The institute for Health in the Built Environment is excited to be the recipient of the USDA Agriculture Research Service grant to address gaps in assessing mass timber as a sustainable building material in whole building life cycle assessments (WBLCA) beginning this fall.
Because building materials and construction account for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is crucial that we have a more clear picture of the relatively newly utilized mass timber products in comparison to more typically used products like steel and concrete. To do this, we need to account for new factors such as impacts of biogenic carbon based on proper accounting, forestry management practices and carbon storage in the ecosystem, and end-of-life material assumptions.