Environmentally optimal wood use in Switzerland-Investigating the relevance of material cascades

摘要

This study assesses the environmentally optimal wood utilisation patterns under varying wood cascading options, using the example of Switzerland. Cascading is the use of the same wood unit in multiple, successive product cycles. To consider aspects relevant at the system level (e.g. stocks/flows, demand/supply constraints) as well as at the product level (e.g. process inventories), we present a model that combines material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle assessment (LCA) and mathematical optimisation to identify environmentally optimal wood use scenarios concerning climate change and particulate matter formation. We separately include the temporal dynamics of biogenic carbon flows, i.e. carbon uptake, storage and subsequent release, which may have a considerable influence on the climate change performance of wood products.