An assessment framework for the sustainable use of UK timber

木材是一种有吸引力的材料选择，可以最大限度地减少工程项目对环境的影响，因为它通常比合成材料具有更低的隐含能量，并且可以从大气中去除和储存碳。木材也是可再生的，然而，树木的成熟需要几十年的时间，因此对森林进行可持续管理至关重要。为了打击森林砍伐，全球森林认证计划确保木材来自可持续管理的森林。因此，工程师使用经过认证的木材是一种良好的做法。此外，运输可以占采购木材的大部分隐含碳，因此木材也应来自当地森林，以尽量减少对环境的影响。在英国的情况下，这就出现了一个问题；英国是世界上第二大木材净进口国，因为它的木材需求高，国内木材库存低，而英国政府的植树目标却低于100亿英镑。因此，增加国内木材的使用对英国森林来说可能是不可持续的。更复杂的是，英国的森林正在发生变化；森林管理者正在从单一种植种植园向更多样化的林地过渡，这些林地对病虫害和气候变化具有更大的抵御能力。英国木材的可持续利用必须考虑到国内木材供应的限制，通过更有效地使用木材和来自不同物种的木材。然而，目前在公开文献中发现的木材环境评估中缺少这一考虑。目前，量化木材使用对环境影响的最常用方法是生命周期评估（LCA）。然而，常用的LCA方法往往忽略了与森林土地利用和土地利用变化相关的关键环境影响[b]。文献中正在改进LCA方法，这使人们更深入地了解不同林业方法对环境的影响。然而，这些先进的LCA方法需要编译和改进，才能用于工程项目的整体评估。该项目旨在制定一个框架，允许对工程项目中英国木材的使用进行全面评估，同时考虑到木材的可用性和供应链，以及林业土地利用和土地利用变化。生命周期成本核算和社会LCA方法也将包括在内，包括可持续性的所有三个支柱。该框架将通过使用英国木材和复杂程度的工程案例研究进行测试和验证。在每个案例研究中所做的采购和设计决策将与常规业务基线场景和最佳案例场景进行比较。这将允许对所做的决定进行评估，为行业未来可持续利用英国木材提供指导。参考文献：[1]“建筑基础设施优先行动：隐含碳，木材，”ARUP, 2023。[3] .“只见树木不见树木：林业和木材部门对生物多样性和净零目标的贡献”，英国下议院环境审计委员会，2023C. E. Andersen等，《45座木结构建筑的全寿命碳影响》，奥尔堡大学建筑环境系，2023年

Timber is an attractive material choice for minimising the environmental impact of engineering projects, as it commonly has a lower embodied energy than its synthetic counterparts and it can remove and store carbon from the atmosphere. Timber is also renewable, however, it takes decades for trees to mature, so it is vital that forests are managed sustainably. To combat deforestation, global forest certification schemes ensure timber is produced from sustainably managed forests. It is therefore good practice for certified timber to be used by engineers. Furthermore, transportation can account for the majority of the embodied carbon of procured timber [1], so timber should also be sourced from local forests, to minimise environmental impacts. In a UK context, this presents a problem; the UK is the second highest net importer of timber in the world, due to its high timber demand and low domestic timber stock, all while the UK government is below its tree planting target [2]. Thus increased use of domestic timber could become unsustainable for UK forests. To complicate matters further, UK forests are changing; forest managers are transitioning away from monoculture plantations to more diverse woodlands that offer greater resilience to disease, pests, and climate change [2]. A sustainable use of UK timber must consider the limitations to domestic timber supply, through using timber both more efficiently and from a diverse range of species. However, this consideration is currently missing in the environmental assessments of timber found in the open literature. Currently, the most common method to quantify the environmental impact of timber use is a life cycle assessment (LCA). However, commonly used LCA methods often omit key environmental impacts relating to forest land use and land use change [3]. LCA methods are being improved in the literature, which is providing greater insight into the environmental impacts of different forestry methods. However, these advanced LCA methods require compiling and improving before they can be used for a holistic assessment of an engineering project. This project aims to produce a framework that allows for a holistic assessment of the use of UK timber in engineering projects, taking into account timber availability and supply chains as well as forestry land use and land use change. Life cycle costing and social LCA methodologies will also be included to include all three pillars of sustainability. The framework will be tested and validated using engineering case studies that use UK timber and range in complexity. The sourcing and design decisions made in each case study will be compared against a business-as-usual baseline scenario and a best-case scenario. This will allow for an assessment of the decisions made, to provide guidance, to the industry, on the future sustainable use of UK timber.References:[1] "Buildings infrastructure priority actions for sustainability: Embodied carbon, timber," ARUP, 2023.[2] "Seeing the wood for the trees: The contribution of the forestry and timber sectors to biodiversity and net zero goals," House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2023.[3] C. E. Andersen, et al., "Whole Life Carbon Impact of: 45 Timber Buildings," Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, 2023