Timber EPDs a Success in the Market. Data Update Announced

1st May 2016

In July 2015, five EPDs were registered with the Australasian EPD Programme and uploaded to the WoodSolutions website. “They are very successfully telling the ‘better than carbon neutral’ story for Australian softwood, hardwood, particleboard, MDF and plywood”, says Dr Chris Lafferty, R&D Manager of Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA). “There have already been more than 1,100 downloads of the independently verified documents”.

Darryl Stuckey, Senior Sustainability Consultant at Lend Lease comments “We are always looking for ways to improve the sustainability outcomes and Green Star ratings on our projects. FWPA’s EPDs help us to quantify these opportunities and achieve points directly within Green Star. They also enable us to easily calculate the full life cycle environmental impacts associated with our engineered timber building projects and fitouts. We have already been using EPDs and LCA across a range of developments including Barangaroo South, and plan to continue this on our pipeline of future projects.”

The Australian timber industry has recently announced an update of its Australian Wood Products Life Cycle Inventory Database which is used to prepare Green Star compliant FWPA EPDs. This multi-stakeholder project sponsored by FWPA is part of the timber industry’s goal to enable built environment professionals to make informed decisions about the materials they choose.

The global sustainability consultancy thinkstep and Stephen Mitchell Associates have received funding to review and refresh the 10-year-old data. Representatives from Australian Solar Timber, the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia and Hyne Timber will oversee the project.

Further information is available here.