Report on an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of ACQ-Treated Lumber Decking with Comparisons to Wood Plastic Composite Decking
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50295
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of ACQ (alkaline copper quaternary)-treated lumber decking and wood plastic composite decking using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood decking are significant. • Less En...
AquAeTer, Inc.


Conclusions and Summary Report on an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Borate-Treated Lumber Structural Framing with Comparisons to Galvanized Steel Framing
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50296
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of borate (disodium octaborate tetrahydrate)-treated lumber structural framing and galvanized steel framing using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood framing are significant....
AquAeTer, Inc.


Conclusions and Summary Report Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Highway Guard Rail Posts
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50297
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of treated wood and galvanized steel highway guard rail posts using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood guard rail posts are significant. • Less Energy & Resource Use: ...
AquAeTer, Inc.


Conclusions and Summary Report Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Marine Pilings
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50298
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: Tre...
AquAeTer, Inc.


Conclusions and Summary Report on an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Utility Poles
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50299
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of pentachlorophenol-treated wood, concrete, galvanized steel, and fiber-reinforced composite utility poles using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood poles are significant. ...
AquAeTer, Inc.


Uncertainty in life cycle assessment of preservative treated wood – copper and freshwater ecotoxicity
2017 - IRG/WP 17-50331
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for quantifying the environmental impacts of a product over the life cycle. In the last years, there have been a growing application of LCA in developments of environmental product declaration (EPD), which is utilised by professional procurement of materials for buildings. For legislative issues, LCA have also been used to assess application of creosote to t...
L G F Tellnes


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


Danish wood preservatives approval system with special focus on assessment of the environmental risks associated with industrial wood preservatives
2001 - IRG/WP 01-50166-01
The following is a description of the procedure used by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to assess the environmental risks associated with preservatives used in the pressure impregnation of wood. The risk assessment covers issues considered to be of significance for the environment and which are adequately documented so as to allow an assessment. Such issues are persistence and mobility ...
J Larsen


Life cycle analysis: Assessing environmental impact
1994 - IRG/WP 94-50034
Environmental impact assesment is a major issue that faces every nation today. However, consistently and objectively measuring the environmental impact is difficult. During the past two decades, a process called life cycle analysis was developed that tried to make consistent and objective environmental assessments. The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry broadened the concept to not ...
S L LeVan


Life cycle analysis of utility poles. A Swiss case study
1995 - IRG/WP 95-50040-05
Use of preservative-treated wood products faces increasing public and political pressure because of environmental concerns regarding the chemicals used to protect the wood. However, critics usually focus only on one single aspect of the whole life cycle of treated wood products, disregarding other environmental effects of timber utilization. To evaluate the ecological consequences of wooden utilit...
T Künniger, K Richter


Life-cycle assessement of treated wood: A view from the roa
1996 - IRG/WP 96-50078
Life Cycle Assessement (LCA) is being used increasingly as a tool to structure information on the environmental characteristics of material and processes. This paper is based on the experience gained from our LCA studies on treated wood products over the last 4 years. The comprehensive and logical examination af the information available on treated timber provided by LCA has allowed identification...
W Hillier, R J Murphy, D J Dickinson, J N B Bell


Comparative life cycle assessment of Swiss railroad sleepers
1998 - IRG/WP 98-50117
The results of an environmental LCA carried out on railway sleepers made of prestressed concrete, sectional steel and creosote impregnated beech as used on main lines of Switzerland's railways are presented. All extractions from and insertions into the environment which were connected with the manufacture, use and disposal of the different types of sleeper were inventoried and assessed, i...
T Künniger, K Richter


Dutch national environmental policy strategy (NMP): Implications throughout the life cycle of treated timber and for the Dutch preservation industry
1993 - IRG/WP 93-50001-31
All overview of relevant environmental legislation and instruments for control is given for each stage of the life cycle of treated timber. Recent policy in the Netherlands has been focused around the "National Environmental Policy Strategy", in which a general policy with regard to reduction of pollution to the air, soil and water is described. The principle is one of an "Integrated Chain of Cont...
P Esser, D A Lewis, A J Pendlebury


Environmental consequences of various materials in utility poles - A life cycle analysis
1992 - IRG/WP 92-3726
A model for environmental life cycle analysis, LCA, has been created to compare environmental impact from transmission poles, made alternatively of concrete, steel, aluminium and pine wood treated with CCA type B or creosote. The main pollution sources and energy use are included in the LCA. One pole size, 12 meters long, is presented in the study, a so called "45 kV" pole. Poles of different mate...
M Erlandsson, K Ödeen, M-L Edlund


Environmental evaluation of products by life cycle analysis [La problématique de lévaluation environnementale des produits à partir de l'analyse de leur cycle de vie et de leur "écobilan"]
1993 - IRG/WP 93-50002
In the last years a significant evolution in terms of industrial environment emerged. It has been realized that regulations on specific pollutants, controls on industrial sites, although indispensable actions, had to be completed with extended approaches based on the assessment of products and integrated substance chain management. To take into account such an approach, methodological researches h...
G C Landrieu


Proposal for a method aiming at the quantification of the impact of wood extraction in Life Cycle Assessment
1998 - IRG/WP 98-50113
Life Cycle Assessment has been accepted as an instrument for the assessment of the environmental impact of products. Characterisation factors for impact assessment of emissions from products have been established. To date no characterisation factor exists for the extraction of biotic resources, for example wood. Since the main disadvantage of using wood as a material lies in the extraction of reso...
P Esser, E Van der Voet


Preliminary desk research in the Netherlands on development of a Knowledge Based System for Life Cycle Assessment of wood products
1997 - IRG/WP 97-50093
TNO is currently coordinating an EC-project (LIFE-SYS WOOD) to develop a consistent approach to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of wood products. Existing and new LCA-inventory data of six wood products will be evaluated on reliability and consistency. After validation, LCA-results will be made available through a Knowledge Based System (by 1998-1999). The aim of the KBS is to make LCA-results availab...
P Esser, D Robson, R Vanhauten


Minimisation of the Environmental Impacts of Coatings on Exterior Wood by Optimisation of their Life Spans
2003 - IRG/WP 03-50197
The study has shown that the environmental impacts from coatings on exterior wood are dependent criteria on their life spans. A minimisation of the environmental impacts can be performed with the help of the integrated design model, which is tested in this study. The optimal life spans, found as reference service lives from the exposure tests, statistical evaluation and the assessment of experts w...
L Strömberg


Life Cycle Assessment of treated timber: methodological aspects and first results
2009 - IRG/WP 09-50264
Environmental information on products is more and more required as a key to the market, and the building sector in Europe is certainly advanced in that direction. In France, Environmental Product Declarations are becoming very common for construction products. Therefore, the CTB P+ and CTB B+ certification comity as commissioned FCBA to perform the Life Cycle Analysis of treated timber in order to...
E Vial, M Bertrand, C Cornillier, G Deroubaix


Life Cycle Assessment Comparison of Treated Wood to Alternate Materials – Overview, Results and Lessons
2011 - IRG/WP 11-50282
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has proven useful in documenting the “green” benefits of various treated products compared to the commonly used alternates. To date, six LCA comparisons have been done or are nearing completion using ISO14040 and 14044 principles and data from US EPA databases. In almost all cases, the impact indicators for treated wood products show considerably smaller adverse e...
T Stephen, P E Smith, C R McIntyre


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