Sustainable MAterial-Resource & Technology Application of Wood (SMARTA Wood)

Research Project, 2018 – 2020

Background:
The building industry is a major contributor of the CO2 emission. Wood is a good option as trees absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and stores them as material. While multi-story wooden residential building is a growing sector, there are uncertainties when making the decision on whether using wood as a primary construction material. The primary concerns can be formulated as follows:
-          Is it beneficial to use wood?
-          Which economic, environmental and social benefits are we interested?
-          How much wood is sustainably available?

Goal of the project:
The project aims to develop a decision-making support tool for city planners and building owners to choose materials for sustainable buildings with the consideration of;

1) increase of use of wood to promote renewable resources,
2) quantification of material flow to avoid excessive use of wood,
3) various use of wood (material, energy etc.) to consider the whole forest product sector,
4) environmental, economic and social sustainability indicators to make the decision more holistic

Expected project outputs:
-          Quantified comparison of wood and concrete
-          scenarios of the case studies in Sweden, Finland
-          and Switzerland
-          Technical basis for a more versatile tool
-          Projection of how much wood can be used
-          sustainably for similar building types
-          Business model on how to utilize the tool for
-          future business activities