ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION OF SAWN GOODS HAS BEEN COMPLETED
The Building Information Foundation RTS’s Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for the sawmill industry has now been completed. The RTS EPD is an Environmental Product Declaration which specifies the environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. These impacts have been quantified utilising the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool. The EPD consists of a concise breakdown and quantification of the environmental impacts of the product, beginning from the acquisition of raw materials and including its disposal. RTS Environmental Product Declarations are verified by a third party.
According to Project Manager Kari Perttilä from the Finnish Sawmills Association, the sawmill industry EPD will be utilised in, for example, the quantification of the carbon footprint of buildings. The impacts incurred by a product on the environment during its life cycle are important criteria when selecting building materials. ”Clients of our member sawmills are increasingly interested in knowing the environmental impacts of sawn goods. The Environmental Product Declaration is an accurate way of verifying the environmental information on sawn and planed timber”, Perttilä says.
According to the EPD, the carbon footprint of sawn timber from the forest to the factory gate is extremely small, a mere 30.2 kg CO2-eq. per m3 and 34.5 kg CO2-eq per m3 for planed timber.
One cubic metre of sawn timber contains 543 kg CO2-eq. bound Carbon. Therefore, sawn timber has climatic benefits and using wood in manufacturing especially long life cycle products offers a significant emission reduction potential. In practice, utilising 20 cubic metres of sawn timber in the construction of a house, binds 11000 kg Co2-eq. carbon for a long time.
The Environmental Product Declaration was completed by the Natural Resources Institute Finland.
The Sawmill industry EPD can be found at the Building Information Foundation RTS service:
https://cer.rts.fi/en/rts-epd/search-for-rts-epds/
Additional information:
Finnish Sawmills Association, Project Manager Kari Perttilä, tel. +358 (0)20 7790962, kari.perttila@sahateollisuus.com
Natural Resources Institute Finland, Senior Scientist Tarmo Räty, tel. +358 (0)29 5325184, tarmo.raty@luke.fi
