1.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Carbon Pools in Wooden Products and Substitution Effects Bernhard Zimmer and Hannes Schwaiger COST Action E9, Final Conference in Hamburg, 29 th of November

2.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Content Background Carbon sinks and carbon pools LCA – a method to calculate carbon pools Carbon pool „wood and wood products“ Conclusion

3.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Background The important role of forests and their inherent potentials does not receive adequate recognition at international and national levels. So far, the protection and economic use of forests and the importance of wood utilisation and wood use in the context of sustainability have not found sufficient consideration, nor has been translated into concerted political action. The same goes for the contributions of forests, forestry and wood towards the fulfilment of the Kyoto- commitments.

4.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Aim and Scope Present LCA methodology as a tool to estimate the carbon pools of wooden products Show the link between „LCA on Forestry and Forest Products“ and the climate change discussion

5.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Carbon Pools and Annual Flows data according to Houghton (1997) and Schulze (2000)

6.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Wood and Timber Utilisation 3.6 billion cubic metres of timber are currently being used per year; almost half of this amount is used in wooden products and not directly as fuelwood;

7.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Life Span of Wooden Products

8.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Carbon Pool „Wood Products“

9.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Forest destruction every year also signifies the loss of about 3.7 billion cubic metres of wood that is no longer available for material use nor for controlled use as an energy resource. In the final essence, this causes the release of about 1 Gt carbon per year from the destruction of wood mass alone.

10.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Carbon Pool „Wood Products“

11.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger LCA, tool to estimate carbon pools

12.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger The cradle of a wooden product is the forest

13.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Composition of Wood One ton of wood otro :  500 kg carbon  430 kg oxygen  60 kg hydrogen  10 kg other elements

14.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Wood production through photosynthesis Photosynthesis: 6 CO 2 + 12 H 2 O  C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 + 6 H 2 O Theoretical approach to the calculation of material flows in the wood formation process: 8,4 CO 2 + 12 H 2 O  C 8,4 H 12 O 5,4 + 8,7 O 2 + 6 H 2 O

15.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger wood production through photosynthesis solar energy 19100 MJ water nutrients N, P, K, Mg, Ca water 541 kg oxygen 1392 kg wood atro (softwood) 1000 kg water 1082 kg carbon dioxide 1851 kg

16.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Forestry

17.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Roundwood

18.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Transports

19.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Sawn timber

20.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger LVL – Laminated Veneer Lumber

21.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger GWP for production of 1 m³ LVL (Kerto)

22.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger GWP for the production of a timber frame building (Haas)

23.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger Conclusion LCA is a valuable tool to calculate the carbon pools in products on condition that carbon dioxide is included as a elementary flow; Therefore wood cannot be assessed as CO 2 -neutral and all CO 2 -emissions have to be mentioned in the GWP-Calculation

24.  B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger

25. Thank you very much for your attention