2020 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 72-78
Wood is a common material that has been used for a long time as a building material. Wood has been mainly used for low-rise buildings, however; high-rise wooden building projects have been spreading around the world recently. These are realized by development of various engineering woods such as cross laminated timber （CLT）. Engineering wood has better mechanical properties and quality stability than ordinary lumber. However, the production process of it is more complex, and adhesives are needed to produce it unlike ordinary lumber. Therefore, environmental performance of these wooden building materials has been evaluated by LCA. In this paper, academic research papers of LCA studies of wooden building materials are reviewed. In addition, published product environment declarations （EPDs） of building materials in Japan, Europe, and the United States are reviewed, and the evaluation methods are discussed. Especially, this paper discusses issues of a biogenic carbon evaluation method, environmental impacts of production stage of wooden building materials, and impacts to human health due to formaldehyde emission from adhesives in the use stage.
