COST Action LCA meeting in Zürich

On December 3, 2015 FP1407 Working Group 2, Life Cycle Assessment, met in Zürich, Switzerland. The topic of the meeting was “LCA of wood modification processes: where are the weaknesses in inventories?”, and was organized by Christelle Ganne-Chedeville from Bern University of Applied Sciences. During the meeting there were many interesting talks ranging from in-situ energy monitoring at a pilot scale wood processing facility, raw material data representativeness, to economic allocation and EPDs for wood products.

In addition to the Working Group 2 meeting, many participants stayed in Zürich on the 4^th to attend the LCA Forum “DF 60 — Environmental use of wood resources”. This event had participants from all over Europe who came to gain new perspectives on the ecological uses of wood resources and their relevance from the viewpoint of scientists, policy, makers, and practitioners. The first part of the program was opened by Frank Werner regarding life cycle inventories of wood in the ecoinvent database. Later in the morning LCA applications in regard to wood construction and energy were explored. In the afternoon, presentation on LCA of wood products and wood energy systems were given. The day ended with a panel discussion between scientists and industry members, discussing how future research with LCA can contribute to an environmentally optimal use of wood resources.