NATURE CONSERVANCY LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS

Thanks to a grant from The Nature Conservancy and the US Forest Service, atelierjones collaborated on a large, international Mass Timber Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) study led by The Nature Conservancy along with the University of Washington College of the Environment, SEFS, CORRIM, and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory.

For the 2017-2019 study, atelierjones developed nine Building Information Models (BIM) based on the new, three IBC Type-IV Mass Timber Building Codes at 8, 12, and 18 stories, along with nine BIM models of comparative Concrete Buildings. These served as the basis for life cycle analyses in three North American regions, resulting in eighteen LCA studies. A similar comparative study was also conducted using a base concrete building in China, along with atelierjones’ development of a mass timber comparative BIM model. Related atelierjones advisory work contributed to additional Comparative LCA work in Chile and Austria.

Preliminary structural engineering, including foundation design was included for all eighteen case studies, and all Type IV code-required fire-protection measures for the Mass Timber buildings were included. The total GWP of material sourcing, production, transportation, and construction was compared between the Mass Timber buildings and their conventional concrete equivalents. These studies formed the basis for further Nature Conservancy Research/ UW that examined the impacts of increased demand for Mass Timber to global forestry, in order to assess the impact on sustainable global forestry, as a critical foundation of scaling Mass Timber’s potential sustainability benefits.