MAXIWOOD is about a crucial sustainability aspect of wood products – their carbon footprint. More specifically, the project will dive into carbon accounting of the forest-based industry and research how to MAXImise the climate change mitigation potential of WOOD products in Slovenia.

MAXIWOOD

Overview

Wood is an important resource world-wide, used for a broad variety of purposes. In Europe, wood production has steadily increased over the past 20 years, by ca. 20 % in 2017 compared to 1999, increasing the relevance of its carbon footprint. Forests have the ability help stabilise the Earth’s climate through sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere. The long-term carbon sink effect of the forest-based industries is almost half of the value chain’s total emissions but nevertheless, depends hugely on the type of product. The 100-year weighted average of carbon storage in paper is 2.9 % of the original biomass carbon, while the storage in wood products is 39 % of the original carbon.

Carbon flow of wood

Complex value chain

The connections between the forests and their CO2 footprint are complex as forests exchange carbon with the atmosphere through changes in land cover, carbon sequestration, wood products substitution of more carbon intensive materials, cascading use of wood, manufacturing emissions, end-of-life management, etc. Greener manufacturing processes, end-of-life management as well as cascade use contribute to a reduction of GHG emissions. As carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels inevitably reduce in the future, carbon sink of HWPs will become increasingly relevant as a global warming mitigation measure.

In Slovenia, forests represent 58 % of the landcover and are important ecologically, socially and economically. The national woodworking industry experienced downsizing since Slovenia’s independence and is a missed opportunity in terms of CO2 capture. Despite the known carbon mitigation potential of wood and the potential for a revival of FBIs, policies and strategic documents did not sufficiently address the importance of the FBI as means of offsetting carbon emissions. To implement effective policies which would maximize the net positive carbon sink effect of forests, detailed carbon flow data is needed.

Policy relevance

Deliverables

MAXIWOOD will contribute to better understanding of carbon sequestration in harvested wood products by delivering:

1.

A systematic review of the existing methodology for carbon accounting in HWP throughout the whole value chain.

2.

Development of a method, which appropriately supports decision making leading to a transition towards carbon de-intensification in Slovenia.

3.

Providing a model of Slovenia’s FBI carbon flow including future projections through demographic, technological, governance and environmental scenario analyses.