Applying LCA in early stages of timber construction projects — Potential and challenges to support decision-making

Construction sector has been noticed to be a major source of carbon footprint and energy consumption, which prioritizes life cycle assessment (LCA) in the decision-making process in pilot projects. However, little research has examined the limitations of LCA in such context. This paper addressed relevant aspects regarding variability in LCA, also noted potential benefits of applying LCA at early stages of construction projects. Selected parameters and the associated uncertainties in the LCA are investigated, focusing on timber structural components. Followed by a case study, which investigated the uncertainty of using LCA at the early stage of a timber project, with consideration of different scenarios. The investigation shows that the variation of global warming potential can be significantly reduced by introducing constraints at early design stage. In conclusion, when applying the LCA in early stages of projects to assist the decision-making, setting requirements or limits might help improving the efficiency and comparability. • Applying LCA can assist the decision-making during tendering, despite challenges. • Variability of LCA at different stages of construction projects worth consideration. • Large variance of environmental impact indicators exists among timber products’ EPDs. • Various parameters influence the variability of LCA, especially at early stage. • Introducing limits for LCA enhances efficiency and comparability for decision-making.