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Forests
Special Issues
Sustainable Utilization and Life Cycle Analysis of Forest Products
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Sustainable Utilization and Life Cycle Analysis of Forest Products

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Wood Science and Forest Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2023) | Viewed by 3825

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sara Bergante

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis (CREA), Research Centre for Forestry and Wood (FL), 15033 Casale Monferrato, Italy
Interests: wood; cultural model; poplar; carbon sink; biomass; agroforestry
Dr. Simone Cantamessa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural, Economy Analysis (CREA), Research Centre for Forestry and Wood (FL), 15033 Casale Monferrato, Italy
Interests: plant physiology; water relations; wood; poplar
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Laura Rosso

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis (CREA), Research Centre for Forestry and Wood (FL), 15033 Casale Monferrato, Italy
Interests: wood; vegetal genetic improvement; poplar; carbon sink; biomass; agroforestry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests cover today about 4 billion hectares in the world and people all depend directly or indirectly on forests products such as wood, food, fibers, energy, and medicinal compounds but also climate, water and carbon cycle regulation, and other ‘nontangible’ services. Regarding these last points, today's forests' health and their appropriate management are crucial for the sustainable development of future societies. Recently the IPCC underlined that: “In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fiber, or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit”. Sustainable utilization of forest products is necessary and life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques can be used to support various types of decision-making in relation to the development, use, and trade of new products (both tangible and non-tangible) or policy-making. This Special Issue plans to give an overview of the results of the most recent advances in the field of LCA practices to evaluate the sustainable utilization of different forest products, from the most utilized wood and its derivatives to innovative ones, considering as main products also the social-environmental service as the improvement of society's independence on non-renewable resources, tourism, biodiversity, climate mitigation, and others.

Dr. Sara Bergante
Dr. Simone Cantamessa
Dr. Laura Rosso
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wood
  • fibers
  • fruits, wild plants ingredients
  • biodiversity
  • climate mitigation
  • carbon sink
  • ecosystem service
  • products trade

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2385 KiB  
Article
Life Cycle Assessment of a Three-Storey Terrace of Three Timber-Framed Residential Workplace Units
by Michael A. Clancy, Sally Starbuck, Jean O’Dwyer and Kenneth A. Byrne
Forests 2023, 14(3), 599; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14030599 - 17 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1449
Abstract
There is an urgent need to evaluate the environmental impacts of both traditional and more recent innovations in sustainable building materials. This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a single three-storey (aboveground) terrace in Ireland composed of three timber-framed residential workplace [...] Read more.
There is an urgent need to evaluate the environmental impacts of both traditional and more recent innovations in sustainable building materials. This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a single three-storey (aboveground) terrace in Ireland composed of three timber-framed residential workplace units. The supply of raw materials, their transport to the manufacturing site, and the manufacturing processes for the materials used in the building account for 58% of the GWP during the production stage. The horizontal elements of the An Corrán building and roof account for the largest contribution (29.3%) to the GWP environmental impact. The LCA results show that the building’s 469 m2 gross internal floor area (GIFA) produced life cycle carbon emissions of 220 t CO2e and has an embodied carbon value of 398 kg CO2e m−2 and 6.63 kg CO2e m−2 a−1 for the building’s 60-year estimated cradle-to-grave life cycle. When compared to conventional (i.e., masonry) and timber-framed buildings in Europe, the An Corrán building shows that substantial GWP savings occurred during the Use Stage with a GWP footprint of 50.5 kg CO2e m2 compared to 375.65 and 386.6 kg CO2e m2 for previously reported masonry and timber-framed houses, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Utilization and Life Cycle Analysis of Forest Products)
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19 pages, 2404 KiB  
Article
Net-Carbon Dioxide Surplus as an Environmental Indicator for Supporting Timber Markets: A Case Study in Italy
by Francesco Carbone, Piermaria Corona, Majid Hussain and Francesco Barbarese
Forests 2023, 14(2), 419; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020419 - 17 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1787
Abstract
Using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, environmental benefits in terms of CO2 stored in chestnut wood in Italy have been calculated. Using one of the methodologies proposed under the LCA umbrella, a physical and formal balance sheet of CO2 has [...] Read more.
Using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, environmental benefits in terms of CO2 stored in chestnut wood in Italy have been calculated. Using one of the methodologies proposed under the LCA umbrella, a physical and formal balance sheet of CO2 has been built. Chestnut forests (Castanea sativa Mill.) are one of the most critical forest types in Europe. They cover an area of 800,000 hectares in Italy, most of which are managed as coppices. Chestnut wood’s high-quality physical-chemical and mechanical characteristics and medium-long durability explains its widespread uses. In this case study a section of a public forest in Central Italy (Lazio Region) has been considered. In the section, during the rotation, two types of intervention were carried out: thinning at 19 years of age, and final cutting at the age of 32. A production of 416 and 93 m3ha−1 for final cutting and thinning, respectively, was recorded. The global amount of 507 m3 is the functional unit, which has stored 547,875 kgCO2. The combination of forest management and sawmill processing produces semi-finished chestnut timber products for 125 m3, which have a physical storage of 135,210 kgCO2. Using the formal balance sheet of CO2, total emissions from processing were recorded for a total of 27,766 kgCO2. At the exit of sawmill, products stored 107,444 kgCO2, which is the amount of Net-Carbon Dioxide Surplus (Net-CDS). Transportation from sawmill to market reduces the sequestered CO2 by 0.77 kgCO2/km. The Net-CDS represents a competitive advantage in the timber market. If tree species have the same physical, chemical, mechanical and price parameters, the timber consumer would prefer to buy wood with the highest Net-CDS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Utilization and Life Cycle Analysis of Forest Products)
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