Main factors influencing greenhouse gas emissions of wood-based furniture industry in Finland

Published Date
Journal of Cleaner Production
1 February 2016, Vol.113:596–605, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.091

• Author 

• Lauri Linkosalmi ^,
• Roope Husgafvel
• Anna Fomkin
• Hilppa Junnikkala
• Tiina Witikkala
• Matti Kairi
• Olli Dahl

• Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Department of Forest Products Technology, P.O. Box 16300, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland

Received 12 February 2015. Revised 20 July 2015. Accepted 28 November 2015. Available online 17 December 2015. 

Highlights

• •
  In furniture manufacturing raw materials have biggest impact on GHG emissions.
• •
  Energy consumption of coating process should be improvement.
• •
  Furniture manufacturing complexity creates challenges for life-cycle assessment.
• •
  Availability and access to environmental data need to be improved.

Abstract

The significance of green values is growing in the furniture sector; customers are demanding more specific environmental information of the products, new regulations are tackling to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Life-cycle assessment is an important tool for better understanding, awareness and communication of environmental issues. It can also help to develop more energy and resource efficient production processes contributing to overall improvement of environmental performance of products. The main objective of this study was to assess greenhouse gas emissions of different furniture. Eight different furniture manufacturing processes were assessed to identify main factors that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Life-cycle assessment software was used to assess cradle to gate impacts of manufacturing processes. Case study results shows that materials have a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions of products (38–90 per cent). Processing and assembling can also have impact on greenhouse gas emissions (8–58 per cent); packaging and transportation have a minor role (1–8 per cent). Our results indicate that the environmental impacts of products can be reduced by influencing the materials selection and energy generation systems. Energy from renewable and biogenic energy resources can reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in all production stages.

Keywords

Life cycle assessment

Global Warming Potential

Material selection

Wood-based products

Production

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• ∗ 
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